Year: 1977
Country: US
City: Detroit
Label: Drag City
Format: LP
Tracks: 7
Time: 29 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Rock
DEATH is an african american proto-punk band formed by the
brothers Bobby, David and Dannis Hackney in Detroit, Michigan in 1971.
Death only released one overlooked 7" single before breaking up in 1977.
The band was re-discovered in 2009 when the original 7" record was
released on CD leading to reunion shows and the release of other demo
material. "...For the Whole World to See" is a collection of songs from a proposed studio album by the American band Death.
In 1975 the band entered a studio to record a 12-song album. After
refusing to change their group's name, Death was turned away by Clive Davis of Columbia Records. Only seven songs were completed and the album was never released. The surviving songs were released as "...For the Whole World to See" in 2009 by Drag City. Just prior to and right after the record's release, the songs on "...For the Whole World to See" were performed live by Rough Francis,
a band formed by the three sons of Death's original bassist. With the
record's critical acclaim and praise from many other musicians, the two
surviving members of Death reformed the band with a new guitarist to
promote the record themselves. Initial critical response to "...For the Whole World to See" was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 76, based on 8 reviews. Jack White of the White Stripes related his first reaction to the album in a New York Times
article: "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 song "You're a Prisoner" was featured in the 2011 film Kill the Irishman.
