Death -- "Politicians in My Eyes"
The details of the story are pretty familiar now -- black proto-punk band from Detroit records a set of demos in 1975, then disappears into obscurity, only to have these tracks rediscovered more than thirty years later and subsequently released to great acclaim. Though there are only seven tracks in the Death catalog proper (depending on whether you count the less remarkable second batch of demos released last year), that's six more than is necessary to secure a legendary status for this band -- the very existence of which is so improbable as to seem almost impossible. Comparisons to Bad Brains are, of course, inevitable and apt, especially for this track, likely the first ever to fuse together funk and the as-yet-unbroken new genre of punk. Comparisons aside, though, Death was a remarkable band. "Politicians in My Eyes" is the angriest and the most powerful of their demos, and, black president aside, the message is as apt today as it was during the band's brief existence.
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