Surprise 1970s funksters that shook James Brown into pieces

I've just read the great article ‘Ten fresh and fantabulous funk songs from the 1970s" here. It’s a great read and those are ten top funky tunes for sure. The trouble with doing lists like that is everyone wants a say and demands to know why their favorite band doesn't get a mention. 

I’m going to put my own claim in now and add one band that could easily have made it onto that list. They thoroughly deserve a mention when it comes to top funk bands from the 1970s. And yet there is an element of surprise about the band, who. at their peak. may have had James Brown trying to outdo them.

When did you last listen to the Average White Band? If the answer is never or not recently, give yourself an action to get them on a must-play soon list. The surprise element is no great secret: the band, AWB for short, was made up of white male musicians from Dundee and the rest of Scotland. Now, Dundee is a pretty cool place these days, but neither it nor Scotland are places where you'd expect a top funk band to merge from back in the 1970s.

The Scottish funk band that shook up James Brown

They had an early breakthrough as a support act for Eric Clapton as he made a live comeback in 1973. It’s said that their name came from Bonnie Bramlett hearing AWB jam and mentioning their sound was ‘too much for the average white man.’ There’s plenty of their music around if you aren't familiar with them. 

Their 1974 album AWB and huge single hit “Pick Up The Pieces” are great examples of their sound. Their music is full of funk, soul, RnB, and some disco in there - all guaranteed to get your feet moving. You may well recognize elements of their music as it’s been heavily sampled and used by many other artists over the years.

Some people didn't get their sound, or maybe just couldn't get their head around the image of the band being quite different from a normal funk group. Their original record label MCA turned down their big hit second album AWB.  Atlantic Records stepped straight in and signed them up on their first listen to the tapes. 

Then there’s that James Brown thing. Brown was working on a new project after AWB had hit it big in the US. He called his new band the Above Average Black Band. They released a tune, “Pick Up The Pieces One By One”. Looks like the boys from Scotland got under someone's skin. Go give AWB a hearing and learn why. 

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