Dub dot dash

Still Bill (film review)
Bill Withers is a dude. The documentary Still Bill covers his life, revisits the coalmining town he grew up in, and talks with his family. And most importantly, there’s a lot of his music, and some great live clips.

Bill talks about joining the Navy at 17, and working in the aircraft industry before he had his first big hit at age 32. He tells a story about sitting at home, with Aint No Sunshine at the top of the charts, and he gets two calls. One is from his old job at the aircraft factory, wanting him to come back to work (he’d been laid off a few months earlier), and the other was from The Johnny Carson Show, booking an appearance.
He ends up doing the Johnny Carson Show, telling Johnny about his previous job at the aircraft factory, installing toilets in 747s. Bill jokingly lets slip that as part of his job he put cameras in every toilet too, so that the airlines can watch you.

It’s a very moving documentary, capturing Bill talking very honestly about his life and music. At one point, he talks about how his record company went bust and his master tapes ended up being owned by the IRS so he signed with a super-duper big record label, and suddenly had all these people telling him the right way to make music.

He mentioned one record company exec who told him that his songs needed horns, and an intro. Bill observes that Aint No Sunshine didn’t have an intro and that did alright. Another one told him he should cover In the Ghetto by Elvis Presley. Bill said he called these record company types ‘blacksperts’.

There's Bill making new music too - his wife says that he's been writing and recording off and on for the past 10-15 years. Its' not like he stopped being a musician, he just stopped being part of the music industry.

It's a fascinating doco, paying tribute to a musical legend, but also a sensitive portrait of a fine, fine man. If you get a chance to see it, don't miss it. Spending an hour and a half in the company of Bill Withers will do your soul a world of good.