Walk On By
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Album Summary
Walk On By came rolling out of the Atlantic Records stable in 1979, a time when the Average White Band — those soulful cats from Scotland who had no business being as funky as they were, yet somehow out-funked half of America — were deep in a period of evolution and reinvention. The band navigated personnel shifts with the quiet confidence of seasoned road warriors, and that resilience shows in every groove pressed into this record. Produced with a lean, purposeful hand, Walk On By found AWB standing their ground as the disco bubble was fixing to burst, planting their flag firmly in the rich soil of funk and soul where they had always truly belonged.
Reception
- Walk On By received positive recognition from fans and critics who appreciated the band's steadfast commitment to their soul-funk identity during a turbulent period in the music industry.
- The album performed respectably within R&B and funk circles, where Average White Band had long cultivated a devoted and discerning audience.
Significance
- Walk On By stands as a testament to Average White Band's refusal to compromise their deeply felt funk and soul sensibility, even as the late 1970s landscape shifted beneath their feet.
- The release captures AWB in a mature, assured phase of their career — proof that authentic groove cannot be manufactured, only earned through years of dedication to the craft.
- As post-disco soul-funk began to assert itself as the era's defining sound, Walk On By positioned the band as elders and exemplars of a tradition they had helped elevate since the early part of the decade.
Tracklist
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A Walk On By (Short Version) —
3:15
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B Walk On By (Short Version) —
3:15
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.
