Lovely Day

Bongo Peet sings this and plays percussion on it at the same time, which is the reason it works.

Bill Withers songs look easy on paper. A handful of chords, nothing fast, no showing-off anywhere in sight, and they are brutal to play well because with that little happening the groove has to be perfect or there is nothing there. Having the person driving the rhythm also carrying the vocal keeps the whole thing locked in a way it would not be if those jobs were split across the room. In a kitchen with no drum kit, the percussion is doing the work a full rhythm section would normally do.

The famous long note near the end is left alone. It would have been easy to make a feature of it for the camera, and it is a better performance for not trying.

Of the four Kitchen Sessions this is the one that most often ends up on a drinks reception setlist. It sits at a volume where people can still talk, which is not true of everything we play.