Bill Withers: Still Bill : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Somehow, the man who brought us "Lean on Me," "Use Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine" isn't a universally revered musical figure. But Bill Withers is a giant, whether or not the rest of us remember. During a remarkable run that stretches roughly the same period as Stevie Wonder's legendary purple path, Withers was making deep, lived-in music that brought the best of Seventies soul together with the intimate power of that era's singer-songwriter movement. Withers -- who grew up in a West Virginia coal-mining town and was making airline toilets for Boeing before he hit it big -- did it all with a no-nonsense directness that proudly reflected his working-class roots.

Booker T. Jones helped pluck Withers out of anonymity, producing the singer's 1971 debut, Just As I Am, which included "Grandma's Hands" and "Ain't No Sunshine"; the latter became a Top Five hit. But when Jones wasn't available for the follow-up the next year, Withers went into the studio with members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, with whom he'd been touring, and together they made the even finer and funkier Still Bill. Fueled by a pimp-strut organ riff, "Use Me" contains the best of Withers: It's both deeply soulful and catchy as hell. "Lean on Me" is a classic singalong -- but not just because of the arm-swaying chorus; Withers sets up the anthem with a heartfelt, gritty vocal performance. "Who Is He (and What Is He to You)?" is one of the coolest expressions of jealousy you'll ever hear, which doesn't make the song any less painful. Withers hasn't made a new album in twenty years, but Still Bill is still a stone-soul masterpiece.