Death (protopunk band)

Death
The three original members of Death: David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney
Background information
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	Proto-punk garage rock punk rock
Years active	1971–1976, 2009–present
Labels	Tryangle, Drag City
Associated acts	RockFire Funk Express, The Fourth Movement, Lambsbread, Rough Francis
Members	Bobby Hackney Dannis Hackney Bobbie Duncan
Past members	David Hackney

Death is a Detroit rock band formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1971 by brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis (drums) Hackney. The trio started out as a funk band but switched to rock after seeing a concert by The Who. Seeing Alice Cooper play was also an inspiration. Music critic Peter Margasak retrospectively wrote that David "pushed the group in a hard-rock direction that presaged punk, and while this certainly didn’t help them find a following in the mid-70s, today it makes them look like visionaries." They are seen in many groups as one of the first punk bands in the world. The band broke up by 1977 but reformed in 2009 when the Drag City label released their 70s demos for the first time.

In 1964, the three young Hackney brothers (David, Bobby and Dannis) were sat down by their father to witness The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The following day, David found a discarded guitar in an alley and set about learning to play. Brothers Bobby and Dannis soon followed suit and they began playing music together.

The brothers practiced and recorded early demos in a room in the family home and performed their earliest gigs from their garage. Originally calling themselves Rock Fire Funk Express, guitarist David convinced his brothers to change the name of the band to Death. "His concept was spinning death from the negative to the positive. It was a hard sell," Bobby Hackney recalled in 2010.

In 1975 at Detroit’s United Sound Studios with engineer Jim Vitti, they recorded seven songs written by David and Bobby. According to the Hackney family, Columbia Records president Clive Davis funded the recording sessions, but implored the band to change its name to something more commercially palatable than Death. When the Hackneys refused, Davis ceased his support. The band only recorded seven songs instead of the planned dozen. The following year they self-released (on their label Tryangle) a single taken from the sessions: "Politicians in My Eyes" b/w "Keep on Knocking," in a run of just 500 copies.