Death/The 4th Movement (1973-1979) – 2 Fan Albums

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

Death is a classy early punk band that packed politically charged lyrics with aggressive and funky playing. They’re great players, which shows in a lot of my favorite songs of theirs being instrumentals. Still, “Politicians In My Eyes” is an iconic track. Their catalog is a bit confusing. It consists of the occasional non-album single and three LPs recorded with the classic lineup, one of which was not released for decades; then they reformed without their deceased guitarist David Hackney and are still actively recording. On top of all this, the bundle has gone through many name changes. I’ve defined the band as whatever includes its two constant members, Bobby Hackney on bass and vocals and Dannis Hackney on drums. Another amusing discovery is that before David died, the other two members formed a new band called “Lambs Bread” and released several obscure albums. If you consider that even in the music labeled “Death” the guitarist changed, then there’s no reason not to consider Lambs Bread more of Death. The cherry on top is that the guitarist of reformed Death, Bobbie Duncan, had played in Lambs Bread. It is worth noting that much of Lambs Bread is so obscure that I couldn’t find it online. I will still list the info I found.

Another frustrating fact is that while a lot of 70s classic lineup demo material has been released, some doesn’t come with a recording date. The release with this problem is listed as being cut vaguely from 1974 to 1976. It’s also said to mostly predate the band’s 1975 studio recordings. How I’ve ordered things, any song without a known recording year I’ll assume is 1976, which leaves one album’s worth of material with confirmed dates of some 1973 or 1975 and a follow up. However, I suspect that if I did have all the dates the first album would be the 1973 tracks and a ton of demos, then the second would be the studio sessions and what came after. Fortunately, the sequences I’ve made are still strong regardless.

Death – A Tribe Called Death (1975) – YouTube, Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Introduction By David” (Recorded 1975)
2. “People Save the World” (Recorded 1973)
3. “RockFire Funk Express” (Recorded 1973)
4. “Free” (Recorded 1975)
5. “Bobby Bassing It” (Recorded 1975)
6. “First Snowball In Detroit” (Recorded 1975)
7. “Keep on Knocking” (Recorded 1975)

SIDE B

1. “Rock-N-Roll Victim” (Recorded 1975)
2. “Let the World Turn” (Recorded 1975)
3. “You’re a Prisoner” (Recorded 1975)
4. “Freakin Out” (Recorded 1975)
5. “Where Do We Go from Here???” (Recorded 1975)
6. “Politicians in My Eyes” (Recorded 1975)

Alternate ideas for this album title were the group’s early name RockFire Funk Express, their first album’s name …For the Whole World to See, or my Spotify playlist Introduction By David. I picked the one I did as it’s been a little joke that’s run through my mind for a while. This album is a bit longer than I’d have liked, but some of the band’s completed albums are similarly lengthy. Also note that for the World album, originally Death were to record twelve tracks, but only got to do seven. This resulted in a little under thirty minutes. Thus, you can imagine that those twelve songs may have totaled around forty-five minutes if completed. Another concern is that the album is front loaded with too many instrumentals, but I wanted to preserve the actual sequencing for World within this one. Otherwise, I might have moved one of the instrus to around the middle of side b.

Death – Can You Give Me A Thrill??? (1979) – YouTube, Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Can You Give Me A Thrill???” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
2. “People Look Away” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
3. “The Storm Within” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
4. “David’s Dream (Flying)” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
5. “We Are Only People” (Recorded 1976)

SIDE B

1. “North Street” (Recorded 1979 Or 1980)
2. “Restlessness” (Recorded 1979 Or 1980)
3. “Open Road” (Recorded 1979 Or 1980)
4. “Dannis On The Motor City Drums” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
5. “Views” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
6. “The Masks” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
7. “The Change” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)
8. “World Of Tomorrow” (Recorded Between 1974-1976)

The 4th Movement (1980) – YouTube, Spotify

The 4th Movement – Totally (1982) – YouTube

Anything I couldn’t find by Lambs Bread is simply not linked. However, you can find some of their material for purchase on their website: https://www.lambsbreadband.com/

Lambs Bread – Truth Of It Is… (1986) – YouTube

Lambs Bread – International Love (1988)

Credited to “The Hackneys” (1992)

1. “Our Story”
2. “Under Siege”

Lambs Bread – Sign of the Times (unsure)

1993

1. “Let’s Go Flying (Musical Dub)”

Lambs Bread – Reggae Mood (1993)

1995

1. “Fire Up De Ganja (Revisited)”

Lambs Bread – The Hotter, The Better (1995)

Then to Now’s unreleased tracks (unsure of recording date)

1. “African Princess”
2. “Dread At The Lambsbread Controls”
3. “You’re A Big Girl Now”
4. “Sharing and Caring”

Lambs Bread – Brown Bag Special (unsure)

Lambs Bread – One Sweet Day (2011) – YouTube, Spotify

Death – N.E.W. (2015) – YouTube, Spotify

Finally, here’s every stray track after 1980 I could find, plus one oddity – YouTube

1. “Politicians in My Eyes” (Early 1974 demo)
2. “Yes He’s Coming” (1992 (Featuring Death’s classic lineup))
3. “We’re Gonna Make It” (1992 (Featuring Death’s classic lineup))
4. “The Masks” (2011)
5. “Keep On Knocking” (2011)
6. “Cease Fire” (2017)
7. “Give It Back” (2018)
8. “World In Disguise” (2023)

There are modern-era live recordings and a documentary for those interested. Considering how there are no released demos of the studio material of the 70s and 80s other than just once, I bet there are some that were recorded, but not released. Hopefully they will be in due time. More new music, such as LPs, would also be nice.

This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!