album rating: ★★★★☆
a) Genre
Soul / R&B / Folk soul. Just As I Am is Bill Withers's debut studio album and one of the most celebrated introductory recordings in the history of American soul music. Wikipedia describes it as blending 'jazz, soul, and folk elements', and the Shatter the Standards long-form essay characterises Withers as more folk than pop in his underlying sensibility: an acoustic guitar-strumming singer-songwriter who brings 'folk seriousness to a gospel fervor' that lends his songs an undertow of what Robert Christgau called 'radical protest where other singers would descend into bathos.' Ten tracks of varying intensity — from the scaldingly funky 'Ain't No Sunshine' to the tenderly understated 'Grandma's Hands', from the blue-collar portrait of 'Harlem' to the breakup elegy 'Hope She'll Be Happier' — are unified by Withers's voice: warm, unaffected, completely devoid of artifice.
b) Release
Original US release: Sussex Records (1 May 1971; catalogue SXBS-7006 stereo LP), produced for B.T. Productions. Sussex Records was an independent US soul label distributed at various points by Buddha Records and Janus. Publishing credits on the original LP: Interior Music (BMI) for most tracks; Emanay Music Co. (ASCAP) for 'Harlem' (A1); Third Story Music (BMI) for 'Everybody's Talkin'' (A5); MacLen Music (BMI) for B2 (a cover). Multiple US pressing variants are documented on Discogs, including pressings at Sonic, American Record Pressing Co. (ARP), and others, all identifiable by differing matrix/runout characteristics. Original UK release: A&M Records ('mustard' labels, fully laminated cover, catalogue AMLS 65002); German edition distributed by Ariola-Eurodisc GmbH (printed by Mohndruck Reinhard Mohn OHG, Gütersloh). A 1985 Columbia Records vinyl reissue made the album available in the US after the major label purchased Withers's Sussex back catalogue. A 40th anniversary expanded CD edition was released by Big Break Records in 2012, with additional tracks and digital remastering produced with Withers's direct involvement. Marking the 50th anniversary, Legacy Recordings (Sony) released a further remastered edition in 2021. 'Ain't No Sunshine' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Rolling Stone ranked the album number 304 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in its 2020 updated edition.
c) Production
Produced, arranged, and partly performed by Booker T. Jones (guitar, keyboards, arrangements); produced for B.T. Productions. Clarence Avant, founder and president of Sussex Records, had heard Withers's self-funded demo tapes and assigned Jones to produce the album. The collaboration was initiated through Jones — who had recently worked with Stephen Stills — calling on Stills to join the sessions as guitarist, filling the spot that Steve Cropper would normally have occupied. Jones brought Donald 'Duck' Dunn (bass) and Al Jackson Jr. (drums) from the Stax/MGs orbit, supplemented by Chris Ethridge (bass; Flying Burrito Brothers), Jim Keltner (drums), and Bobbye Hall Porter (Motown percussionist). Engineers: Bill Halverson and Bill Lazerus. Jones's approach, as described by the Shatter the Standards essay, was to hear each song once and play it — keeping arrangements 'short and clean, out of Withers' way.' Withers wrote all ten tracks on the album except 'Everybody's Talkin'' (Fred Neil) and one cover. Jones later recalled to Rolling Stone (2015) that Withers arrived at the studio 'in old work boots and a beat-up car with a notebook full of songs' and asked, 'Booker, who is going to sing these songs?' — genuinely uncertain of his own role as performer even at the point of recording. Package design: Paul Bevoir. Photography: Norbert Jobst (the cover image shows Withers with a lunch pail outside the Weber Aircraft factory in Los Angeles where he was still employed).
d) Recording
Recorded across three sessions (funding problems reduced the planned four to three) spread over approximately six months in 1970–1971, at Sunset Sound Recorders and Wally Heider Recording Studio, both in Hollywood (Los Angeles), California, USA. All recording and mixing took place at these two Hollywood studios. The cover photograph was taken at the Weber Aircraft facility in Los Angeles (sometimes referred to in sources as Webber Aircraft), where Withers was employed installing lavatories in Boeing 747 aircraft at the time of recording.
e) Reception
Upon release in May 1971, Just As I Am received positive critical attention. Cash Box praised Booker T. Jones's production and predicted the album 'would capture your mind' through its genuine approach. Robert Christgau (Village Voice, August 1971) awarded a B grade, describing it as 'an unusually listenable and likable middlebrow soul record' with 'almost faultless production from Booker T.' Radio stations initially favoured the intended A-side single 'Harlem', but prescient DJs flipped to the B-side 'Ain't No Sunshine', which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (number 6 on the Hot R&B chart) in 1971, sold over one million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972. In October 1971 — as 'Ain't No Sunshine' was charting — Withers received two letters on the same day: one from Weber Aircraft offering his mechanic's job back at $3.50 an hour, and one from Johnny Carson inviting him to perform the song on The Tonight Show. The second single 'Grandma's Hands' reached number 18 on the Hot R&B chart and number 42 on the Hot 100. The 1999 induction of 'Ain't No Sunshine' into the Grammy Hall of Fame affirmed the song's historical status. Rolling Stone ranked the album number 304 in its 2020 500 Greatest Albums list. Withers's own note printed on the album jacket reads: 'It matters not where I came from in relation to the world, as long as the world and I arrive at a common point at a common time. I would like to thank Sussex Records and Booker T. Jones for allowing me to present myself to the world, to whoever is kind enough to listen: Just As I Am.'
Bill Withers
William Harrison Withers Jr. (born 4 July 1938, Slab Fork, Raleigh County, West Virginia, USA — died 30 March 2020, Los Angeles, California, USA) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, one of the most distinctive voices of 1970s soul music. He was born and raised in the coal-mining community of Slab Fork, West Virginia, the youngest of six children. He enlisted in the US Navy at the age of seventeen in 1956 and served nine years, working as an aircraft mechanic. After his 1965 discharge he settled in Los Angeles, working a series of factory jobs — at IBM, Ford, and Douglas Aircraft — before joining Weber Aircraft, where he installed lavatories in Boeing 747s. He bought a guitar from a pawnshop after seeing Lou Rawls perform at a club, taught himself to play, and paid for his own demo tapes out of his factory wages. Clarence Avant of Sussex Records heard the demos and assigned Booker T. Jones to produce Just As I Am (1971). His second album Still Bill (1972, self-produced) yielded two million-sellers: 'Lean on Me' (number 1) and 'Use Me' (number 2 R&B). Legal disputes with Sussex delayed his third album; Columbia Records eventually bought his back catalogue and signed him to a major-label deal. He retired from music almost entirely in 1985 at the age of 46, disillusioned with the music industry's attempts to reshape his artistic identity. He spent his final 35 years in Los Angeles, returning to public attention only for rare appearances: Stevie Wonder inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, at which ceremony Withers called the honour 'an award of attrition' and said he didn't think he'd 'done bad for a kid from Slab Fork, West Virginia.' His song 'Ain't No Sunshine' has been covered by more than 700 artists. 'Lean on Me' became one of the most recognisable American popular songs of the 20th century. 'Just the Two of Us', a duet with Grover Washington Jr. (from Washington's album Winelight, 1980), won the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1982.
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