Tuesday, July 15, 2014

"School Boy Crush" (Average White Band)

Although "Pick Up the Pieces" is the band's signature song, "School Boy Crush" from the album Cut the Cake (1975) is actually my favorite Average White Band track.  The song's laid back funk, with its big gulps of bass, strategically placed clavinet, bizarre sleigh bell percussion, and strutting jazz guitar riff—provided by founding member Alan Gorrie, is just too sweet and lowdown to deny.
As I've mentioned before, I happened to catch one of AWB's shows while I was in California years ago.  I was at House of Blues with a group of coworkers, including several who shared my love of ol' skool funk.  
When Gorrie launched into the song's signature riff and those sleigh bells jangled through the PA system, I about lost my friggin' mind.  (Spilled my $12 Grey Goose and soda and everything.)
Funny thing was: no one else seemed to know the song!
I thought for sure, for as many times as Gorrie's guitar lick and drummer Steve Ferrone's in-the-pocket groove have been sampled/reinterpreted by the hip-hop/R&B world (see: Nas, Eric B. & Rakim, Too Short, Bobby Brown, TLC), that everyone in that venue would have known the song right away.
But I underestimated just how deep a cut "School Boy Crush" is.
(It's okay, though, because yours truly got everyone in my office dancing and crushing on this groove before it was through.)


2 comments:

  1. I don't usually post comments but came across yours and had to do so. Ever since I first heard School Boy Crush on the radio during homeroom at Lincoln Junior High in Santa Monica, Calif., when it came out in 1975 I have been big-time hooked on its slinky, nasty, hypnotic funk. And it is one of those rare tracks I never to this day tire of hearing. Wanted to message you directly Mike but did not see a way to do so. Here is a story about SBC and AWB. Went to see them at a club in the late 1970s with a buddy and we screamed at them SCHOOL BOY CRUSH!!! the entire night from about 20 feet away so they couldn't help but hear. Yet they never played it! Broke our hearts. Similar to seeing Earth, Wind & Fire at the L.A. Forum in the late 1970s and they never played our favorite, Shinning Star. WTF?! Anyway, keep the funk faith! My email is diecastdel@aol.com. Peace, Scott

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scott, thanks for posting. One of my other favorite deep cuts from AWB is "Love Your Life". I kept waiting for it in their setlist that night in LA, but they never played it. It was a pretty short set actually; they were opening for War. (War tore the roof off the joint.)

      Delete