Still Bill

Retrospective professional reviews

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Christgau's Record Guide	A[7]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[8]
The Great Rock Discography	7/10[8]
Mojo	[9]
Music Story	[8]
MusicHound R&B	2.5/5[8]
Rolling Stone	[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[8]
Uncut	[11]

Retrospective appraisals have also been positive. Reviewing years later in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau expressed more enthusiasm about Still Bill, saying that Withers is "also plenty raunchy and he can rock dead out". He went on to write that the "self-production here is adamantly spare, with Ray Jackson furnishing the hook of the year on 'Use Me,' one of the few knowledgeable songs about sex our supposedly sexy music has ever produced".[7] PopMatters critic Andy Hermann wrote a review in anticipation of the album's CD reissue by Columbia Records in 2003, calling it "essential listening for any fan of early '70s funk and R&B". Hermann also highlighted the contributions of session musicians from the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, crediting them for having helped Withers develop "a unique style of bluesy funk that was the perfect soundtrack to the emotional drama [that] leaked out from around the corners of Withers' laid-back West Virginia drawl".[12] Writing in 2005, David Wild of Rolling Stone found the album "finer and funkier" than Just as I Am and "still a stone-soul masterpiece",[10] while Stylus Magazine's Derek Miller called it "a stone-cold, gold-plated soul classic ... far and away Withers' best", and more than comparable to enduring LPs from the same period, such as Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul (1969), Mayfield's Roots (1971), Stevie Wonder's Talking Book (1972), and Al Green's Call Me (1973). Miller added that Still Bill exemplified Withers' musical daring, having fused soul, blues, and "muscular funk" into a sound that finds "form between the lines … bound by the heated muscle of its rhythms and the satin berth of its softer moments".[13]

In 2007, Still Bill was included in The Guardian's list of "1,000 albums to hear before you die", with an accompanying essay that said the album "contains two of [Withers'] most epochal and best-loved compositions 'Lean on Me' and 'Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?' but [that] the blend of patient, understated, insistently funky acoustic playing is just as vital".[14] Tom Moon included it in a similar publication, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008), citing the album as "one of the most eloquent records" in rhythm and blues. "These are shades-of-gray stories, full of a mature understanding of human nature", Moon observed, before concluding that, "even when reflecting on weighty matters, Withers cultivates a mood of unflappable calm, making everything sound like a lazy summer evening on the front porch."[15] In 2020, Still Bill ranked number 333 on Rolling Stone's revised edition of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[16]

• Bill Withers – producer (1-12)
• Ray Jackson – producer (1-12)
• Benorce Blackmon – producer (1-10)
• Melvin Dunlap – producer (1-10)
• James Gadson – producer (1-10)
• Bob Hughes – engineer
• Phil Schier – engineer, remixing
• Michael Mendel – art direction
• Maurer Productions – art direction
• Milton Sincoff – package design
• Hal Wilson – photography

2003 Reissue Credits

• Leo Sacks – producer
• Steve Berkowitz – A&R
• Darren Salmieri – A&R coordinator
• Joseph M. Palmaccio – mastering
• Lisa Buckler – product manager
• Maurice Joshua – product manager
• Triana D'Orazio – packaging manager
• Howard Fritzon – art direction
• Tim Morse – design
• Harry Goodwin – photography
• Bob Gruen – photography
• Michael Ochs Archive – photography
• SMP/Globe Photos – photography
• Bill Withers – liner notes

Studios

• Recorded at The Record Plant (Los Angeles, California).
• Bonus Tracks recorded live at Carnegie Hall (New York City, New York).
• 2003 reissue mastered at Sony Music Studios (New York City, New York).