Bill Withers: I Can’t Write Left-Handed
The songs of l’Hôtel Bourg Tibourg, an Iggy Pop #PrivateJam, the legend of The Sugarhill Gang’s Big Bank Hank and more in our weekly look at music
This week, 11 November marked a commemorative day in which many Western countries paid tribute to the the men and women who bravely served in our armed forces. Their heroic efforts are painstaking and singular in a way that most people will never truly understand. Bill Withers—a singer/songwriter known for his ability to distinctly translate human emotion—offers an inkling of what a Vietnam soldier went through with “I Can’t Write Left-Handed.” The haunting song describes a young man Withers had met—he’d been shot in the arm, and needs someone to write a letter to his mother. The song is an elegant anti-war statement that sends chills with its realness.
