Lord Larehip

Back in 1971, three brothers in Detroit decided to make their own rock band. They were very inner city--nothing sophisticated about them. They were David Hackney (guitar), Bobby Hackney (bass, vocal) and Dannis Hackney (drums)--yes, Dannis.

They grew up in true Detroit fashion in the 60s the way we all do around these here parts--listening to CKLW and Keener radio. Their mother let them transform one tiny room in the upstairs into their music room with drums in one corner, bass in another and guitar in another. She said they could practice from 3-6 but after that it had to stop.

Although we tend to stereotype black people as only listening to black artists and all, their father--a minister--made them watch the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Bobby said when he saw Paul playing bass and singing, he knew that's what he wanted to do. Dave took a shine to John's playing and singing and Dannis to Ringo's drumming.

So they formed a band. They liked funk too and listened to all the Motown hits. One thing they liked about CKLW is that they played everything going on in the rock and pop scene. All us Detroiters remember CKLW--the Big 8. Their mother came into some money and enabled them to buy instruments and good ones! Dave bought a Rickenbacker guitar, Bobby bought a P-bass and Dannis got a set of Slingerland drums. They played a combo of funk and rock--not being sure what their identity was.

Then when the Who came to Detroit, Dave went to see them and was turned on by their energy and wanted to go into straight hard rock. They also liked Alice Cooper for his theatrics onstage. Dave said if he could play chords like Townsend and leads like Hendrix, he'd be the greatest rock guitarist ever.

Dave was the prime mover. He led the band, wrote most of the songs and named them. In 1974, he decided to call the band Death. Dave was an inner city philosopher. He said death was the only reality and life was a waiting room for death. He got them into a recording studio--United Sound (THE recording studio of Detroit in those days) and they cut a slew of songs.

The heads of the studio had never heard anything quite like it and thought it might have hit potential but...maybe they needed to change their name. Dave said no, the name of the band is Death and that's that. So they pedaled the demos around and Columbia was interested. But Clive Davis would only offer them a contract if they changed their name but Dave said no. The name of the band is Death. The deal fell through and Dave took the master tapes from United Sound and stored them away.

Eventually, the Hackney Bros. left Detroit and went to New England. Dave tried to tack up Death flyers everywhere but the cops tore them down thinking it was a gang thing. The band became a Christian rock band called Fourth Movement (named by Dave again). It was slagged by reviewers as too preachy. Dave had enough and split back to Detroit with a wife in tow.

He still continued to write songs and record. The other two played as a bass and drum duo waiting for Dave to come back but after a while realized it wasn't going to happen so they joined up with a couple of other guys and formed Lamb's Bread--a reggae band. Dave would go back out to Vermont to visit and to attend one of the brother's weddings and filmed it.

He told them before he left for home that they were not going to see him again. He said that they would make it in music but he would not live to see it. He gave one of them the master tapes of Death and told him to hold onto them because one day the world would ask for them. Both brothers thought he was crazy for talking like that. Dave returned to Detroit and died of lung cancer a short time later (he had been a heavy smoker).

The tapes languished in an attic for over three decades when one day, one of Bobby's three sons. a musician and punk rocker, had a girlfriend who hung out with DJs who played obscure records at parties and she was crazy about this one released in '76 (but recorded in '74) by a band called Death. When he finally heard it, he heard his father's unmistakable voice. He called his brothers and told them about the single and they--all reggae and punk rock lovers--became very excited. One of them called his father up and asked if he had ever played in a band called Death and released a single called "Politicians in My Eyes." Bobby was stunned. Out of nowhere, one of his songs came across the old single that he thought had long ago disappeared. It brought back painful memories of the brother he had lost and he said that yes, he and Uncle Dannis and Uncle Dave had recorded that in Detroit in the 70s. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THIS?" his son yelled. Punk rockers and DJs have listening to it for years and never knew anything about the band.

It turns out that one of the first people in the punk movement to acquire it was Jello Biafra who played it for other people who also loved it. It was so rare that one punker who was also collector of punk memorabilia bought a copy on ebay for $800!! The son asked his father if he wouldn't happen to know where the tapes were because if there were enough songs to make an album, there were these underground records people who wanted to press a full Death album--35 years after the fact. Bobby went to the attic, not believing that he would ever do it and dug out the tapes and handed them over. In 2009, the Death album was finally released.

I learned all this by watching a documentary of the band. It interviews with Henry Rollins, Kid Rock, a guy from the Dirt Bombs, Joey Ramone's brother, Alice Cooper. Credits also mention Wayne Kramer, Jack White and like that. None could believe the stuff escaped notice for all these years. It was punk before there was a true New York scene, before there was even a Ramones.

The thing is, Death was totally off on its own trip. There was no real punk scene and they weren't trying to found one. They simply loved rock and roll and were trying to create the best high-energy rock they could. Their stuff was so radical because people criticized them for not playing funky like black guys are supposed to and for their morbid name. The more they criticized, the more Dave refused to listen and inspired his brothers to play louder and heavier and wilder.

Bobby and Dannis admit that without Dave, there would not have been a Death and that they would have changed their name to get a recording contract and that they argued with Dave about that but they admit now that Dave was true to his art and never wavered and they respect him more than ever realizing how he knew that someday the world would beat a path to their door and say, "Hand over them tapes!"

Dave recorded a single called "Rough Francis" that was a nickname he had. Today Bobby's sons play in a band called Rough Francis and always play a few Death tunes at every show. Meanwhile, Death has reformed with a new guitarist and are also performing and making a new record after 35 years. what amazes is that many of the guitar riffs became standard in punk and hardcore before most of those bands knew anything about Death.

It only feeds my conviction that punk started in Detroit.

"Politicians in My Eyes":

Death - Politicians in my eyes - YouTube

The full album:

Death - ...For The Whole World To See (Full Album) - YouTube