Song of the Day 7/19: Bill Withers, “Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?”
I hadn’t heard this one in ages until Meshell Ndegeocello’s cover, which I’d never heard at all, popped up WXPN the other day.
The funk comes from musicians who had been the core of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, particularly bassist Melvin Dunlap and guitarist Benorce Blackmon. The LP also launched the long studio career of R&B drummer James Gadson.
The cut appeared on Withers’ funkiest album, 1972’s “Still Bill,” which also included the monster hits “Lean on Me” (No. 1) and “Use Me” (No. 2), and back then they seldom milked an LP for three singles. You couldn’t find it in a jukebox until 1976, when it made the B-side of a tune that barely scraped the bottom of the R&B charts. The lyrics by Stan McKenney, a disc jockey who wrote several songs for the Chi-Lites, are notable for both their air of paranoid menace and the best use of the word “dadgummit” in popular music.
Ndegeocello’s version from 1996 is good, but while her bass is plenty funky, her guitarist adds nothing but atmospheric effects. It still hit No. 1 on the dance chart.
