You can’t judge a book by its cover.

Sure.

But you also can’t read every single book out there in order to learn if the contents match or defy the exterior. Sometimes you have to take shortcuts.

Of course the best way to discover what a band is all about is by listening to their music first. But if you have limited time to spend on music you haven’t head before, then you’re going to have to take one of those shortcuts, and they all involve some surface level of pre-judgment: album covers, song titles, and band names.

Which brings us to a band called Death.

The three Hackney brothers grew up in Detroit — the home of hit-making Motown vocal groups — but watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964 blew their little minds and inspired the boys to pick up instruments. By the early 1970s the trio had grown up and started a funk band, but soon after, inspired by Hendrix, The Who, and Alice Cooper, they brought out the rock. Eldest brother David had a definite vision of what the band should be and that involved changing their name to Death.

His idea was to put a positive spin on the word, but of course, that’s not how people took it. The group could have gotten away with it in the 1980s… not so much in the 70s.

Death found a manager who put them in the studio during the summer of 1975 to record half a dozen songs and then shopped that tape to every label in the US and the UK. All of whom turned them down flat. Unsurprisingly, every rejection cited their choice of name.

The band’s music was miles ahead of its time, echoing 60s garage rock and Detroit noisemakers MC5, but presaging US and UK punk and 80s hardcore. Had the album been released 10 years later it would have sounded completely normal. Unfortunately, at the time, it wasn’t released at all.

Arista Records heard the tape and offered the band a contract, but only if they changed their name. Two of the brothers immediately agreed, but David, their leader and creative force, said no. The music, the name, everything about the band was interconnected. Lose one part and you lose its soul.

Death self-released a single and then broke up in 1977. The studio tape went into an attic until the late 2000s when their lone, obscure single suddenly became a collector’s item, word began to spread, and someone asked if there was anymore of this music. Drag City Records released Death’s full oeuvre, all seven songs, and suddenly they achieved the success that was so elusive 30 years before. And it happened without changing their name.

Even though I should know better after all these years, the name Death is precisely why I didn’t check out the much-hyped and well-regarded documentary about the group that came out in 2013. “A Band Called Death”? There’s no way I’m going to like a band called Death, said I. Books, covers, judging, etc. Finally watching the documentary a couple of years ago, I regretted waiting so long.

Siding with record companies who want to make artistic changes isn’t usually my bag, but on this occasion, they were probably correct. It’s great that you have a vision, my dude, but most people are wearing blinders. Even those of us who should know better.