Still Bill

Product Information

I've decided that the 2012 that was taken directly from the masters (not a copy tape) and released in the EU only is pretty hard to beat. Not in the sense that he plays to it, but in the way he approaches it without so much as acknowledging its presence. I did a comparison to USE ME and LEAN ON ME on the Greatest Hits from Mofi and those two tracks are much more dynamic with more bass and really just sound warmer and more appealing to me on the Greatest Hits album. After 'Just As I Am' (MOVLP378) Music On Vinyl is proud to present the next gem of Bill Withers 'Still Bill'. Still Bill is an intimate portrait of soul legend Bill Withers, best known for his classics Ain't No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Lovely Day, Grandma's Hands and Just the Two of Us.

Replete with intoxicating detail and depth, the collectible reissue zeroes in on the music's crux – Withers' unique, rich, West Virginia-accented voice – while clearing a true-to-the-source path to the extraordinary backing he receives from members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. It comes as little surprise that Kevin Rowland made this record one of his key texts during one of the most intense phases of Dexys Midnight Runners. EDIT: have to agree with some of the other reviewers that Bill's voice, at times, sounds like it is on the verge of distortion. That commitment to truthfulness and realism helps make Still Bill feel as unaffected as the air we breathe. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, Bill Withers’ Still Bill remains true to its title – and stands as the greatest male-fronted soul album not made by a singer named Marvin, Al, Sam, James, or Ray.

Grown-up soul at its finest This was the LP on which the 38-year-old Withers fully came into his own.

In fact, it takes several spins of the album to realize just how versatile Withers is on 'Still Bill', to hear how he makes intricate, funky rhythms sound as effortless and simple as the album's best-known song, the gospel-tinged inspirational anthem 'Lean on Me'. Withers’ balanced outlook on human desires, needs, and situations stem from his own existence as a former blue-collar employee who believed his time as a musician would soon end. In 2007, Still Bill was included in The Guardian 's list of "1,000 albums to hear before you die", with an accompanying essay that said the album "contains two of [Withers'] most epochal and best-loved compositions 'Lean on Me' and 'Who Is He (And What Is He to You)? Reviewing years later in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau expressed more enthusiasm about Still Bill, saying that Withers is "also plenty raunchy and he can rock dead out".Audio Venue Ltd, t/a Audio Venue is a credit broker, not a lender and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 738562). And the lifelike presence and directness of his singing, as well as the smooth glide of his phrasing, further elevate the magnificence of the music and underscore why the record Rolling Stone named the 303rd Greatest Album of All Time continues to escalate in stature.