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Bill Withers – Just As I Am
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Artist……………: Bill Withers
Album…………….: Just As I Am
Genre…………….: Soul
Source……………: CD
Year……………..: 1971
Ripper……………: Exact Audio Copy (Secure mode)
Codec…………….: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version…………..: reference libFLAC 1.1.1 20041001
Quality…………..: Lossless, (avg. compression: 59 %)
Channels………….: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags……………..: VorbisComment
Information……….:

Ripped by…………: serhio on 11/21/2007
Posted by…………: AJ Productions on 11/21/2010
News Server……….:
News Group(s)……..:

Included………….: NFO, M3U, LOG, CUE
Covers……………: Front

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Tracklisting
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1. Bill Withers – Harlem [03:23]
2. Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine [02:05]
3. Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands [02:01]
4. Bill Withers – Sweet Wanomi [02:32]
5. Bill Withers – Everybody’s Talkin’ [03:24]
6. Bill Withers – Do It Good [02:52]
7. Bill Withers – Hope She’ll Be Happier [03:50]
8. Bill Withers – Let It Be [02:36]
9. Bill Withers – I’M Her Daddy [03:18]
10. Bill Withers – In My Heart [04:19]
11. Bill Withers – Moanin’ And Groanin’ [02:58]
12. Bill Withers – Better Off Dead [02:14]

Playing Time………: 35:37
Total Size………..: 211.27 MB

NFO generated on…..: 8/13/2013 1:43:51 AM

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by Rob Theakston

In a career laden with highlights and hallmarks in the annals of soul
history, Just as I Am gets rather overlooked as one of the best soul
debuts ever issued. Remastered and repackaged as a part of Sony’s
DualDisc series, Just as I Am gets cleaned up and presented to a new
generation of listeners who may have missed out the first time. And
with this remastering comes an intimacy, warmth, and immediacy to
the recordings that was only hinted at with previous versions; it’s
almost as if Withers is in a living room singing to a small group of
people, rather than making a record. Of course, the instantly
recognizable anthem “Ain’t No Sunshine” gets all of the acclaim it so
richly deserves, but tracks like “Harlem” and “Better Off Dead” also
warrant kudos for the intensity and maturity of their performances.
Even when he’s doing covers, Withers treats them as if they are his
own compositions and handles them with great delicacy. And while the
audio performances are top-notch, the new documentary on the
making of the record, as well as rare performances of “Ain’t No
Sunshine,” “Ain’t Her Daddy,” and “Harlem” are the icing on the
proverbial cake. Kudos to Sony for not only reissuing a long lost
masterpiece, but for doing it in such a classy fashion.
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https://www.rapidshare.com/files/488853013/Bill%20With%20Himself.rar

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The Isley Brothers – Givin’ It Back
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Artist……………: The Isley Brothers
Album…………….: Givin’ It Back
Genre…………….: Funk-Soul
Source……………: CD
Year……………..: 1971
Ripper……………: Exact Audio Copy (Secure mode)
Codec…………….: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version…………..: reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917
Quality…………..: Lossless, (avg. compression: 67 %)
Channels………….: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags……………..: VorbisComment
Information……….:

Ripped by…………: Chander on 3/25/2009
Posted by…………: AJ Productions on 12/12/2009
News Server……….:
News Group(s)……..:

Included………….: NFO, M3U, LOG
Covers……………: Front Back CD

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Tracklisting
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1. The Isley Brothers – Ohio – Machine Gun [09:13]
2. The Isley Brothers – Fire And Rain [05:29]
3. The Isley Brothers – Lay Lady Lay [10:21]
4. The Isley Brothers – Spill The Wine [06:31]
5. The Isley Brothers – Nothing To Do But Today [03:39]
6. The Isley Brothers – Cold Bologna [02:59]
7. The Isley Brothers – Love The One You’re With [03:39]

Playing Time………: 41:54
Total Size………..: 276.21 MB

NFO generated on…..: 8/13/2013 12:56:39 AM

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by Bruce Eder AMC

Givin’ It Back is as much a time capsule as an album. Not that it can’t
be enjoyed on its own absolute musical terms by someone just off a
boat who wasn’t even around in 1971, but to really appreciate how
daring it was and how delightful it is, that side of its history should be
known. Those who are old enough should recall the time whence it
came, an era in which hatred and disunity over the Vietnam War, civil
rights, school desegregation, the environment, and a multitude of
other issues were threatening what seemed, potentially, like the
beginning of a new civil war, this one not between states but between
factions and ethnic and racial groups in 1,000 individual neighborhoods.
The opening cut of Givin’ It Back, “Ohio/Machine Gun,” is a slap-in-
your-face reminder of just how angry the times and the people were.
The track evokes instant memories of the campus bloodshed of 1970,
not just at Kent State but also the often-forgotten killings a few days
later at Jackson State University in Mississippi, where the victims of a
fusillade of sheriff’s deputies’ bullets were black students. More than
that, the track itself is also a reminder of the divisions that existed on
the left; to listen to pundits on the right, the anti-war and civil rights
movements, along with the counterculture, were all part of one vast,
organized, calculated left-wing conspiracy. The truth is that there was
nearly as big a split, culturally and politically, between young blacks and
young whites on the left and on college campuses as there was
anywhere else in the population. Blacks reacting to years of oppression
had little use for mostly middle-class white college students, however
sympathetic many of them purported to be to their situation, while
well-meaning white students and activists couldn’t begin to know what
privation of the kind experienced by blacks and Hispanics in most
American towns and cities was. In music, too, there was a lot of
division; blacks usually didn’t resonate to the top artists in the white
world and, in particular, were oblivious to (and even resentful of) the
adoration accorded Jimi Hendrix by the white community. So, when
the Isley Brothers — whose appeal among black audiences was
unimpeachable — opened Givin’ It Back with a conflation of Neil
Young’s “Ohio” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun,” they were speaking
to anger and bloodshed in the streets, but they were also performing
an act of outreach that was about as radical as any they could have
committed on record in 1971. That they incorporated a prayer into
their reformulation of the two songs, amid Ernie Isley’s and Chester
Woodard’s guitar pyrotechnics, turned it into one of the most powerful
and personal musical statements of its era, and it’s worth the price of
the album just for the one cut. Givin’ It Back is filled with virtues of
that kind, however; it was the first Isley Brothers album to rely entirely
on outside material, but the group’s reworkings of songs by James
Taylor (“Fire and Rain”) and Stephen Stills (“Love the One You’re
With”) show no lack of originality. They’re unafraid to take the song
apart and rebuild it from the ground up, smoothing Bob Dylan’s “Lay
Lady Lay” into a sensual soul ballad, turning the James Taylor number
into a sweaty, earnest shouter, and transforming War’s “Spill the
Wine” into an extended workout for voices, electric guitars (several
layers deep), flute, and percussion. The album was also an early
showcase for Bill Withers, whose funky blues “Cold Bologna” is covered
by the group with the composer — who was about to emerge as a
major star in his own right — on guitar. And the closer, “Love the One
You’re With,” is sent soaring to heights that the Stephen Stills original
could only gaze up at. Givin’ It Back is often held at arm’s length by
soul listeners, who don’t regard it as central to what the Isley Brothers
or their music are about; on the contrary, the group is so successful at
remaking all of the songs here their own in style and approach and
sending careful messages (alas, largely lost with the passage of time)
in their selection as well as their content, that it really represents a lot
of what the Isley Brothers and soul music were about in 1971, and it’s
still great listening. Reissued in 1997 by Sony with new notes, and
worth every cent of its list price.
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https://www.rapidshare.com/files/3907450111/The%20Isle%20Of%20Giving.rar