Posted on in Uncategorized

Rough Francis: The Progeny of Death

My last post was about the strange tale of the First Punk Band, Death. In that post I mention the strangest part of the story: Rough Francis, a band whose members are descendants of the members of Death, found out BY ACCIDENT that their ancestors were in a band in the 70s!

Here is a brief history of Rough Francis.

Not the band. The person.

Do you remember David Hackney from Death? After Death disbanded, he and his brothers still attempted to carve out a career in music. They each worked on different projects, and none of them were successful. David, as he continued his career, adopted the stage name Rough Francis. Unfortunately, he was only able to release one single before he died in 2000.

The name lives on!

Unknowingly walking in the footsteps of their father and uncles, the three sons of Bobby Hackney decide to form a punk rock band. In 2006 the three brothers, accompanied by other band mates were a Bad Brains cover band (AWESOME!!!!)

It was around that time that they discovered the legacy that they were carrying on. One of the brothers stumbled upon a Death single on the internet. Eager to honor their father and late uncle, they named their band Rough Francis and learned to play songs by Death.

In 2008, Death was able to live again (sorry about the bad pun) as Rough Francis preformed 7 of their songs. This lead to the rediscovery of the OG Punk band, and the creation of the documentary, A Band Called Death.

That is the story of Rough Francis!

Remember that the most punk rock thing you can be is unapologetically you!

Posted on in Uncategorized

I Don’t Care What You Say; DEATH is the FIRST PUNK BAND!

Let’s talk about Death. Not the end of life. Not metal band with the same name, but the Proto-Punk band called Death.

Death (protopunk band).JPEG.jpg
From Wikipedia.com, this is a photo of the three original members of Death.

I was born in the 1980’s so I didn’t witness the cultural impact that the Beatles had when they preformed on Ed Sullivan in the 1960s. I am not a huge Beatles fan by any means (My husband is the Beatles Fanatic in our household), but I acknowledge that I will forever be in their debt. Much of the music that I adore would not exist, if it wasn’t for the “Fab Four.”

According to legend (and the people who edited the Wikipedia article about Death) Bobby, Dannis, and David Hackney watched that history altering moment when the Beatles preformed on Ed Sullivan in 1964.

The Fates smiled on them, and the universe decided that Punk Rock should be a thing because the next day, David found a guitar in an alley. Just waiting for him. He and his brothers would form a band called…Rock Fire Funk Express. That is the best name ever, and I am a little sad that they changed it.

The reason why they changed their name is understandable. David convinced his brothers to change their name to Death after their father died.

This band was only active for 1971-1977. Then they disappeared into obscurity after recording only 7 songs. Most people would never hear of them, and that was almost the end of their story.

Then there was a miracle.

If it wasn’t for the movie, A Band Called Death, most people would have never known that they even existed.

Even their children didn’t know they existed. According to a 2013 WIRED article, one of Bobby Hackney’s sons happened to stumble across one of the 7 tracks Death recorded in the 1970s. He recognized his father’s voice and was blown away. His dad was a Punk Rocker.

What makes this story so weird is that the decedents of Death had their own band, Rough Francis (more on them in a different post).

I can’t give away many more details than that without spoiling the film, but the bottom line is this:

Death was a Punk band in int very early 70s. They almost faded into obscurity with out any acknowledgement that they were (one of) the FIRST (proto) Punk Bands, and they deserve to be prominently feature in the Pantheon of Pioneer Punk Rockers.

That is all I have for today. Remember: The most punk rock thing you can be is unapologetically YOU!

Posted on in Uncategorized

Fishbone

Reggae.

Ska.

Punk.

Funk.

Soul.

What do they all have in common? Not much, but Fishbone seamlessly fuses all these genres together to create their unique sound.

Hailing from Las Angeles California, Fishbone rubbed elbows with the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Psi Com. Despite landing a record deal with Sony, Fishbone never gained more than a cult following.

Fishbone formed in 1979. The original line up was John and Phillip Fisher, AngeloMoore, Kendall Jones, Walter Kibby II, and Christopher Dowd.

It would take nearly 10 years for them to start getting recognition for their work. In 1988, they released a political album called Truth and Soul which earned them a lot of attention. Their follow up release in 1993, Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s in the Center of the Universe was released just before things started getting strange for the band.

Kendall Jones quit the band right before the Lollapalooza tour, citing mental instability. Band mate John Fisher believed that Jones was being manipulated by a religious cult and attempted to rescue him. That didn’t work out. It turns out that Fisher was accused of kidnapping. Other bands came together in order to help Fisher with his legal fees. Porno for Pyros, Tool, Alice In Chains and Primus held a concert for his benefit.

There was more strife when Christopher Dowd left the band in 1994. He started his own group called the Seedy Arkestra. Unfortunately, his music included songs that were antagonistic towards Fishbone.

To add insult to injury, Fishbone was dropped from Sony Records in 1995.

Posted on in Black Punk Rock, Punk Rock

A Short History of Black Punk.

I was in middle school. I don’t know how… maybe it was my own big mouth…but my classmates found out that I didn’t really care for the R&B and Rap/Hip-Hop music that I was supposed to like. I was supposed to like that sort of music because I was a Black Girl.

Today, I listen to every thing, and I like Hip-Hip (it’s basically Punk to a beat), but back then I didn’t really understand it. I related more to the Alternative Rock music and Post Punk that was popular at the time.

I’ll never forget the taunting. “That is white people music!” “You must want to be white!” I remember feeling so ashamed of myself for liking rock music. What was wrong with me? NOTHING!!!

Like much of African art, innovation and creativity, Rock music was whitewashed. I knew about Chuck Berry and many of the original pioneers of Rock Music. But I didn’t know about the Black Punks. Punk Rockers that have been there from the beginning. Punk Rockers that LOOK. LIKE. ME.

Maybe another time, I will tell you how this discovery changed my life, even though I didn’t discover it until I was an adult. But now, we are going to talk about the history of Punk Rock, and how very, VERY black it is.

Picture a punk rocker. Most people will probably picture this guy.

Leather Jacket? Check.

Spiked Mohawk? Check.

White Dude? Check.

There are many people out there who believe that this is what Punk Rock is. They believe that Punk Rock is a movement and a musical genre that was made for angry white guys, white girls who don’t mind the misogyny, and a few men of color, if they act white enough…as long as they stay away from the racist Punks. Colored Girls not allowed.

That just shows how little people know of the genera.

Poly Styrene’s real name is Marianne Joan Elliot Said. I call her the Godmother of Black Girl Punks. She is probably best known for her time as the Lead Singer/Songwriter of X-Ray Spex, Formed in 1976.

Pure Hell is exploded onto the punk scene in New York 1974, the same year as the Ramones. One of my favorites, Bad Brains appeared on the scene three years later in 1977.

Predating all of them, including the Sex-Pistols and other so-called “Pioneers of Punk” is Death. Founded in 1971 in DETROIT (Not London!!!!!), Death disbanded in 1977. They would not reform again until 20-freaking-12 whey they were finally acknowledged as the one of, if not THE founder of Punk Rock.

There you have it! A very Brief history of Punk Rock. I know I made a lot of generalizations and skipped a lot of information. However, I will dive deeply into the history of many of the bands I mentioned, and many that I didn’t. Stay tuned for my upcoming posts!

Remember, the most punk rock you can be is unapologetically you.