Still Bill is the second studio album by American soul singer-songwriter and producer Bill Withers. The album was released in May 1, 1972 through Sussex Records. The album was recorded and produced by Withers with musicians from the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. The rhythmic music produced for the record features soul, funk, and blues sounds, backing lyrics that explore themes of human nature, emotion, and sex from a middle-class male perspective. It also features some of Withers' most popular songs, including the hit singles "Lean on Me" and "Use Me". A commercial and critical success at the time of its release, Still Bill has since been regarded by music journalists as a highlight of the singer's recording career and a classic of 1970s R&B.
Reception Still Bill was met with positive reviews. Writing for Rolling Stone in 1972, Vince Aletti regarded it as an improvement over Withers' debut album Just as I Am, particularly because of the singer's production, which sustains even the less exceptional songs here. "On the whole", Aletti claimed, "it's a tougher, more relaxed, more assured album ... Nothing is thrown away, everything works with an unexpected clarity and strength." Billboard hailed Still Bill as justification for the critical hype surrounding his debut and live performances, while observing "plenty of sunshine" in the music, highlighting "Lean on Me", "Who is He (And What Is He to You)", "Kissing My Love", and "Lonely Town, Lonely Street". Reviewing in Creem, Robert Christgau gave the record a B-plus and said, "Withers has created the most credible persona of any of the new middle-class male soul singers, avoiding Marvin Gaye's occasional vapidity, Donny Hathaway's overkill, and Curtis Mayfield's blackness-mongering. He sounds straight, strong, compassionate. This album moves out rhythmically, too". However, the critic concluded with reservations about its "missing some essential excitement".
Commercially, Still Bill produced two hit singles: "Lean on Me" (number one on both the Billboard pop and R&B charts in mid 1972) and "Use Me" (number two on the same charts later that year). On September 7, 1972, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having recorded at least 500,000 copies sold.
Reappraisal and legacy
Retrospective appraisals have also been positive. 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". He later noted that the production was intentionally minimal, highlighting Ray Jackson’s memorable contribution on 'Use Me,' which he described as one of the rare insightful songs about sex in a genre often associated with sensual themes. PopMatters critic Andy Hermann wrote a review in anticipation of the album's CD reissue by Columbia Records in 2003, calling it "essential listening for any fan of early '70s funk and R&B". Hermann also highlighted the contributions of session musicians from the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, crediting them for having helped Withers develop "a unique style of bluesy funk that was the perfect soundtrack to the emotional drama [that] leaked out from around the corners of Withers' laid-back West Virginia drawl". Writing in 2005, David Wild of Rolling Stone found the album "finer and funkier" than Just as I Am and "still a stone-soul masterpiece", while Stylus Magazines Derek Miller called it "a stone-cold, gold-plated soul classic ... far and away Withers' best", and more than comparable to enduring LPs from the same period, such as Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul (1969), Mayfield's Roots (1971), Stevie Wonder's Talking Book (1972), and Al Green's Call Me (1973). Miller added that Still Bill exemplified Withers' musical daring, having fused soul, blues, and "muscular funk" into a sound that finds "form between the lines … bound by the heated muscle of its rhythms and the satin berth of its softer moments".
In 2007, Still Bill was included in The Guardians 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)?' but [that] the blend of patient, understated, insistently funky acoustic playing is just as vital". Tom Moon included it in a similar publication, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008), citing the album as "one of the most eloquent records" in rhythm and blues. "These are shades-of-gray stories, full of a mature understanding of human nature", Moon observed, before concluding that, "even when reflecting on weighty matters, Withers cultivates a mood of unflappable calm, making everything sound like a lazy summer evening on the front porch." In 2020, Still Bill ranked number 333 on Rolling Stones revised edition of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list."500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Still Bill". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
Track listing
Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–10 on CD reissues.
Personnel Bill Withers – vocals, guitar, acoustic piano (5), acoustic guitar (11, 12) Ray Jackson – acoustic piano, clavinet, Wurlitzer electric piano, horn and string arrangements Benorce Blackmon – guitar Melvin Dunlap – bass guitar James Gadson – drums, percussion Bobbye Hall – percussion (11, 12)
Production Bill Withers – producer (1–12) Ray Jackson – producer (1–12) Benorce Blackmon – producer (1–10) Melvin Dunlap – producer (1–10) James Gadson – producer (1–10) Bob Hughes – engineer Phil Schier – engineer, remixing Michael Mendel – art direction Maurer Productions – art direction Milton Sincoff – package design Hal Wilson – photography
2003 Reissue Credits Leo Sacks – producer Steve Berkowitz – A&R Darren Salmieri – A&R coordinator Joseph M. Palmaccio – mastering Lisa Buckler – product manager Maurice Joshua – product manager Triana D'Orazio – packaging manager Howard Fritzon – art direction Tim Morse – design Harry Goodwin – photography Bob Gruen – photography Michael Ochs Archive – photography SMP/Globe Photos – photography Bill Withers – liner notes
Studios Recorded at Record Plant (Los Angeles, California). Bonus Tracks recorded live at Carnegie Hall (New York City, New York). 2003 reissue mastered at Sony Music Studios (New York City, New York).
Charts Chart (1972)PeakpositionU.S. Billboard Soul Albums1U.S. Billboard Pop Albums4Canadian RPM 100 Albums71
See also List of number-one R&B albums of 1972 (U.S.)
References
External links