Quotes from the NYT obituary and well-chosen YouTube embeds at my son John's blog.
This is not another celebrity coronavirus case. There are other ways to die, we may forget.
John also has quotes from a Roger Ebert review of a documentary about Withers. An excerpt from John's excerpt:
Perhaps in an attempt to slip some "meaning" into the film, the documentarians Damani Baker and Alex Vlack arrange a conversation with the scholar Cornel West and Tavis Smiley from PBS. It feels like they're trying to lead Bill into heavy generalizations, but he won't go there. Withers seems as close to everyday Zen as I can imagine. He talks a great deal about his philosophy, to be sure, but it's direct and manifestly true: Make the most of your chances, do the best you can, stop when you're finished, love your family, enjoy life.
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29 comments:
Sad. He wrote and recorded some really great songs.
Such great songs. Not a lengthy popular catalog, but each one is engaging and so singable.
Nobody has forgotten the other ways to die. We have been actively discussing those ways to die in these comments sections. We have been talking about suicide cause by economic turmoil. We have been talking about the very old who were frail and vulnerable. We have been talking about QALY. We have even mentioned that 2.8 million Americans die every year.
And we mentioned a lot more beside that.
I did enjoy his voice but that will live on.
So many jobs will not.
Bill Withers has always been one of my favorites. Very sad.
Use Me. The bass riff and the keyboard player is awesome. The drummer rules.
The drummer is really the key. Bad drummer.....bad song......like losing the heartbeat.
Great musician, loved that guy.
RIP, Mr. Withers
Hmm. Maybe "singer" is more apt than "musician".
Either way, the guy made beautiful music.
RIP, Mr. Withers
I had heard "Lean on Me" as young child, but didn't know the other stuff until I was older. Bill Withers became a name I was familiar with when I was a freshman in high school when he did the vocals on Grover Washington's "Just the Two of Us"- a song I have always loved very much. It was then that I discovered all the earlier work. Just a timeless voice.
Lovely Day shows such great breath control.
I was surprised they didn't list "Use Me" in the headline, one of his bigger hits. Loved that song almost as much as Lean On Me.
So sad. So much soul in his voice that it could even reach and move a white kid from Northern Wisconsin like me, in my formative years.
Ain't no sunshine when he's gone ...
So happy to see Bill Withers reject the ideological come-ons of charlatans like West and Smiley. That's not a safe move for a black entertainer to make on film. RIP sir.
Rest in peace, Bill, thanks for the wonderful music and the life well lived (I hope there is no taint of scandal in your past for which you will now pay).
Thanks to The Crack Emcee who brought Bill Withers to my attention.
I always thought Bill Withers was white.
"So happy to see Bill Withers reject the ideological come-ons of charlatans like West and Smiley."
I had the exact same thought.
Jesus just said to Bill Withers: Lean on me.
This is irresponsible propaganda. This is not helping.
I always thought Bill Withers was white.
That's OK. Many people think Bill Medley is black.
PS. RIP Bill Withers. Let me add The Crusaders with Bill Withers - Soul Shadows.
He wrote some nice songs which have aged well. He seemed to be a very nice man.
A life well lived. RIP.
I never knew much about him, but I certainly enjoyed his music. All good things must end.
scholar Cornel West
I'm cursed by finding humor in the most unlikely places.
Loved Aint No Sunshine most my life. He brought many many people great pleasure. Rest In Peace Mr Withers
Make the most of your chances, do the best you can, stop when you're finished, love your family, enjoy life.
Great!
While "Ain't No Sunshine" is my favorite of Mr. Withers' songs, I loved the ending of "Use Me".
Talking about you using me but it all depends on what you do
It ain't too bad the way you're using me
'Cause I sure am using you to do the things you do
Ah ha to do the things you do
THEOLDMAN
Rest in Peace, Bill W.
To learn about and to appreciate the whole man, as I thoroughly do, here is an outstanding documentary, free on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdizl63aols
Treat yourself to this film. Even though I had learned much his interesting life story earlier from interviews and articles, this film is THE icing on my Bill Withers cake. Very touching, and such a joy to watch how “he did it his way”. He walked away from the commercial side of the music business in the mid-1980s, still young and at the top of his career financially, because he came to despise the business aspects of the industry, then devoted himself to his young family, living simply and under the radar. But never stopped writing songs, most of them recorded and kept, not released, in his in-home studio. Wife is an MBA (UCLA).
When your first recording wins a Grammy Award, I guess you know you have some talent. And, if I remember correctly, I think his first 3 album releases were million-copy sellers.
His wife says of him: “Sensitive but tough”. Bill (among many other memorable lines in the video): “The older you get, the more your concerns shift from you to other people”
A true treasure.
I loved Withers and was listening to him again just a few weeks ago, wondering about his activities, if any, at that time. I loved his voice and his compositions. Use Me, Just the Two of Us, and Lean on Me are all classics. I always felt that, despite the frequent use of his movies in film and the numbers of covers of his material performed by other artists, that he was underappreciated. One of my all time favorites.
I meant "his music in films."
Mark Daniels: Listening to him speak of his life in the video, it seems Withers had experienced enough appreciation and adulation for a lifetime during his relatively brief recording and touring career. He satisfied whatever felt need he had for “validation”, by coming out of nowhere, overcoming a stutter, and being essentially self-taught. He never aspired to superstardom, was more of a poet type emoting musically and simply from a stool with his guitar, and was content to move on to a more balanced and quiet life. Maybe he falls into the same general category as Barry Sanders, sort of “I did it, it was fine and I made the best of my God-given talents but there’s a time to find a new direction in life". Neither would hang around, basking in their celebrity. And listening to his music, like watching Barry’s game film highlights, you realize these are both great talents for all time, not faddish or trendy. It’s so uncommon for fame to co-exist with humility and display grace, that I cannot help but feel affection for those who pull it off.
OK, I joke even at inappropriate times. (Also I loved his music and that we have his recordings to let that talent live on.)
How do you make a duck a jazz musician?
Hold it under water until its Bill Withers...
(Be good to your wait staff....)
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