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).
It Ain't Because of Me
Bill Withers Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That you're bein' alone
Nobody's fault but your own
If you've been lonely
Because if only, reach out for me
You'll reach out for me, baby
I'm as close as your phone
I've been home
And home ain't home
In Bill Withers's song "It Ain't Because of Me," the singer addresses a lover who has been alone, saying that it is not his fault that they are in that situation. He places the blame for their loneliness squarely on the lover, saying that it is their own fault. The singer then offers himself as a solution to the lover's solitude, stating that they can reach out to him for companionship. In the second stanza, the singer emphasizes his availability, stating that he is as close as their phone. He then reflects on his own life since the lover has been gone, saying that he has been home, but that home no longer feels like home without them there.
The lyrics of this song are fairly straightforward, but they still contain layers of emotional complexity. On the surface, the singer is offering to be there for a lover who has been alone, but he implies that the lover has pushed people away in the past, leading to their current predicament. By saying that home no longer feels like home without the lover there, the singer implies that he has also been affected by their absence. This suggests that the relationship is more complex than it may seem at first glance. Overall, the song presents a bittersweet message of hope and regret, acknowledging the difficulties of relationships while still holding out the possibility of connection and warmth.
Line by Line Meaning
It ain't because of me, baby
I'm not the reason why you're alone, my dear
That you're bein' alone
I'm not the cause of your loneliness
Nobody's fault but your own
You have only yourself to blame for your solitude
If you've been lonely
If you've been feeling alone
Because if only, reach out for me
I'm here for you if only you would ask
You'll reach out for me, baby
If you do ask, I'm as near as your phone
I'm as close as your phone
I'm very accessible and just a phone call away
Ever since you've been gone
Life hasn't been the same without you
I've been home
I've been staying at home
And home ain't home
But it's not the same without you here with me
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: MIKE JONES, BILL WITHERS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind