Musical Heroes with Kal – Bill Withers

September 20th, 2009 | By Kal

Following on from my last post…what does everyone think about Hip Hop?

I think it’s one of those genres that truly polarizes opinion – some love it for its rhythm, its ability to give a voice to a certain section of society (particularly in the US), and the way it can bring together several genre of music into one. Others dislike the profanity, it’s undeniable association to misogyny and some artist’s glorification of crime. That’s totally understandable.

One thing that people dislike in particular, when talking about the music itself is some producers heavy reliance on sampling.  The man in the news for interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, Kanye West, may be known to everyone as a recording artist, but for many years before he got his break, he was a producer, and is perhaps the most notable  of these sample-based producers.

Where am I going with this? OK, be patient. Let me explain. You see, I’m on the fence when it comes to sampling to create “new” music. OK, maybe some people got it wrong in the late nineties and basically re-sold old music with a supposed gangster “spitting bars” on top of it. However, I think there are times when sampling, done cleverly, brings artists to a new generation – almost giving them the credit they deserve.

What do Will Smith and Twista have in common?  In fact, what about Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Morrissey, Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lenny /kravitz and Kenny Rogers? They have all sampled and covered one man. That’s right, you guessed it.  Bill Withers.

You may have heard of him (I think you should have), but then again, you may not.  One thing is for sure however – you will know at least 4 of his songs. How can it be that the man who wrote Lean on me, Lovely day, Ain’t no sunshine and Just the two of us, to name a mere fraction of his works has so little recognition?

Part of it is personal choice – he stepped away from the music business to concentrate on his personal life and family and is obviously doing well enough from others’ need to use his music. He had it all – clearly a talented songwriter, he was a distinguished multi-instrumentalist and had a very distinctive voice.  For me, he is what many singer-songwriters should look at and aim for.

Check out this video.  It’s totally live, none of your modern miming and he’s really showing off all of his talents. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo.

Look out for the uber-cool drummer with afro!