Bill Withers: Live At Carnegie Hall (2LP, custard yellow vinyl, indie exclusive) [COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

This indie exclusive custard yellow 2LP set uses the 50th anniversary remaster. Rolling Stone ranked the recording No. 27 among the 50 greatest live albums of all time in 2015, and AllMusic counts it among the best concert records of the 1970s.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Custard yellow vinyl
• Indie exclusive
• 50th anniversary remaster

About the album

On the night of October 6, 1972, Bill Withers walked onto the stage at Carnegie Hall, settled in, and made New York's grandest concert room feel like a friend's front room. He chatted, joked, told stories and stretched his songs out until the whole place was his.

James Gadson on drums and Ray Jackson on piano drive the band, with Benorce Blackmon on guitar and Melvin Dunlap on bass, and all four share co-producer credits. "Use Me" stretches past eight minutes, "Grandma's Hands" and "Let Me in Your Life" come with spoken introductions, and "Lean On Me" sits at the heart of the third side. The encore, "Harlem/Cold Baloney," runs over 13 minutes, and Robert Christgau called it the knockout. Five of the songs were new at the time, so the Carnegie crowd hears some of them fresh.

Sussex Records first issued it as a double LP in April 1973, and BBC Music's Daryl Easlea put it in the same company as James Brown's Live at the Apollo and Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace. Withers spends a fair bit of the night talking between songs, and frankly we'd buy a record of that too.

Also at Kops: more Bill Withers on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy (cat# 19658749381), a reissue of the 1973 live album.