Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, on July 4, 1938. He was the son of Mattie (Galloway), a maid, and William Withers, a miner. He was born with a stutter and later said he had a hard time fitting in. His parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised by his mother's family in nearby Beckley, West Virginia. He was 13 years old when his father died. Withers enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 17, and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs.
He left the Navy in 1965, relocating to Los Angeles in 1967 to start a music career. His debut release was "Three Nights and a Morning" in 1967. Arranged by Mort Garson, the song went unnoticed at the time but was later reworked by Withers as the track "Harlem".
Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, IBM and Ford, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he returned with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" in 1971, he refused to resign from his job because he believed the music business was a fickle industry. In early 1970, Withers's demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch box.
Withers was known for his "smooth" baritone vocals and "sumptuous" soul arrangements. He wrote some of the most covered songs of the 1970s, including "Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine". The former entered the Hot 100 chart through multiple versions, including Club Nouveau's 1987 cover, which made the composition one of nine songs to have led the chart via different acts. With "Lovely Day", he set the record for the longest sustained note on a chart hit on American charts, holding a high E for 18 seconds. Editors from The Guardian considered that Withers' songs are "some of the most beloved in the American songbook," citing, "'Ain't No Sunshine' is regarded as one of the all-time great breakup tracks, while 'Lean on Me', an ode to the supportive power of friendship ..." For the same newspaper, Alex Petridis noticed "[he] laid pain and paranoia under his deceptively gentle songs, and retired early having conquered gospel, funk, blues, disco and more." In Rolling Stone, writer Andy Greene noted that several of his songs "are embedded in the culture and have been covered countless times."
Writing for The New York Times, Giovanni Russonello considered Withers "[a] soulful singer with a gift for writing understated classics", adding, "the ultimate homespun hitmaker, he had an innate sense of what might make a song memorable, and little interest in excess attitude or accoutrements. Ultimately Withers reminded us that it’s the everyday that is the most meaningful: work, family, love, loss." A Billboard article considered that Withers "stands as one of R&B/soul music's most revered singer-songwriters." In the same magazine, writer Gail Mitchell acknowledged "Withers' legacy has flourished in the decades since, thanks to a cross-section of artists who have covered/sampled his songs or cited him as a major influence." Musician and music journalist Questlove referred to Withers' post-breakup 1974 album +'Justments as "a diary [...] [it] was a pre-reality-show look at his life. Keep in mind this was years before Marvin Gaye did it with Here, My Dear." The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson deemed him "a songwriter's songwriter". Musicians Sade, D'Angelo, Justin Timberlake, John Legend and Ed Sheeran have credited Withers as a music inspiration.
Withers died from heart complications in Los Angeles on March 30, 2020, at age 81; his family announced his death four days later. He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).
Harlem
Bill Withers Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Man, it's a really hot
Well, it's too hot to sleep
I'm too cold to heat
I don't care if I die or not
Winter night in Harlem
Oh, oh, radiator won't get hot
Well, the mean old landlord
He don't care if I freeze to death or not
Saturday night in Harlem, everything's alright
You can really swing and shake your pretty thing
The parties are out of sight
Sunday morning here in Harlem
Now everybody's all dressed up
All the hip folks gettin' a home from the party
And the good folks just got up
Our crooked delegation wants a donation
To send the preacher to the holy land
Hey, hey, Lord
Honey don't give your money to that lying, cheating man
Saturday night in Harlem, everything's alright
You can really swing and shake your pretty thing
The parties are out of sight
Sunday morning here in Harlem
Now everybody's all dressed up
All the hip folks gettin' a home from the party
And the good folks just got up
Our crooked delegation wants a donation
To send the preacher to the holy land
Hey, hey, Lord
Honey don't give your money to that lying, cheating man, hey, hey
Ha ha, ha ha
Hey, hey, hey yeah
Ha, ha ha ha, hey
Hey, hey hey hey
Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha
Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha
Ha ha, ha ha, ha
Ha, ha, ha
Ha, ha ha ha
"Harlem" by Bill Withers is a song that describes different aspects of living in Harlem. The song begins with a summer night in Harlem, where the heat is so oppressive that the singer cannot sleep. He is too cold to turn up the heat, and he is apathetic about the possibility of dying. The lyrics suggest that the conditions of the apartment are not conducive to sleep, and the singer's lack of regard for his life might be a symptom of living in poverty. This opening verse sets the tone for the song and creates a picture of the hardships of living in Harlem.
The song then moves on to describe a winter's night in Harlem, where the singer is cold and the landlord is unresponsive to the lack of heat. The use of words like "mean old landlord" invokes a sense of helplessness and frustration. The singer's critique of the landlord suggests a larger systemic issue of landlords neglecting the needs of their tenants. This section of the song furthers the theme of poverty and the struggle to survive in Harlem.
The song concludes with a section that describes the division of the community between Sunday mornings and Saturday nights. Sunday morning is when the "good folks" are getting up, while the "hip folks" are returning home from partying. The "crooked delegation" wants a donation to send the preacher to the Holy Land, and the singer is wary of their request. This section highlights the overlap between the secular and religious aspects of Harlem, as well as the potential for exploitation.
Overall, "Harlem" by Bill Withers is a song that captures the struggles and joys of living in a tight-knit community that faces many systemic challenges.
Line by Line Meaning
Summer night in Harlem
It is a hot summer night in the neighborhood of Harlem.
Man, it's a really hot
The heat is unbearable.
Well, it's too hot to sleep
The heat is making it impossible to sleep.
I'm too cold to heat
The artist is too broke to afford heating in winter, despite being cold.
I don't care if I die or not
The artist no longer values his own life.
Winter night in Harlem
It is a cold winter night in the neighborhood of Harlem.
Oh, oh, radiator won't get hot
The singer's radiator isn't working and he's unable to heat his place.
Well, the mean old landlord
The landlord is mean and doesn't care about his tenants.
He don't care if I freeze to death or not
The artist's life is not important to the landlord.
Saturday night in Harlem, everything's alright
The weekend is here and the artist is excited.
You can really swing and shake your pretty thing
The parties in Harlem are lively and everyone is dancing.
The parties are out of sight
The parties are so good that they're beyond words.
Sunday morning here in Harlem
It's Sunday morning in the neighborhood of Harlem.
Now everybody's all dressed up
People in Harlem are getting ready to go to church.
All the hip folks gettin' a home from the party
People who went to parties are now returning home.
And the good folks just got up
People who are about to attend church have woken up.
Our crooked delegation wants a donation
A corrupt group of residents is asking for money to send their preacher to a pilgrimage.
To send the preacher to the holy land
They want to send the preacher to a religious site.
Hey, hey, Lord
The singer is addressing the Lord.
Honey don't give your money to that lying, cheating man
The artist is warning people not to trust and give their money to the corrupt delegation.
Ha ha, ha ha
The artist is laughing.
Hey, hey, hey yeah
The artist is excited.
Ha, ha ha ha, hey
The singer is laughing and acknowledging someone.
Hey, hey hey hey
The artist is addressing a group of people.
Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha
The singer is laughing.
Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha
The singer is laughing.
Ha ha, ha ha, ha
The singer is laughing.
Ha, ha, ha
The artist is laughing.
Ha, ha ha ha
The artist is laughing.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Bill Withers
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind