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Death Becomes Them: The World's First Black Punk Band Killed Naysayers With Power Chords

Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 23 September 2009

THE HISTORY of rock 'n' roll is littered with dozens of such stories — great bands discovered years after their initial obscurity has faded into almost nothingness. As Lester Bangs wrote of the Count Five in what many fans consider his defining piece: Some people are recognized in their own time, and some aren't. Or as Joe Strummer said in a Detroit hotel barroom many decades ago: "Tonight, the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world is playing somewhere, in some small town or city, and it'll be years before anyone hears them, if ever …"

Total word count of piece: 2383

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