Groove

It happens when singer and band are just so tight and you've got a pulsating, rhythmic repeating figure that's so right you just want it to keep on going.  I can't think of any better examples than two performances featured before on THC, both of which are superior to the recorded versions.

Use Me by Bill Withers, from a TV show sometime in the mid-70s.  Slower than the hit record and so delicious.  Concentrate on the instrumentation when listening.  The guitarist is doing some amazing work and as for the drummer, when the first comment on the video is "that drummer is possibly the coolest guy to have ever lived", all I can add, in the words of Mona Lisa Vito, is "it's a fact!".

Next up is I Can't Go For That, a decade old live performance by Ceelo Green and Daryl Hall (with Daryl's crack band).  A remake of the Hall & Oates 80s hit, this version is so smooth and groovy.  Every instrument is precisely right - guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and Ceelo's seemingly effortless vocal.

I wouldn't mind if both of these were twice as long.

Grandma's Hands

I did a post a while ago on Bill Withers, who passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 81.  These are my two favorites, Grandma's Hands and Use Me, though he wrote many other fine songs like Ain't No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Lovely Day, and Just The Two of Us.

Grandma's Hands was written about his grandmother.  The version of Use Me is live, slowed down from the recording, and features an unbelievably funky drum, bass, and clavinet.

If I get to heaven/I'll look for/grandma's hands

Use Me

Sometimes the THC Memory Bank fails and he loses track of music he enjoyed way back when.  In this case he was reminded when Use Me turned up as the soundtrack for a recent TV commercial.  That is one funky tune, and Bill Withers wrote and sang a series of melodic singles during the 70s, made particularly memorable by his resonant, warm voice.

Withers was a late bloomer on the pop scene, born in Slab Fork, West Virginia, enlisting in the navy out of high school, serving nine years in the navy and beginning his attempts to break into the music scene only in his late 20s.  Even when he had his first hit (Ain't No Sunshine) at the age of 33 in 1971, he initially did not quit his assembly job at Douglas Aircraft Corporation, doubting the ability to sustain a career in music.

Bill quit the music business in 1985, frustrated with the entire scene.  He was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame by Stevie Wonder in 2015.  He celebrated his 80th birthday this past July 4.

Use Me (1972) - This live version is even funkier than the recording.  The bass, drums, and keyboards have such a groove.


Lean On Me (1972)

Just The Two Of Us (1981)


Lovely Day (1977)

Ain't No Sunshine (1971)

Grandma's Hands (1971)