Lean on me song 2015
He also got in a few jabs at the record industry, saying A&R stood for “antagonistic and redundant.” Withers thanked his wife as well as the R&B pioneers who helped his career like Ray Jackson, Al Bell and Booker T. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 by Stevie Wonder. In 1987, Bill received his ninth Grammy nomination and third Grammy as a songwriter for the re-recording of the 1972 hit “ Lean On Me” by Club Nouveau.
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He was awarded Grammys as a songwriter for “Ain’t No Sunshine” in 1971 and for “Just The Two Of Us” in 1981. Though his songs often dealt with relationships, Withers also wrote ones with social commentary, including “Better Off Dead” about an alcoholic’s suicide, and “I Can’t Write Left-Handed,” about an injured Vietnam War veteran. Withers’ last album was 1985’s “Watching You Watching Me.” “Just the Two of Us” was on Washington’s label). None of his Columbia albums reached the Top 40 except for 1977’s “Menagerie,” which produced “Lovely Day.” (His hit duet with Grover Washington Jr. His new executives found Withers difficult. He no longer had complete control over his music and chaffed when it was suggested he do an Elvis cover.
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And Bill seemed to understand, intrinsically and instinctively, how to do that,” Sting said in “Still Bill,” a 2010 documentary of Withers.īut Withers’ career when Sussex Records went bankrupt and he was scooped up by Columbia Records. “The hardest thing in songwriting is to be simple and yet profound. His “Live at Carnegie Hall” in 1973 made Rolling Stone’s 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time. Later would come the striking “ Lovely Day,” co-written with Skip Scarborough and featuring Withers holding the word “day” for almost 19 seconds, and “Just The Two Of Us,” co-written with Ralph MacDonald and William Salter.
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Withers went on to generate more hits a year later with the inspirational “Lean On Me,” the menacing “Who Is He (and What Is He to You)” and the slinky “Use Me” on his second album, “Still Bill.” 3 on the Billboard charts and spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 40. “Ain’t No Sunshine” was originally released as the B-side of his debut single, “Harlem.” But radio DJs flipped the disc and the song climbed to No. It had the hits “Grandma’s Hands” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” which was inspired by the Jack Lemmon film “Days of Wine and Roses.” He was photographed on the cover, smiling and holding his lunch pail. In 1971, signed to Sussex Records, he put out his first album, “Just As I Am,” with the legendary Booker T. After his discharge, he moved to Los Angeles, worked at an aircraft parts factory, bought a guitar at a pawn shop and recorded demos of his tunes in hopes of landing a recording contract. He joined the Navy at 17 and spent nine years in the service as an aircraft mechanic installing toilets. After his parents divorced when he was 3, Withers was raised by his mother’s family in nearby Beckley. Withers, who overcame a childhood stutter, was born the last of six children in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. “Bill Withers is the closest thing black people have to a Bruce Springsteen.”
“He’s the last African-American Everyman,” musician and band leader Questlove told Rolling Stone in 2015. “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean on Me” are among Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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“Lean On Me,” a paean to friendship, was performed at the inaugurations of both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. They have powerful melodies and perfect grooves melded with a smooth voice that conveys honesty and complex emotions without vocal acrobatics. “All the cruelty and all the kindness.Withers’ songs during his brief career have become the soundtracks of countless engagements, weddings and backyard parties. “I have seen America and all the weird phases it has been through,” he said in 2015. And when Withers flows straight into Lean on Me, it’s as if he’s carrying the whole country on his shoulders. Framed as a letter home that the vet needs Withers’ help to write, the song itself is an act of profound empathy and solidarity that says more about the average soldier’s experience of war and its aftermath than a dozen more strident protest songs put together. If half the power of I Can’t Write Left-Handed resides in its mesmerising, Fatboy Slim-sampled gospel motif, then the other half comes from Withers’ introductory spiel about the Vietnam war (“one big drag”) and his conversation with a young veteran who lost his right arm after a bullet to the shoulder. Live at Carnegie Hall belongs in the pantheon of great live albums, not just for the music but for the absurdly charming between-song patter: Withers’ smalltown comedy routine prior to Grandma’s Hands brings the house down.