Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bill Withers : Grandma's Hands



SONG Grandma’s Hands

WRITTEN BY Bill Withers

PERFORMED BY Bill Withers

APPEARS ON Just As I Am (1971)


Some of the songs that I find the most powerful are the songs that remind me of family. This is especially the case since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. My grandmother Geraldine was a maid. She used to work for a doctor and his wife. She lived next to us in a double house when I was growing up and almost every evening when she came home I would go through the door that separated our houses to see what kind of pastry treats or fruit she bought from the fruit stand on the way home. She always had this song she used to sing when she would give me my treat bag.

My grandmother Mildred was a housewife. She was married to my grandfather for 68 years. She's an awesome woman and I still haven't tasted a better sugar cookie from anyone including the Keebler elves. These ladies were quite different in personality and approach to life. The one thing they had in common as it relates to me is their absolute love and affection for me.

I can admit to being a spoiled young man. There was never a time during the first 31 years of my life that I didn't feel special when I was around them. I don't think Mildred ever yelled at me my entire life. Hurricane Katrina happened on August 29th 2005. Flood waters claimed Geraldine and Mildred's home of 50 years was washed away. On August 30th my world was a lot less bright and comfortable. There hasn’t been a good day since then that couldn’t have been better if they were here.

Grandma's Hands is a song written in 1971 by Bill Withers about his own grandmother. It was included on the album Just As I Am. This album is probably best known for the song Ain't No Sunshine. Which could be his biggest hit along with Lean On Me. Grandma’s Hands was my favorite song of Bill Withers before Hurricane Katrina and now it has a more special meaning to me. In the song Withers describes the power and influence of his grandmother in the family by describing all the things she did with her hands. Her hands could be used to chastise. They could be used for comfort. They could nurse you back to health and save you from a whipping if she got there fast enough.

It’s a beautiful song sung with the sounds of an acoustic band. You can feel the sentiment and emotion with each line. I couldn’t post this unless I found the version of the song when he gives the monologue before the song about walking her to one of those old black churches on Sunday morning. Whether you had to walk with your grandmother to church or not, I am sure anyone who had a grandmother that meant the world to them can feel that story. The video clip is another performance of it with a different story at the beginning. The only cover of the song I felt did justice to the Bill Wither’s words was the version done by Simply Red. I am adding that one as well. I would like to dedicate this post to Geraldine and Mildred.

Clifton


Lyrics

Grandma's hands
Clapped in church on Sunday morning
Grandma's hands
Played a tambourine so well
Grandma's hands
Used to issue out a warning
She'd say, "Billy don't you run so fast
Might fall on a piece of glass
"Might be snakes there in that grass"
Grandma's hands

Grandma's hands
Soothed a local unwed mother
Grandma's hands
Used to ache sometimes and swell
Grandma's hands
Used to lift her face and tell her,
"Baby, Grandma understands
That you really love that man
Put yourself in Jesus hands"
Grandma's hands

Grandma's hands
Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma's hands
Picked me up each time I fell
Grandma's hands
Boy, they really came in handy
She'd say, "Matty don' you whip that boy
What you want to spank him for?
He didn't drop no apple core"
But I don't have Grandma anymore

If I get to Heaven I'll look for
Grandma's hands

This is my favorite version


Grandmas Hands (Live) - Bill Withers





Simply Red’s version

11 comments:

  1. All right, Clifton, enough of this: I had to wipe a tear from my eye! What a wonderful story. What can I say about Bill Withers that hasn't already been said? Nothing...

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  2. Cliff this is simply beautiful. You write with tenderness and passion. Thank you for this, and my sympathies for your losses.

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  3. I've always loved Bill Withers's music - he's such a good storyteller, and this song is another fine example.

    And you're quite a writer yourself, Clifton! Thank you for this little gem.

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  4. Dammit Cousin!! You just made me think of songs that make you reminisce. Why did you have to go there? Well since you are in that zone, let me give you something a lil deeper to ponder. As I go back down memory lane what other song could be more fitting than “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday?” Pick your version.....Boys II Men or the original Cooley High Soundtrack. Either way, the words of this song will take you back to the many gatherings on Benton and Miro! (Long live the 9th Ward!!!) We could kick off the year with a birthday celebration for the Patriarch of the family. Eat as much barbecue as you can! And I be damned if he didn’t take that barbecue sauce recipe to the grave with him! You remember that sauce, don’t you? Sauce so rich, you’re eating it over macaroni noodles!! Who does that??? But let’s not stop there.....

    Easter at Grandma’s! You remember sugar cookies? Okay, I’ll give you that, but don’t forget that every Easter there was a basket waiting with your name on it! And who could forget Easter dinner? Oh Lawd! I’ve never seen a turtle skinned, cleaned, and chopped into pieces, only to be served later as ONE of the main courses. Cowan anybody? And if turtle wasn’t your ocean delicacy of choice, we had you covered with boiled crawfish and crabs. Spicy!! Oh, and be sure to get your fill on corn, potatoes, and D & D smoked sausage! Wash it all down with an ice cold beer taken from the blue cooler ‘cause the red one had the cold drinks and wine coolers in it. Or....or....if you dare, you could always stick your hand down in the tub of icy water to fetch a Miller, a Busch, or a Milwaukee’s Best. That’s only because the Budweiser was in one of the white iceboxes in the yard. Yeah Cousin eat as much as you want! Don’t count calories because you could always weigh yourself on the scale that was in the yard. Or if the spice raised your temperature, you could cool down by sittin’ in front of that huge industrial-sized fan! Damn Hurricane Katrina probably took that too!

    It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday! Now I’m recollecting all the birthday celebrations for our dear Aunt and great Matriarch. Tripping out as we all screamed “Happy Birthday, Grandma!” “Huh? Whatcha say? You know I’m ‘deef.’ Speak up!” Thank God for the month of August! Sing it Frankie....”Joy and pain. It’s like sunshine and rain!”.....or “Before I Let You Go” Let’s choreograph the end............ Left side of the yard sang: “Dah Da Da” Now Right Side: ”Dah Dah Dah Da Da!”

    It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday! I feel so sorry for the 5th generation of Harris & Butler kids. No Trick-0r-Treating or bobbin’ for apples in Grandma’s kitchen. Who’s gonna teach ‘em how to play Pitty Pat or how to go a Blind 7 if their partner reneged in the last hand? Who’s gonna teach ‘em how to ride that rusty red tricycle that everybody rode? They’re gonna miss sitting too close for comfort in the dining room with the big wooden fork and spoon on the wall, and the China cabinet full of Big Mardi Gras beads and Zulu coconuts. Or camping out in Grandma’s bedroom watching TV, drinking Chek Colas from Winn Dixie, listening to Solomon & Burke, eating Cheese Puffs until your fingers glow a bright orange hue, taking the 1st sip of liquor (for me, it was a Miller’s pony)! Damn Hurricane Katrina!

    It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday! Let’s all convene once more for Thanksgiving! Now you’re talking turkey! Never saw a turkey with so many damn legs....one for every man of the family! You remember when you 1st got to eat your turkey leg? How’d it feel to fly solo? Welcome to manhood, Cousin! Let’s not talk about dressing of every kind, cauliflower and cheese, dinner rolls, and the best sweet potatoes this side of the Mississippi (R.I.P. Nanny)! And gumbo.....Lawd Have Mercy!! File’ gumbo!!

    **Continued...

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  5. It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday! Merry Christmas! Let’s all pile up in the kitchen and dining room again! Don’t forget to put the leaf in the dining room table so we can all claim a spot at the feast. Exchange gifts, put them under the tree in the back room with the bar that was converted into so many different rooms. Wait expectedly for that envelope from Grandma & Grandpa containing your “Christmas money”.....got to be gas money for most of us as we got older!

    It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday! Let’s end the year by gathering once more on New Year’s Eve! More food and liquor!! Not to mention the one time of the year The Big Man got to take over the kitchen, making his infamous eggnog! I never liked eggnog....never understood the concept of egg whites and liquor mixed together. But what I wouldn’t give right now just to smell that cinnamon and nutmeg and rum concoction just for a second! Damn Hurricane Katrina! Fried chicken, hogshead’s cheese molded into egg cartons and hoisted up by toothpicks, ham sandwiches, tuna and chicken salad, and please don’t forget those damn Deviled eggs!! The young ones watching that lame ass Dick Clark special where you get to see the New Year take place in another time zone 1st. It’s nearing midnight, so you better go find a bedside to kneel at and thank the Good Lord for allowing us another year together. You’re almost finished with your prayer when you hear somebody ringing that atrocious cowbell that only got moved off of Grandpa’s bookcase this time of year! Now it’s time to bundle up and get to what we’ve all been waiting for.....the firework display!! You take out your big bag of fireworks you spent half your paycheck on across the river earlier that day, light your incense, stick your rocket in the fence, and “CALL YA’ FIRE!!” Be careful not to blow your damn fingers off with those cheap ass Black Cat firecrackers! Oh damn, one of them didn’t pop! It’s cool. We’ll just turn that one into a shoe-shoe the next day. Give the newcomers a few sparkles to hold as they stand cautiously on the front porch. Now who’s the wise ass to put the firecrackers in the gutter? “Pop, Pop, Pop!” But it’s not a firecracker this time. It’s some 9th Ward fool shooting off his gun and put an abrupt end to our light show display. It’s all good because we get to go back inside to eat and drink some more! Let’s all exchange hugs and kisses and promise to meet right back up here again next year!

    It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday! It’s so hard to say goodbye to longtime family traditions, to ever teaching your kids the one phone number in the family that would NEVER change: 943-2945 (You learned this telephone number before you learned your own!), to the 1st All-You-Can-Eat buffet, to screen doors that preceded wooden doors with at least six locks, to people walking up to you on the street asking if you are kin to the Harrises. It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to summertime in the 9th Ward, where you could walk one block to Mrs. Jones’ house, bang on her door, and yell, “Frozen Cup!” “What flavor you want, Baby?” “Red!” Or walking in the opposite direction to Mr. Lawrence’s Sweet Shop and say, “Gimme a quarter worth of Big Blows!”....Then asking for a pack of Winston’s or Pall Mall’s all in the same breath!

    It’s going to be hard......next to damn near impossible, but maybe it’s time we make new memories, Cousin. But like Frankie said, there’s joy and pain, and it’s the golden time of the day, but damn It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday!

    Peace!!

    ~B
    **Continued...

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  6. It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday Lyrics:

    It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday
    How do I say goodbye to what we had?
    The good times that made us laugh
    Outweigh the bad.

    I thought we'd get to see forever
    But forever's gone away
    It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

    I don't know where this road
    Is going to lead
    All I know is where we've been
    And what we've been through.

    If we get to see tomorrow
    I hope it's worth all the wait
    It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

    And I'll take with me the memories
    To be my sunshine after the rain
    It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

    And I'll take with me the memories
    To be my sunshine after the rain
    It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

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  7. Do you have room in your family for adopted white guy? No wonder everyone wants to move back. Let's hope it happens...

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  8. Hey K,
    You can be an adopted cousin with no problem. I'll let you know when the next gathering is

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  9. I'm honored! My mouth has been watering for two days now!

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  10. Hi! Can someone write me down what bill withers said before he sings in live? I'd really like to understand this song better (because I'm french and learning english)

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