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Still Bill; The Bill Withers Story
Topic Started: Mar 9 2012, 03:45 PM (176 Views)
Mobson
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I remember Bill or at least his songs like Ain't No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Just the Two of Us, and Lovely Day!

Ain't No Sunshine came along exactly the same time as my baby boy in the summer of 1971 and I used to sing it to him...no wonder he loves music so much now! <violin>

It was on Bill's first Album, Just As I Am, produced by Booker T Jones. Released as the B side of his debut single Harlem, it became a breakthrough hit for Bill and made him wealthy. It has since been covered by at least 250 artists, too many to mention, but I do like Barry White, Joe Cocker and Lenny Kravitz's version linked here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ov5CNfkrtU

Bill was 33 years old when he released this first album, after nine years in the American Navy and later jobs that included fitting aeroplane toilets! And as, in his words "a black guy sitting on a chair with an acoustic guitar", he cut an unusual figure in the heyday of funk and soul.

He walked away from the music industry for good in 1985 and the reason he did so is one of the topics he discusses in tonight's documentary, in which he journeys to his birthplace of Slab Fork in West Virginia, where he was born on 4th July 1938. Contributors, apart from family and friends, include Sting, Nona Hendrix and Clarence Avant, who gave him his first record deal.

A 1974 gig featuring his early hits screen at 10.15pm

BBC4 9pm - The Bill Withers Story
BBC4 10.15pm - In Concert - Bill Withers

This has had 31,346,809 (+1) hits on YouTube - I really dig the drummer too! <whistles>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo

Edited by Mobson, Mar 10 2012, 02:30 PM.
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rumbaba
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I always check Friday night on BBC4, usually the 'Transatlantic Sessions' are on too. Sometimes, like last weeks 'disco', I am less than enthralled but Bill is a top man. I like his song 'Grandma's Hands'. I first heard Jaki Whitern do this at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall when I was very young. She was supporting John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra (God knows why, I guess they were on the same record label). Anyway, it was they night I got into Van Morrison. There was a leak in the roof, it was raining and dripping onto Jan Hammer's keyboard. They couldn't play till it was safe. Someone put on the 'St Dominic's Preview' album and played it over and over and over again (I guess that was all they had) until the roof was fixed. Anyway, Jaki was great, just her and an acoustic guitar and the Bill Withers' song stayed with me - he really knows how to put a song together. <ok>
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Mobson
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RUMBABA Rum, here's Bill Withers Grandma's Hands, which was also on his first album, about a "favorit ole lady of mine".....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5pagal-ls


and A Lovely Day...(can't find live performance - but this has had 4 mil hits)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYi7uEvEEmk
Edited by Mobson, Mar 9 2012, 04:25 PM.
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rumbaba
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Thanks Mobs <ok> .

Edited by rumbaba, Mar 9 2012, 04:24 PM.
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Mobson
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I have his first album in my basement storage and as I want to hear his music, I've just downloaded his greatest hits from i-tunes before tonight's programme - my goodness what a great singer/songwriter!!! Just listening to 'Use Me'
Edited by Mobson, Mar 9 2012, 05:13 PM.
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becky sharp
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I loved that the trappings of the music business, that have been a downfall for many, have never gone to his head ......this might have been because he was relatively old when he made his breakthrough or it could just be that he is the type of man who wouldn't have altered no matter what age fame came knocking on the door
To see him wandering round Slab Fork talking to old friends as he went was just lovely and said a lot about the man.....lovely man,lovely voice...this programme was a pleasure to watch.

<star>
Edited by becky sharp, Mar 10 2012, 03:20 PM.
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Mobson
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I think you may be right about Jim's late start giving him experience to deal with what is obviously a pretty cut throat business and it certainly seems to have made his music real. Think its also the love of a good women, his MBA, as he refers to his wife, who runs their music company, handles the rights and royalties to his songs and gives him moral support, together with his two children. Seeing his wife leaning in on his meeting with children with speech impediments, to talk about his own experience - he says he stuttered till he was 28 and still does depending on the occasion - the look of compassion on her face when he breaks down at the end is very revealing about their relationship. She and her children also revealed that Bill has been writing and recording songs but for some reason doesn't want to release them to the public. He has said in reply to an interview with the Telegraph when told that millions of people would love to see him perform those classic tunes..."Yeah, and if I wasn't very good, they'd tear into me. And I don't need that."

I think the loveliest revelation of the film was his daughter Kori - who writes and sings her own songs like her father - sings a song of her father's called A Telephone Call Away....

Maybe she will be the catalyst to his return to commercial recording, who knows!.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYbSnoKexMs
Edited by Mobson, Mar 12 2012, 10:31 AM.
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becky sharp
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Mobson
Mar 11 2012, 12:06 PM
I think the loveliest revelation of the film was his daughter Kori - who writes and sings her own songs like her father
I liked that he didn't tell her songs were good just to flatter her ego but gave her his honest thoughts.....tough as a parent.
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chris crossing
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How do you turn a duck into a soul singer?






Put it in the microwave until its bill withers <laugh>

Edited by chris crossing, Mar 13 2012, 10:58 AM.
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Mobson
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that would have been funny but for the spelling mistake!
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chris crossing
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Which one's that, Mobs?
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Mobson
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<devi>;; <laugh> <wink>
Edited by Mobson, Mar 13 2012, 05:00 PM.
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