The Politics Of Space: “Use Me” by Bill Withers

No instrument quite says “1972” like the Hohner Clavinet, and Raymond Jackson makes sure it says a lot here by saying very little. But the clavinet hook to “Use Me” was one of the year’s most memorable. Musically the record is all about space and how it relates to the production and angle of the sounds that we hear. Like all great music organisers from George Crumb to Alan Braxe, Withers knows the value of silence, while as a singer he is a master of understatement and hence carries a lot more “dignity” than other soul performers I could mention. Grace Jones aggressively revisited the song for Nightclubbing nine years later, but Withers’ original “Use Me” is a minor strategic masterpiece which is not just about sex but also power relations, capitalism and politics, and has a killer turnaround payoff neatly buried in its fadeout. Melvin Dunlap on bass, James Gadson at the drums, Bobbye Hall on percussion and Withers himself on a modestly aggressive acoustic guitar and meditative vowel-twisting, all orchestrated with as much assiduous minimalism as Miles and/or Gil managed. How many pop records turn on the expression, or concept, of "appointed duty"?

Date Record Made Number Two: 14 October 1972

Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 2

Records At Number One: “Ben” by Michael Jackson and “My Ding-A-Ling” by Chuck Berry

UK Chart Position: None

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