TO WHERE I AM NOW

When an artist dies you wonder when you had last listened to them. With Bill Withers it was February when I posted a concert on my February playlist. I’m a fan, a sad one at that.

I have five of his albums, Still Bill (1972), At Carnegie Hall (1973), +’Justments (1974), Menagerie (1977), and ‘Bout Love (1978). He made another four albums, his first, Just As I Am (1971), Making Music (1975), Naked And Warm (1976), and Watching You Watching Me (1985). I also have a Greatest Hits from 1981. So I’m listening to the ones that I don’t have to see what I missed when this great artist was alive. I just listened to Just As I Am with its dramatic gunshot ending on the final track Better Off Dead. This album also has his classic track Ain’t No Sunshine. Making Music is next and then Naked And Warm before I play my own vinyl. Bill Withers was 81 and he didn’t die of the virus, he had some other heart issues, somehow it’s a relief that his death was inevitable before all this started. See Bill’s 30 minute Beat Club concert here:

 
There are lots of collections of his better known songs Ain’t No Sunshine, Lovely Day, Use Me and perhaps his most loved song, the No.1 US hit, Lean On Me. The man was more than a Soul singer, there was his heart, his words and his voice all full of meaning and all at once. His first album was produced by Booker T. Jones and perhaps surprisingly featured Stephen Stills on lead guitar. Flying Burrito Brother Chris Etheridge played bass as did Booker T. band member Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn. Crack drummers Al Jackson Jr and Jim Keltner played drums with Bobbye Hall on percussion (she spelled her name with an ‘e’ on the end to show she was a woman percussionist). Why does this list of musicians matter so much? Clarence Avant aka The Black Godfather and owner of Sussex Records liked his demo, saw his potential and gave him what he needed to realize it. It was all roses when he signed to Sussex Records for his debut. Although this first album was something of a session musicians’ get together on the next two albums he briefly consolidated his rhythm team with the yet to be ubiquitous James Gadson on drums, Melvin Dunlap on bass, with Benorce Blackmon on guitar and Ray Jackson on keys. His second album, Still Bill was released in 1972 and hit the No.1 spot on the Soul Charts and No.4 on the Pop Charts in the US, Lean On Me was the follow up hit to Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers had arrived.

After +’Justments, Withers fell out with and left Sussex and signed to Columbia for Making Music (Making Friends in the UK) and Naked And Warm, but it wasn’t until the third album on the new label that he had another bona fide hit with Lovely Day, making the Top Ten in the UK and Top 30 in the US. Other singles were still reaching respectable places in a competitive singles charts and his albums continued to sell. But it was a nine year gap before Watching You Watching Me, released in 1985. It had been his first album since Naked And Warm, released in 1976. This was a sign that something was up. Before this Withers had released six studio albums and a double live album in seven years. Between 1985 and his passing this week, he released no new material in 35 years. How could this wonderful soulful man just disappear from the recording studio and public eye? Withers was famous as a songwriter, singer, musician, but before this he had been in the navy for nine years and after that had a regular job. On the cover of his first album you see Withers at work, holding his lunch box, suspicious of the music business at first he didn’t quit even though he got signed. His success forced him to take it seriously. But it was frustration with the music business that made him decide not to continue to make albums after Watching You Watching Me. Columbia Records not accepting his songs for his last album whilst putting out a record by ‘Mr. T.’ frustrated him greatly. In the end the songs Columbia rejected from the early eighties they accepted later and so the final album went ahead. Disillusioned he quit music and that was that. He later said he didn’t miss it at all and as a regular guy, he was happy living a normal life. You have to admire him really, but if the label had treated him as a musician, a soul, a writer, a creative artist, and not as a potential hit maker that they owned, then we probably would have had many more records by this great artist.

Okay so I said yesterday that I was probably going to be writing about Bill Withers but other things did happen today although Bill Withers’ music was on my mind. I had a sesh tonight with Noel and as I sat there Olivia effortlessly drew something (as she does). There were more Space Summit guitars and wait till you hear the bass line I played on this latest track, I even impressed myself! Ha ha. It came from an original idea for the track by Jed on a keyboard bass that I translated to my Rickenbacker bass after Dare spotted it as very cool. It took some learning in my head, sometimes guitar parts and bass lines can play with your mind. The fingers can do it, the mind is resistant. Dare is on to the mix, all the guitars are snug in their cases.

A break in recording took us on another trip down to see the choppy sea with absolutely no abuse today! The seagulls were just hanging in the wind, gliding through the sky, rising up and down on the thermals. The change in the clocks has given us more light later in the day. It suits us as we go to bed late and get up late. In winter we could actually never see the daylight. In summer we don’t need to worry about our Vitamin D, the sun waits for us. What is it that makes some people morning people and other people night people? Society’s 9-5 demands are responsible for torturing the night people with early mornings. The night people have their choice to work different jobs, but what if you WANT to work in an office but not in the day? Could there not be normal office jobs where the staff work at night? It would mean that the company was always open and when one side of the world is asleep, the other is awake, which would mean more business, right? I could never understand why shops are closed at 5.30PM in the week and on Sunday when so many people are working in the week during shopping hours. One day, Saturday, doesn’t seem like enough time to get to every shop you need. There’s late night shopping I suppose and the big cities have later hours, but here in Penzance 5.30PM and everything that’s not a supermarket is closed. Seems like luxury when you look at it now.

Today’s Song Of The Day Dare sings. It’s from the latest Noctorum album The Afterlife. Dare is more of a Soul singer and writer than I am and his soulful vocal skills are revealed on this song:

 

Show

You had a shadow cabinet
To which you would retire
And all the voices in your head
Would gather ’round and I

I would find it strange to be on the outside
Where you couldn’t see me
And you wouldn’t show

I had a royal temple that
Harboured a recluse
And all the ghosts that haunted me
Would gather ’round and you

You would find it strange to be on the outside
Where you couldn’t see me
And I wouldn’t show

We had a perfect alibi [Watching arrows that]
And they would never know [Fall around us]
That all our ghosts surrounded us [Looks like our deep de-]
And it was just a show [-ception found us]

You and I would spend our time
Saying everything was fine
And we never showed

Sometimes I wonder
Did we ever have an adult conversation
Such a shame we couldn’t even agree
On the right location

Hidden behind a wall
A fortress that won’t fall
You never heard my call

What’s the use in us pretending
There could be a happy ending here

[What’s the use in us just pretending]
[There could ever be a happy ending]

(Willson-Piper / Mason)
Noctorum – The Afterlife (2019)
Lyrics & Vocals by Dare Mason