"Ain't No Sunshine" (Bill Withers)

I can't express my respect and admiration for Bill Withers enough.  If you want to know why I'm such a fan, just watch the documentary Still Bill (2009).  You'll see a portrait of an intelligent, humble man who also happens to be one of the best songwriters of the 70s.  He's also highly principled: instead of kowtowing to trends and giving in to record execs who kept telling him how they thought his music should sound, he simply walked away from the industry in 1985 and went to raise a family instead.  (In the film, he tells a story about a white A&R guy who tried to convince him that a cover of Elvis's "In The Ghetto" was going to be his ticket to a pop hit.)
My favorite track of his (largely because it's the first one I ever heard) still is "Ain't No Sunshine" from his debut album, Just As I Am (1971).  It's a deceptively simple song: a short phrase ("I know") that gets repeated a total of 26 times, bookended by a few short lines that (on the surface) are about longing for lost love.  
As a little kid, I liked the track because it was easy to learn and remember.  I also enjoyed the counting game that my mom would play with me, where she'd challenge me to count the 26 I know's.
But as I got older, I started to realize that "Ain't No Sunshine" isn't some torch song, where ol' Bill is pining away for his woman.  It's a song about the vicious cycle of dependency.
Withers pretty much confirmed this in a 2004 interview with Carl Wiser of Songfacts.com.
"It's pretty obvious what it's about.  I was watching a movie called Days Of Wine And Roses (1962) with Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon.  They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong.  It's like going back for seconds on rat poison.  Sometimes you miss things that weren't particularly good for you.  It's just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I'm not aware of."
Musically, it's beautifully melancholy.  But it also grooves like crazy.  After all, he had 3/4 of Booker T. & The M.G.'s (minus Steve Cropper) + Stephen Stills backing him on the single.

"Use Me" (Bill Withers)

It's a shame that more people aren't aware just how good and important Bill Withers is.  Bill Withers included.
He essentially got his fill of the music biz back in 1985, and he called it day.  He pops up every so often in interviews or archival footage; there are great clips on the Web of him doing his thing on Soul Train or Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special.  But he hasn't performed live or released new music in years (unless you count a recent, one-off collaboration with singer/guitarist Raul Midón that was years in the making).  Which is too bad, because the world and music industry could use a dose of his candor, positivity, and soul right about now.
One of my favorite tracks of his growing up was the infinitely funky "Use Me" from his 1972 album Still Bill, which somehow manages to be an even tighter collection of songs than his strong debut album, Just As I Am, from 1971.
Basically, it's a song about a guy whose buddies warn him that he's being used by his girlfriend.  The twist, though, is that he turns right around and tells them (and the girlfriend) that, if being used feels that great, she can keep right on using him!
Although, in the 2009 documentary Still Bill, Withers kind of alludes to the fact that the song wasn't so much inspired by a romantic relationship but by his career circumstances before he landed a record deal.  He was a factory worker, making toilet seats for airplanes and getting paid just $3/hour, when he began his music career at age 32.  In fact, Withers didn't initially quit his job making toilet seats even after his debut album started climbing the charts.  (After all, the music industry was a gamble, and he had a steady job, albeit one that didn't pay all that well.)
Taken in that light, the lyrics are an acknowledgment that his employer was essentially "using him," but he was glad to be used if that meant having a roof over his head.
How can you not be a fan of a guy like that?