The movie that inspired Bill Withers’ greatest hit: “Something that crossed my mind”
As far as debut albums go, they don’t come much better than Bill Withers’ Just As I Am.
Not one, but two of his most famous tracks came from his debut album, announcing him as a true songwriting force to the world.
There was so much to love on this debut Withers record immediately, be it the observational style of songwriting, the deeply soulful melodies or most notably his voice. It was somewhere between familiar and imaginative, with all the soulful timbre needed for an artist in his genre, but delivered with a soft calmness that made everything feel reassured.
Ultimately, it didn’t get any bigger than the lead single for the album. To this day, it remains Withers’ biggest hit and cements his legacy as one of the all-time great songwriters. ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ perfectly suited the profile of Withers’ voice, for it provided a painfully aching backdrop for his lyrics of heartbreak to exist upon.
But was that even the inspiration? On paper, it seems like the most quintessential heartbreak song, comparing the love of his subject to the warmth of sunshine. But in reality, the muse behind the subject matter was far different than we may have imagined. Sure, it’s about the longing of what once came before, but not in the overly romantic sense we assume.
“I was watching a movie called Days Of Wine And Roses with Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon,” Withers explained, when asked about the inspiration behind the song. He continued, “They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It’s like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren’t particularly good for you. It’s just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I’m not aware of.”
The nuance of Withers’ view on loss, made the song and him as an artist all the more compelling. Especially when you consider where he was in his life at that point. Yet to release any music as a musician, he was a 31-year-old factory worker who had likely resigned to the fact his dream wouldn’t happen. But when a demo of the brutally profound ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ found its way onto Booker T’s desk, well, Withers’ life changed completely.
When it came to the official recording of the track, Withers was then offered the creative help of Booker T, as well as some other music royalty who helped bring the song to life. More crucially, it was those artists who encouraged Withers’ to keep in the now iconic “I know, I know” bridge section of the song.
“I wasn’t going to do that, then Booker T. said, ‘No, leave it like that.’ I was going to write something there, but there was a general consensus in the studio. It was an interesting thing because I’ve got all these guys that were already established, and I was working in the factory at the time. Graham Nash was sitting right in front of me, just offering his support. Stephen Stills was playing and there was Booker T. and Al Jackson and Donald Dunn – all of the MGs except Steve Cropper. They were all these people with all this experience and all these reputations, and I was this factory worker just sort of puttering around. So when their general feeling was, ‘Leave it like that,’ I left it like that.”
They knew that Withers’ ad lib was clearly unique to his songwriting style. Moreover, when that was paired with a song that hits all the heartbreak notes, but written with the complexity of an observational Withers, they knew they had a timeless hit on their hands.
