Music WI: Punk is an African-American genre?

Meet Death:

March 15, 2009
This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk

By MIKE RUBIN
Winooski, Vt.

ON an evening in late February at a club here called the Monkey House, there was a family reunion of sorts. As the band Rough Francis roared through a set of anthemic punk rock, Bobby Hackney leaned against the bar and beamed. Three of his sons — Bobby Jr., Julian and Urian — are in Rough Francis, but his smile wasn’t just about parental pride. It was about authorship too. Most of the songs Rough Francis played were written by Bobby Sr. and his brothers David and Dannis during their days in the mid-1970s as a Detroit power trio called Death.

The group’s music has been almost completely unheard since the band stopped performing more than three decades ago. But after all the years of silence, Death’s moment has finally arrived. It comes, however, nearly a decade too late for its founder and leader, David Hackney, who died of lung cancer in 2000. “David was convinced more than any of us that we were doing something totally revolutionary,” said Bobby Sr., 52.

Forgotten except by the most fervent punk rock record collectors — the band’s self-released 1976 single recently traded hands for the equivalent of $800 — Death would likely have remained lost in obscurity if not for the discovery last year of a 1974 demo tape in Bobby Sr.’s attic. Released last month by Drag City Records as “... For the Whole World to See,” Death’s newly unearthed recordings reveal a remarkable missing link between the high-energy hard rock of Detroit bands like the Stooges and MC5 from the late 1960s and early ’70s and the high-velocity assault of punk from its breakthrough years of 1976 and ’77. Death’s songs “Politicians in My Eyes,” “Keep On Knocking” and “Freakin Out” are scorching blasts of feral ur-punk, making the brothers unwitting artistic kin to their punk-pioneer contemporaries the Ramones, in New York; Rocket From the Tombs, in Cleveland; and the Saints, in Brisbane, Australia. They also preceded Bad Brains, the most celebrated African-American punk band, by almost five years.

Jack White of the White Stripes, who was raised in Detroit, said in an e-mail message: “The first time the stereo played ‘Politicians in My Eyes,’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When I was told the history of the band and what year they recorded this music, it just didn’t make sense. Ahead of punk, and ahead of their time.”

The teenage Hackney brothers started playing R&B in their parents’ garage in the early ’70s but switched to hard rock in 1973, after seeing an Alice Cooper show. Dannis played drums, Bobby played bass and sang, and David wrote the songs and contributed propulsive guitar work, derived from studying Pete Townshend’s power-chord wrist technique. Their musicianship tightened when their mother allowed them to replace their bedroom furniture with mikes and amps as long as they practiced for three hours every afternoon. “From 3 to 6,” said Dannis, 54, “we just blew up the neighborhood.”

Death began playing at cabarets and garage parties on Detroit’s predominantly African-American east side, but were met with reactions ranging from confusion to derision. “We were ridiculed because at the time everybody in our community was listening to the Philadelphia sound, Earth, Wind & Fire, the Isley Brothers,” Bobby said. “People thought we were doing some weird stuff. We were pretty aggressive about playing rock ’n’ roll because there were so many voices around us trying to get us to abandon it.”

When the band was ready to record, David chose a studio by pinning the Yellow Pages listings to the wall and throwing a dart; it landed on Groovesville Productions, a company owned by Don Davis, a successful producer for Stax Records. Groovesville signed the band, and in 1974 it began work at United Sound Recording Studios in Detroit, where it shared space with Funkadelic, the Dramatics and Gladys Knight. At the time David was 21, Dannis was 19 and Bobby, still a student at Southeastern High School, was 17.

“They were just so impressive, and the sound was just so big for three guys,” said Brian Spears, who was director of publishing at Groovesville and oversaw their sessions. “I knew those kids were great, but trying to break a black group into rock ’n’ roll was just tough during that time.”

The apparent nihilism of the name Death was also out of step with the times. “Nobody could get past the name,” Mr. Spears said. “It seemed to be a real detriment. When you said the name of the group to anybody, it was like, ‘Man, why you calling the group Death?’ ”

The Hackneys said Mr. Davis brought a tape of Death to a meeting in New York with the record executive Clive Davis. Afterward Don Davis told the brothers that Clive Davis had liked the recordings but not the band’s name; there could be no deal unless they changed it. “That’s when my brother David got a little angry,” Dannis said. “He told Don Davis to tell Clive Davis, ‘Hell no!’ ”

Part of the reason David refused was because he was writing a rock opera about death that portrayed it in a positive light, Bobby Sr. said. “He strongly believed that we could get a contract with another record label,” he added. “We were young and cocky, but David was the cockiest of us all.”

That defiance has become central to Death’s underground legend: what could be more punk rock than telling the suits to take a hike in the name of artistic integrity, even if punk didn’t quite exist yet? But separating fact from lore is tricky after three decades. The Hackneys remember Clive Davis’s label affiliation as Columbia Records, but Don Davis — who initially didn’t recall working with a band called Death — said in a phone interview that Clive Davis was with Arista Records, although he couldn’t remember the specifics of the meeting and if the group’s name was an issue. A spokeswoman for Clive Davis said he had no recollection of the group or of any meeting concerning it.

Death and Groovesville parted ways in 1976. Don Davis produced two No. 1 hits that year, one of which was Johnnie Taylor’s “Disco Lady.” The Hackneys, meanwhile, pressed 500 copies of “Politicians in My Eyes,” backed with “Keep On Knocking,” on their own Tryangle label but found it nearly impossible to get radio play in Detroit. Disco had begun to dominate the marketplace — thanks in part to “Disco Lady” — and control of radio playlists was shifting from local disc jockeys to corporate consultants. Bobby said 1976 “was really a tough year for us,” citing “the disco ebb tide” with particular chagrin. “We just figured nobody wanted to hear rock ’n’ roll anymore.”

As their disenchantment grew, the brothers were invited by a distant relative to visit Vermont. “So we came up here to clear our heads for a couple of weeks,” Bobby said with a laugh. “That was like 30-something years ago.”

“We’re still clearing our heads,” Dannis said.

Settling in Burlington, the brothers released two albums of gospel rock as the 4th Movement in the early 1980s. David became increasingly homesick and moved back to Detroit in 1982, continuing to make music until his death. In 1983 Bobby and Dannis formed a reggae band, Lambsbread, which became a familiar presence during Vermont’s late-1980s jam-band boom; eight albums later Lambsbread is still active on the New England college circuit. The two brothers bought a house together east of Burlington in Jericho, built their own recording studio there and raised families. Bobby Sr. and Dannis each have five children.

Bobby’s children were crucial to Death’s resurrection. The Hackneys had never shared the details of their Death experience with their kids. “We had moved on in our lives and thought that chapter was over because we went through so much rejection with that music,” Bobby said. “We just didn’t want to relive it, and I especially didn’t want to relive it again with my children.”

But last year Julian heard the Tryangle single at a party in San Francisco and recognized his father’s voice. Soon after, Bobby Jr. did a Google search that revealed the Holy Grail status of the band’s only release. This news astounded Bobby Sr., who dug the master tapes out of storage last May for the first time in three decades and sat down with Dannis for a listen. The music “literally took our breath away,” Bobby Sr. said.

“We looked at each other, and we said: ‘This is truly some of the best rock ’n’ roll we ever heard. Wow, David was right.’ David knew it, and always believed it, much more than we did.”

Bobby Sr.’s sons were equally impressed. Bobby Jr., a veteran of several Burlington hardcore bands, formed Rough Francis with two brothers and two friends to play Death’s music as a tribute to his family. (The band’s moniker comes from his Uncle David’s nickname.)

“We were just trying to find ways to inform people” about Death’s music, Bobby Jr. said. “When I first heard it, I thought: ‘This can’t be real. People have to know about this. This is crazy!’ I felt like I had found Jimmy Hoffa or something.”

The young Hackneys weren’t the only Death enthusiasts. In August 2007 a record collector named Robert Cole Manis, having heard “Keep On Knocking” on a 2001 bootleg compilation of obscure punk singles, found a copy of the Tryangle single on eBay and acquired it for $400 and $400 worth of rare records.

“It was true love when I first heard it,” Mr. Manis said. “I think the record is just phenomenal. It’s timeless. It’s an amazing document.”

While surfing the Internet last summer, Mr. Manis saw a posting from a friend of Bobby Jr.’s on a punk message board announcing the rediscovery of the Death tapes. Mr. Manis excitedly tracked down the Hackneys in Vermont and helped put them in touch with the Chicago indie label Drag City, which he had worked with on a previous reissue project.

The music is an “undeniable combination of classic and punk rock elements,” said Rian Murphy, a spokesman for Drag City. “You can put the needle down on that record in any given place and just be completely transported.”

The Hackneys and Drag City are discussing reissuing the 4th Movement records too, and Bobby Sr. and Dannis are considering playing some live shows as Death, with the Lambsbread guitarist Bobbie Duncan taking over on guitar.

Death’s newfound acclaim has surprised the Hackneys but, Bobby Sr. said, David had predicted that Death would find fame one day. “David came to me right before he died, and he had some master tapes of ours,” he said. “I jokingly said to him, ‘David, I have enough of our stuff, man, I’m running out of room.’ And he said, ‘Bob, you’ve got to keep all this stuff, the world’s going to come looking for it one day, and when the world comes looking for it, I’ll know that you’ll have it.

“You can only imagine the emotions that I go through in my quiet moments when I reflect on that.”

Sample song

So what if the suits had decided to let them keep their name, and the band had been big? How would punk rock have been different?
 
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Meet Death:

So what if the suits had decided to let them keep their name, and the band had been big? How would punk rock have been different?

Damn interesting thought..

I suppose for Punk to really "connect" in the USA, you need an alienated & pissed-off fanbase - so White America wasn't the greatest breeding ground for Punk in the '70s. (Of course, that changes in the '80s.. with the alternative scene..)

But Black America - hmm... now there's some rage to tap into!

If this was to take root, I can see rap being more hard-edged earlier on. (Once Rap emerges at the end of the '70s)

What effect does this have on the 80s scene? Do white bands want to play "black" music? Or does the alternative scene become even more psychedelic/pop?

Is it possible that the big breakthru bands of the early '90s are psychedelic bands?
 
Damn interesting thought..


If this was to take root, I can see rap being more hard-edged earlier on. (Once Rap emerges at the end of the '70s)

Would rap/hip-hop even emerge, if Black America pours itself into punk? I'm not sure they would. If they do, they'll be much changed.

What effect does this have on the 80s scene? Do white bands want to play "black" music? Or does the alternative scene become even more psychedelic/pop?

Is it possible that the big breakthru bands of the early '90s are psychedelic bands?

White bands have NO aversion to black music, if it sounds good; see "rock n' roll" for details.
In fact, I could see a lot of black musicians focusing their creativity into punk in the early '80s, followed by a punk uprising in the late 80's / early 90's. The message would be diluted and the sound would be muted, but it might attract OTL's metal and rap fans.
 
Wow, very very neat concept. The issue is that the Cleveland and Detroit protopunk scenes never really took off on their own, or at least weren't directly responsible for the London scene which created punk music as we know it.

After 1977, punk in America wasn't really an urban scene genre so much anymore, but flourished in suburban areas (especially Southern California and Florida) and smaller cities like Minneapolis and Washington D.C. The notable exception would be the early New York hardcore days.

Hmmm...let's say that in the early 1970's a couple of black teenaged rockers move from Detroit to Brooklyn and found a band there. These hypothetical kids are equally fans of Motown and Detroit-style garage rock, and on coming to New York, become a part of the same scene as Television, The Ramones, and the New York Dolls. They normally play high-energy shows for (mostly black) neighborhood kids, but occasionally appear at venues like CBGB, where they're exposed to a much wider (and whiter) audience.

The idea would be that they inspire a look/style/culture in a similar way to what hip-hop B-boys did 5-10 years later in New York and that dozens of copycat artists pop up, not only in Brooklyn, but around the country. The music and style would be very scene-focused, like hardcore (but with real dancing and not spastic flailing), but I dunno how exactly that "scene" would appear.

Anyone interested? Should I flesh this out or go on?
 
Wow, very very neat concept. The issue is that the Cleveland and Detroit protopunk scenes never really took off on their own, or at least weren't directly responsible for the London scene which created punk music as we know it.

After 1977, punk in America wasn't really an urban scene genre so much anymore, but flourished in suburban areas (especially Southern California and Florida) and smaller cities like Minneapolis and Washington D.C. The notable exception would be the early New York hardcore days.

Hmmm...let's say that in the early 1970's a couple of black teenaged rockers move from Detroit to Brooklyn and found a band there. These hypothetical kids are equally fans of Motown and Detroit-style garage rock, and on coming to New York, become a part of the same scene as Television, The Ramones, and the New York Dolls. They normally play high-energy shows for (mostly black) neighborhood kids, but occasionally appear at venues like CBGB, where they're exposed to a much wider (and whiter) audience.

The idea would be that they inspire a look/style/culture in a similar way to what hip-hop B-boys did 5-10 years later in New York and that dozens of copycat artists pop up, not only in Brooklyn, but around the country. The music and style would be very scene-focused, like hardcore (but with real dancing and not spastic flailing), but I dunno how exactly that "scene" would appear.

Anyone interested? Should I flesh this out or go on?

That sounds fantastic. NY punk having a noticeable black contingent should produce some interesting effects, especially when it collides with the soundsystems of the Bronx. Please, continue!
 
For the most original and inspiring divergence in a long, long time - you take the prize! :D

So if punk comes to be regarded as 'Music of black origin', what knock-on effect does this have on people who don't like black people too much? Oddly in Britain, even the hardcore racists liked ska and such, which cohabited with punk. In America... A more entrenched and introspective Country and Western styles?
 
For the most original and inspiring divergence in a long, long time - you take the prize! :D

So if punk comes to be regarded as 'Music of black origin', what knock-on effect does this have on people who don't like black people too much? Oddly in Britain, even the hardcore racists liked ska and such, which cohabited with punk. In America... A more entrenched and introspective Country and Western styles?

That was kinda what I was grasping at in my post.. with any style of music that takes root, there is generally a backlash or a counter-movement.

In OTL, the alternative/indie scene was an antidote to the heavy synthesizer sound of 80s production.. especially when you consider the hardcore scene.

If one of the main branches of black music becomes punk, and a version crosses-over into mainstream success in the 80s, there's going to be some sort of movement in reaction to that.

Maybe that means a stronger folk movement in the 80s? Perhaps REM 's rise to fame is quicker?

Or maybe synth-pop remains on the fringes, and THAT becomes the rallying point of alternative/indie movements in the US/UK?
 
This is a SWEET!:D concept. I love hip hop(not anything mainstream mind you), but I like the idea of a Black Punk Generation instead of a Hip Hop Generation; this could change punk and pop culture completely for the world.
 
W

Anyone interested? Should I flesh this out or go on?

Let me try and take a wack at, let me consult one of my best friends; he's a Hardcore kid/musical elitist, he's probably even heard of Death. It would be great mental masterbation for him, considering he's stuck in the middle of no where at the moment.
 
This is a SWEET!:D concept. I love hip hop(not anything mainstream mind you), but I like the idea of a Black Punk Generation instead of a Hip Hop Generation; this could change punk and pop culture completely for the world.

What I was thinking is that the Brooklyn Garage scene would stay fairly limited but get into Black Power pretty early on. "Raised consciousness" probably wouldn't become a part of hip-hop, and hip-hop would stay fun party-focused music. What I'm pondering now is just how the whole LA/gangster thing would play out without groups like Public Enemy (who play rock music in this TL) to inspire them.
 
What I was thinking is that the Brooklyn Garage scene would stay fairly limited but get into Black Power pretty early on. "Raised consciousness" probably wouldn't become a part of hip-hop, and hip-hop would stay fun party-focused music. What I'm pondering now is just how the whole LA/gangster thing would play out without groups like Public Enemy (who play rock music in this TL) to inspire them.

The LA gangster thing is a good question; someone mentioned Body Count, this could be an example of how the LA scene would develop. Also do you think hip hop will largely remain a NYC thing, such as Go Go in DC?
 
The LA gangster thing is a good question; someone mentioned Body Count, this could be an example of how the LA scene would develop. Also do you think hip hop will largely remain a NYC thing, such as Go Go in DC?

I don't see why hip hop wouldn't expand out of New York. Maybe not as much if it's missing the angry/conscious angle, but I suppose somebody would eventually mix the Brooklyn Garage aesthetic with hip hop. Maybe that's what happens in LA?
 
Given the punk movement's strong retromusical inclinations (their desire to strip music back to what it was before psychedelia sent things bizarre), any black punk bands may well focus on blues music and reclaiming it from the over-indulgent hard rock and prog musicians - maybe songs using twelve-bar chord sequences, for instance. I'd love to hear their opinions on Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton, too...
 
Given the punk movement's strong retromusical inclinations (their desire to strip music back to what it was before psychedelia sent things bizarre), any black punk bands may well focus on blues music and reclaiming it from the over-indulgent hard rock and prog musicians - maybe songs using twelve-bar chord sequences, for instance. I'd love to hear their opinions on Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton, too...

You propose an interesting development; but the band Death, which would have launched this POD, was very proto-punk, with some hendrix influence, and I felt some funkiness too. It was not blues at all.

As for continuing the discussion on this TL, I think we have to really look at how this would change African American culture. This development would continue rock music (which in the 70s was pretty much White dominated) as a popular and viable genre in the Black community. Punk Rock is a variant of Rock; unlike Hip Hip, which became it's own genre, influenced more by Soul, Funk, Disco, and R&B. I think we really need to analyze this, and the impact before we can progress further. In a nut shell what I'm saying is we need to avoid picturing Flavor Flav with his clock necklace shredding on a guitar; or a Black version of the Ramones.
 
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Hey Guys! First time posting on this site but reading it for a while and I love the concept of alternate history (grew up on 'Back to the Future' and 'Sliders'). Myself being a musician, the concept of alternate realities in music really caught my eye, especially with the all Afro-American punk band known as 'Death'.

I don't think anything would've changed TOO drastically in rock or even in rap. There could have been more of an acceptance of black musicians playing in hard rock bands. It is possible that because of Death in ATL, Lloyd Grant, the original guitarist of Metallica would've never left the band, thus Dave Mustaine forms Megadeth anyways, but with much less resentment towards Metallica, and Kirk Hammett remains in Exodus. It is also possible that 'In Living Colour' does not hit as big in the 80's as they did in OTL, or maybe they hit it big earlier. Chuck Schuldner in this ATL, doesn't name his own band 'Death' as a result of the punk band's popularity as to avoid copyright infringement.

Ultimately, even if the punk rock Death made it big, I don't think it alters the impact of the NWOBHM movement or even early hip-hop except that the black community in America does start listening to Heavy Metal or Hard Rock earlier compared to OTL thus you see more young black kids in the mosh pits at shows featuring The Ramones, Motorhead, Sex Pistols, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc...

Of course, all of this is only possible if 'Death' reaches the heights of the aforementioned bands in ATL.
 
I don't think anything would've changed TOO drastically in rock or even in rap. There could have been more of an acceptance of black musicians playing in hard rock bands. It is possible that because of Death in ATL, Lloyd Grant, the original guitarist of Metallica would've never left the band, thus Dave Mustaine forms Megadeth anyways, but with much less resentment towards Metallica, and Kirk Hammett remains in Exodus. It is also possible that 'In Living Colour' does not hit as big in the 80's as they did in OTL, or maybe they hit it big earlier. Chuck Schuldner in this ATL, doesn't name his own band 'Death' as a result of the punk band's popularity as to avoid copyright infringement.

Ultimately, even if the punk rock Death made it big, I don't think it alters the impact of the NWOBHM movement or even early hip-hop except that the black community in America does start listening to Heavy Metal or Hard Rock earlier compared to OTL thus you see more young black kids in the mosh pits at shows featuring The Ramones, Motorhead, Sex Pistols, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc...

Of course, all of this is only possible if 'Death' reaches the heights of the aforementioned bands in ATL.

Well the assumption of this TL, is that Death did have a profound impact. It is possiable that Death being signed would have just become a fluke in the development of Rock. However, with Death say traveling to NYC as Burton K Wheeler says, inspiring a cultural movement, before Hip Hop is really developed; thus Punk, becomes an African American genre. Now this is also back in the 70s, when the country was far more segregated; punk would have had White audience members and artists that take up the style. But as with funk, soul, and Hip hop, they will be individuals within a "Black" music; such as Black artists in Rock now, are more individual fans and artists, then being considered anctive part of there respective cultures. Take the negative attitude alot of society at large has of punks back then and now; and mix that in with feelings for African Americans. All this occuring would have a profound development on pop and youth culture in the decades to come.
 
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