Bill Withers
Ain’t No Sunshine
“Ain’t No Sunshine” is a song by Bill Withers from his 1971 album Just as I Am, produced by Booker T. Jones. The record featured musicians Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass guitar and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums, as well as Withers on lead vocals and guitar. The song was released as a single in September 1971, becoming a breakthrough hit for Withers, reaching number six on the U.S. R&B chart and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Withers was inspired to write this song after watching the 1962 movie Days of Wine and Roses. He explained, in reference to the characters played by Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon, “They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It’s like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren’t particularly good for you. It’s just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I’m not aware of.” For the song’s third verse, Withers had intended to write more lyrics instead of repeating the phrase “I know” over and over again, but then followed the advice of the other musicians to leave it that way: “I was this factory worker puttering around,” Withers said. “So when they said to leave it like that, I left it.”[3] (Withers, then thirty-one years old, was working at a factory making toilet seats for 747s at the time.) The song was originally released as the B-side to another song called “Harlem”. Disc jockeys played “Ain’t No Sunshine” as the single instead, and it became a huge hit,[2] the first hit for Withers. ”Ain’t No Sunshine” is ranked 280th on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[4 ] The song won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1972.
reblog from steflemoine
Belle Brigade - “Lonely Lonely”
i got a friend/doesn’t talk to me/he doesn’t tell me what is going on/he doesn’t like it when i open up//oh and i got a friend who’s a lot like me/i never tell her what is going on/she’s always asking me to open up/i guess i never really have the guts…
Apparently the rest of the internet is only interested in “Losers,” another song by this band, but I happen to think this track is a lot more fun, and way more topically innovative. And more pertinent to my very important life. (Not that I’m using this blog to whine.) Or maybe I’m just listening to this album (which dropped like a year ago_ today because I’m suspicious of this February Springtime business, which is an appropriate vibe to couple with “this tune is uplifting but if you listen to the lyrics everything is going to SHIT”-type music.
Michael McDonald - “Lonely Teardrops” (cover)
I prefer the Jackie Wilson original of this song, which has graced many of my own (drier) road trips, but I should pay homage to the version I was first introduced to. It holds a special place in my heart as a cosmic anomaly because the combination of Nicolas Cage, who I almost unequivocally hate, and someone who was once part of Steely Dan, who are impossible to hear about or listen to without squirming, somehow mesh to create something that actually works artistically.
James Taylor - “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”
I heard this song in the grocery store last night and it made me wonder what pop music from today will endure the test of time to become the soundtrack to thumping melons and squeezing peaches and the passive aggressively hitting strangers in the back of the legs with my shopping basket ten years from now.
I also realized that for years, I’ve been mishearing the fifth line in the second verse as “you’ve had enough of me.” No disrespect to James Taylor Holland-Dozier-Holland, whose other tunes have been known to get me all misty-eyed, but I’m a little disappointed. I think it adds some interesting lyrical tension to what is otherwise a song that kinda sounds like it was written to be a fruit-shopping anthem.
Amy Winehouse - “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (cover)
i can’t decide if this cover is schmaltzy or perfectly subdued. either way, digging the acoustic guitar.
been listening to it on repeat for the last half hour like it’s some kind of note-to-self.
“Indestructible” - Matthew Good Band
The source of this blog’s name. The outlet for great existential angst in high school. The soundtrack to a lot of grumpy walking around in the rain, which, growing up in the northeast, was equal parts emo squalor and shitty meteorological luck.
I don’t really listen to this guy much anymore, but it’s always good to mine the 90’s for rock anthems.
