In June 2012, a documentary premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, whose poster declared in all caps “BEFORE THERE WAS PUNK, THERE WAS A BAND CALLED DEATH”. This film – entitled after the last four words of that tagline – tells the story of the eponymous band, a proto-punk group who formed in Detroit in the 1970s before becoming long-forgotten.
“It took [us] a whole generation to become accepted.” Dannis Hackney said about the band’s rediscovery in an interview with Detroit Music Magazine. “It feels really good to go from everybody hating you… to everybody loving you.”
…For the Whole World to See, Death’s first collection, was compiled from a 1974 session at United Sound Recording Studios and released by Drag City Records in 2009. These seven songs set the tone for how so many contemporary listeners would perceive these three brothers: as the true forebears to punk.This image is a bit misleading, and on 2011’s follow-up anthology Spiritual, Mental, Physical, what became clearer were Death’s creative ambitions.
Not truly associated with any scene – Death had, for better or worse, always forged their own path, and that sense of being apart from their time may go a long way in explaining their belated popularity.
Yet no matter how many styles they explored, the trio’s music has always felt uncomplicated, flitting between Berry Gordy-biting R&B, fuzzed-out psych, and Detroit garage rock with an ease that foreshadows the nonchalant attitude of punk.
Death III – the group’s third release – compiles nine tracks from across two decades. The inclusion of “We Are Only People” and “We’re Gonna Make It” – two songs highlighted in A Band Called Death – might at first give pause; after all, these are not exactly the barn-burners the trio have newly made their name on. It turns out to be a revelatory move, however, these cuts show off the softer side of Death that somehow became lost in their rediscovery. Putting them on this archival release completes the journey that started five-years-ago and protects Death from a flattening flattery.
Death always plays with a vision. That dream is now being realized after decades of being deferred. As Death III makes evident, Death’s historical representation – from their now-familiar take as punk progenitors to their lesser-shared narratives as secret Motown enthusiasts, funk-rock pioneers, born-again Christians, or peace-loving hippies – has said more about our world than any tour could. Before there was that tour, there was Death III.
Listen to Death III‘s “North Street” here.
Purchase Death III here.