Music
David Hackney
1952–2000 · guitarist, songwriter
Guitarist and visionary of Death, the east side Detroit trio of brothers now hailed as one of the first punk bands, and the first all-Black one.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 48- Detroit years
- 1952–1977, 1982–2000
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
David Hackney grew up on Detroit's east side and, after watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, found a discarded guitar in an alley and taught himself to play. He and his younger brothers Bobby and Dannis practiced in a room of the family home and played early gigs from their garage. The trio started in 1971 as the funk band Rock Fire Funk Express, but David steered it toward hard, fast rock after seeing the Who and Alice Cooper, and in 1973, after their father's death, renamed it Death. In February 1975 the band recorded seven songs at United Sound Systems; when he refused a label request to change the name, backing dried up, and only a 500-copy single appeared. After the band ended in 1977 and his brothers moved to Vermont, David returned to Detroit in 1982. He died of lung cancer in 2000, nine years before Drag City released the tapes and made Death famous.
Highlights
- Co-founded Death in 1971; renamed the band in 1973
- Wrote and recorded “Politicians in My Eyes” at United Sound Systems (1975)
- The 1975 sessions appeared in 2009 as …For the Whole World to See (Drag City)
- Subject of the documentary A Band Called Death (2012)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Recorded here · 1975
United Sound Systems
Detroit's oldest recording studio, where Death cut seven songs on February 18, 1975. The historic house-studio was saved from demolition and operates as a studio and museum.