Bill Withers – Lean On Me

My cousin gave me this single when I was 7 years old. I wore it out and know every nuance of this song. Just a great vocal by Withers on this. The simple piano riff makes this song so powerful to me. Still one of my favorite songs.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #18 in the UK, and #20 in Canada in 1972. It’s been covered by many other artists but this is my go-to version. Bill Withers wrote this song after he left his childhood town of Slab Fork, West Virginia to live in Los Angeles in a poor section of town. Members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were used on the recording.

From Songfacts

In his Songfacts interview, Bill Withers talked about this song: “This was my second album, so I could afford to buy myself a little Wurlitzer electric piano. So I bought a little piano and I was sitting there just running my fingers up and down the piano. In the course of doing the music, that phrase crossed my mind, so then you go back and say, ‘OK, I like the way that phrase, Lean On Me, sounds with this song.’ So you go back and say, ‘How do I arrive at this as a conclusion to a statement? What would I say that would cause me to say Lean On Me?’ At that point, it’s between you and your actual feelings, you and your morals and what you’re really like. You probably do more thinking about it after it’s done.”

Withers did not record his first song until he was 32 years old. He was in the US Navy for nine years, then worked at a factory making parts for airplanes. Says Withers: “Being from a rural, West Virginia setting, that kind of circumstance would be more accessible to me than it would be to a guy living in New York where people step over you if you’re passed out on the sidewalk, or Los Angeles, where you could die on the side of the freeway and it would probably be eight days before anyone noticed you were dead. Coming from a place where people were a little more attentive to each other, less afraid, that would cue me to have those considerations. I think what we say is influenced by how we are, what’s been our life experiences. Now, I notice young guys writing about shooting each other in the city and stuff like that, well I would never have said anything like that because it was not my experience, I’m not from a big city. I think circumstance dictates what people think.”

This is often the first song children learn to play on the piano because they don’t have to change fingers. You just put your fingers in one position and go up and down the keyboard.

This song has a very broad appeal, as people from just about any background can relate to the lyrics. It was a hit on a variety of formats and did well all over the US and throughout much of the world. Withers told us: “It’s a rural song that translates across demographic lines. Who could argue with the fact that it would be nice to have somebody who really was that way? My experience was, there were people who were that way. They would help you out. Even in the rural South, there were people who would help you out even across racial lines. Somebody who would probably stand in a mob that might lynch you if you pissed them off, would help you out in another way.”

Withers: “When I was in the Navy, I must have been about 18, 19 years old, and I was stationed in Pensacola, Florida. It was a holiday, I had this car that I was able to buy and I was driving up to West Virginia. As is the case with young people with cheap cars, the tires weren’t that great, so one of my tires blew out on this rural Alabama road. This guy comes walking over the hill that looked like he was right out of the movie Deliverance. He says to me, ‘Oh, you had a blowout.’ Well, I didn’t have a spare tire. This guy goes walking back across the hill, and I’m not too comfortable here because I know where I am. He comes back walking with a tire, and he actually helps me put the tire on the car. Just like the whole American experience, it’s very complex and it has it’s own little rules and stuff. I thought it was funny when everybody got worked up over Strom Thurmond having this daughter, and I thought, ‘What else is new?’ It depends on your socialization. My socialization was, it was very likely and very practical to expect a Lean On Me circumstance to exist. My experience was trying to adjust to a world where that circumstance was not the rule rather than the exception.”

A dance version was a US #1 hit for Club Nouveau in 1987. It has also been covered by Tina Turner, Tom Jones and Al Green.

This was used as the title and theme song to a 1989 movie about an inner city high school starring Morgan Freeman. Based on a true story, it shows how principal Joe Clark used very brash and unorthodox teaching methods to help unify the troubled school.

Although he writes lyrics that are easy to understand, Withers describes himself as a “Lyrics Snob.” He explains: “It’s very difficult to make things simple and understandable. You ever sit down and have a conversation with somebody who took their formal education too seriously, and they’re speaking and throwing in a bunch of words that you don’t have a ready meaning for?

You’re sitting there nodding because you don’t want them to think you’re stupid, but what you really think is, there’s a lot of easier ways to say it, and you wonder if they even know what they’re talking about or if they’re just showing off. To me, the biggest challenge in the world is to take anything that’s complicated and make it simple so it can be understood by the masses. Somebody said a long time ago that the world was designed by geniuses, but it’s run by idiots.

I’m a stickler for saying something the simplest possible way with some elements of poetry. Simple is memorable. If something’s too complicated, you’re not going to walk around humming it to yourself because it’s too hard to remember. The key is to make somebody not only remember it, but recall it over and over and over again. When you mention that some stuff I have written has lasted a long time, I think that’s because it’s re-accessible.

That’s why the simpler forms of music, which are my favorites, like country music and the blues and stuff that states something in a way that everybody can understand and you remember it. There are lines that are so profound, like ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,’ or Billy Joel’s ‘I love you just the way you are.’ I heard this country song the other day that really stuck to my ribs, and it was just a simple phrase – ‘And when the time comes for you to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.’ You can’t say that any better. When I say I’m a snob lyrically, that means, how clear can you make it and in how few words.”

Mary J. Blige performed this on January 18, 2009 at a concert in Washington, DC to celebrate the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.

Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, and Keith Urban performed a downbeat, emotional version of this song on the charity telethon, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, which was held on January 22, 2010.

When Withers was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, Stevie Wonder (who gave the induction speech) performed this song with John Legend. Withers appeared midway through the song and joined in, marking his first high-profile performance since he left the industry in the ’80s.

An instrumental section of this song was used in a 2017 Walmart commercial in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas. “Those affected by Hurricane Harvey need someone to lean on,” a title card reads, followed by an offer from Walmart to match donations to the Red Cross.

Steve Wonder opened the 2017 Hand In Hand Telethon with a performance of this song. The benefit was to assist victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Lean On Me

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain 
We all have sorrow 
But if we are wise 
We know that there’s always tomorrow 

Lean on me, when you’re not strong 
And I’ll be your friend 
I’ll help you carry on 
For it won’t be long 
‘Til I’m gonna need 
Somebody to lean on 

Please swallow your pride 
If I have faith you need to borrow 
For no one can fill those of your needs 
That you won’t let show 

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand 
We all need somebody to lean on 
I just might have a problem that you’ll understand 
We all need somebody to lean on 

Lean on me, when you’re not strong 
And I’ll be your friend 
I’ll help you carry on 
For it won’t be long 
‘Til I’m gonna need 
Somebody to lean on 

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand 
We all need somebody to lean on 
I just might have a problem that you’ll understand 
We all need somebody to lean on 

If there is a load you have to bear 
That you can’t carry 
I’m right up the road 
I’ll share your load 

If you just call me (call me)
If you need a friend (call me) call me uh huh(call me) if you need a friend (call me)
If you ever need a friend (call me)
Call me (call me) call me (call me) call me 
(Call me) call me (call me) if you need a friend
(Call me) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (call me)