Bill Withers: Just As I Am [SPEAKERS CORNER]

Why you'll love it

Speakers Corner remastered this one for 180g vinyl in stereo. "Ain't No Sunshine" sits on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs, "Grandma's Hands" reached No. 18 on the soul chart, and the album landed at No. 304 on Rolling Stone's 2020 greatest albums list.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

Bill Withers was in his early thirties and still working at an aircraft factory, installing toilets in airplanes, when Sussex Records gave him a shot. The cover photo shows him outside a brick building with a lunchbox, and that's the spirit of the whole record: an ordinary working man who happened to write extraordinary songs.

Booker T. Jones produced, arranged and played keyboards and guitar, and brought a band to match: Stephen Stills on guitar, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Chris Ethridge on bass, and Al Jackson Jr. and Jim Keltner on drums. "Ain't No Sunshine" makes its point in barely two minutes, "Grandma's Hands" is a tender family portrait, "Harlem" opens with a rolling groove, and Withers takes "Let It Be" and "Everybody's Talkin'" somewhere earthier than anyone expected.

Robert Christgau praised Booker T.'s "faultless production," and the songs have been covered and sampled ever since. He's holding a lunchbox on the cover, the sensible precaution of a man keeping his day job just in case. As it turned out, he could have left it at home.

Also at Kops: more Bill Withers on vinyl · browse Classic Soul

Tracklist

Listen

On Sussex / Speakers Corner (cat# SXBS 7006), a reissue of the 1971 album.