Person To Person
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Album Summary
Person To Person is a live double album by the Average White Band, caught in the fire of their touring performances and released in 1976 through Atlantic Records. The band produced it themselves, and that decision tells you everything — these cats trusted what they had, and what they had was something special. Recorded during a period when AWB were absolutely burning up stages on both sides of the Atlantic, the album was built to do one thing: let the world hear this Scottish funk outfit doing what they did better than almost anybody alive, laying down a groove so deep and so tight it made you forget the thermometer. This was the Average White Band at their peak, raw and real, no studio tricks to hide behind.
Reception
- The album was warmly received by fans and critics alike, who praised the band's ability to translate their studio-forged funk sound into a live setting without losing a single ounce of intensity or precision.
- Person To Person performed respectably on charts in both the US and UK, riding the strong goodwill the band had built through their earlier Atlantic releases and relentless touring schedule.
- Critics pointed to the album as compelling proof that the Average White Band belonged in the same conversation as the great American funk and soul acts of the era, with the live format serving as the ultimate authenticity test — one the band passed with distinction.
Significance
- Person To Person stands as one of the most important live documents of the mid-1970s funk era, capturing the Average White Band's horn section, rhythm section, and vocalists locked into a collective groove that few ensembles of any background could match.
- The album helped cement the legacy of AWB as one of the defining funk acts of the decade, proving beyond any reasonable doubt that their studio precision was not a manufactured illusion but a reflection of something deeply internalized and powerfully alive on stage.
- Person To Person also speaks to a broader cultural moment in 1970s music, when the lines of transatlantic funk and soul were being redrawn, and a group of young men from Scotland were right there in the middle of that conversation, earning their place note by note.
Samples
- "Pick Up The Pieces" — one of the most recognizable funk instrumentals of the 1970s, the studio version became a cornerstone of hip-hop sampling culture, though this live rendition has also drawn the attention of producers seeking its raw, unpolished energy.
- "Cut The Cake" — the title track of the band's 1975 studio album appeared here in live form and has accumulated a notable sampling legacy, with producers drawn to its driving rhythm section and punchy horn arrangement.
- "School Boy Crush" — the AWB version of this track has been sampled and interpolated across multiple hip-hop and R&B productions, making it one of the more frequently revisited performances in the band's catalog.
- "I'm The One" — this track's rhythmic foundation has attracted the attention of hip-hop producers, appearing in sampled form across various recordings that leaned into its deep, rolling groove.
Tracklist
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A1 Person To Person 96
6:51
-
A2 Cut The Cake 108
4:48
-
A3 If I Ever Lose This Heaven 89
8:05
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B1 Cloudy 132
6:31
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B2 T.L.C. 103
14:12
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C1 I'm The One 92
4:35
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C2 Pick Up The Pieces 108
18:06
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D1 Love Your Life 94
4:50
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D2 School Boy Crush 86
7:25
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D3 I Heard It Through The Grapevine —
9:02
Artist Details
Average White Band is a Scottish funk and soul group that formed in Dundee and Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1972, though they quickly relocated to the United States where they found their greatest success. The band, whose self-deprecating name humorously acknowledged their status as white musicians playing Black American-influenced music, developed a tight, rhythmically sophisticated sound rooted in funk, R&B, and jazz fusion. They achieved massive commercial success with their 1974 instrumental hit Pick Up the Pieces, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the defining funk tracks of the decade. Their ability to authentically master a genre largely pioneered by African American artists earned them widespread respect from both critics and peers, including legends like Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan, who collaborated with them. Average White Band holds a significant place in music history as one of the few non-American acts to be embraced by the Black music community, and their catalog continues to be widely sampled by hip-hop producers and featured in film and television soundtracks.
