Death – ...For The Whole World To See
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Inspired by some of classic rock's heroes, Death riff-rocked with minimal leads at maximum heat, a la Fred 'Sonic' Smith or MC5. Following their 1974 demo Death were given an audition with Don Davis, whose chart-topping work with Stax acts Johnnie Taylor and The Dramatics had made him a local celebrity. Davis booked the band into his United Sound Recording Studio, one of Detroit's main destinations for aspiring blues, R&B and soul musicians, and they recorded the tracks that make up this album with engineer Jim Vitti, whose work with Parliament / Funkadelic seemed to inform his decision to record Death in raw fashion with little polish, showcasing the organic power relationships within the trio.
- '... For The Whole World To See', a fresh and inspired early entry in the category of punk rock, is the first full-length release ever for Death. Thebandonly released one 7" single, 'Politicians In My Eyes' / 'Keep On Knocking', which now sells for $1000 a copy.Long before the Florida death metal band Death made a splash in the 80's, there existed in America a band of the same name by three African-Americans David, Bobby and Dennis Hackney who recorded a demo tape in 1974 and simply called themselves DEATH.Like many other African-Americans, these guys were originally influenced by soul & funk, that changed abruptly when they saw Iggy And The Stooges Live. Suddenly they were confronted with rough rock, experienced Alice Cooper and Led Zeppelin directly and after Whos Quadrophenia it was clear: DEATH will play Rock'n'Roll!But the biggest influence on them was MC5, the riff rocking of Fred "Sonic" Smith really blew the DEATH boys away.In the mid 70's they were invited to audition by then A&R man from Stax Recs. Don Davis to audition, Davis was responsible for the success of JOHNNIE TAYLOR and THE DRAMATICS at the time. The raucous energy and awesome, sassy songs impressed Davis nonetheless. DEATH was booked into the legendary Detroit United Sound Recording Studio and recorded the terrific album ...For The Whole World To See with Jim Vitti, who worked with Parliament/ Funkadelic.After that, DEATH released their first 7" titled "Politicians in My Eyes" b / w "Keep On Knocking" and then it all went wrong: then Columbia President Clive Davis wanted to put the album out, but only on the condition that DEATH change their name. And that was the death of DEATH, bandleader David Hackney didn't go for it and that was that. DEATH broke up and after the three brothers moved from Detroit to New England and turned to their Christian faith, later forming a Christian rock band called The 4th Movement, this hopeful band was almost lost to obscurity forever.Drag City found the never released DEATH from the 70's in archives and are now releasing it as a sort of redemption!!!! -
A1 Keep On Knocking
A2 Rock-N-Roll Victim
A3 Let The World Turn
A4 You'Re A Prisoner
B1 Freakin Out
B2 Where Do We Go From Here???
B3 Politicians In My Eyes