Henry Cow was an English avant-garde rock group, founded at Cambridge Unive… Read Full Bio ↴Henry Cow was an English avant-garde rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. An inherent anti-commercial bias kept them at arm's length from the mainstream music business, enabling them to experiment at will. They remained in existence for 10 years, breaking up in 1978, and produced a body of music that was challenging, provocative and influential for years to come. Collaborations with the similarly-minded band Slapp Happy led to an eventual but brief merger of the two bands in 1974, and demerging in 1975. Cutler, Frith and Krause also continued on as Art Bears from 1978 as disagreements set in and the band dissolved.
Henry Cow was among the founding members of the movement dubbed Rock in Opposition (RIO).
A number of people passed through Henry Cow over the years:
* Georgie Born - Cello, Bass (1976-1978)
* Lindsay Cooper - Bassoon, Reeds (1974, 1975-1978)
* Chris Cutler - Drums, Percussion (1971-1978)
* Fred Frith - Guitar, Violin, Bass, Piano, Xylophone (1968-1978)
* John Greaves - Bass, Piano (1970-1976)
* Tim Hodgkinson - Keyboards, Reeds (1968 - 1978)
* Dagmar Krause - Vocals (1975 - 1978)
* Geoff Leigh - Flute, Reeds (1972 - 1973)
Henry Cow's repertoire included elaborately scored pieces (often with complex time signatures), tape manipulations, free improvisation and songs. It incorporated elements of jazz, rock, classical music and the avant-garde. Dagmar Krause's vocals added another dimension to their sound, giving it a dramatic, almost Brechtian flair.
Their music was often experimental, making classification all but impossible. However, the following styles (amongst others) are often associated with Henry Cow:
* rock (too general and therefore inadequate)
* progressive rock
* art rock
* avant-progressive rock
* avant-rock
* chamber rock
* experimental rock
* free improvisation
Some of these styles may come closer to describing their music than others, and often it contained elements of all of the above, but in reality, Henry Cow simply remains one of those unclassifiable groups.
Henry Cow's music was challenging, not only to the listener, but also to the band themselves. They often composed pieces to challenge their own capabilities. Some of their music was scored beyond the conventional ranges of their music instruments necessitating that they "reinvent their instruments", learn how to play them in completely new ways. And yet their music may not have been as good as it could have been. Henry Cow conducted their affairs as a committee, having regular, minuted meetings with no decisions being made unless approved by the group. This included their music. Band members brought their ideas to the table but often they ended up being watered down as a result of the collective process, rather than strengthened, and many of their best ideas may not have been fully realised. Who knows what Henry Cow might have produced had individual members been given more free reign.
While their music is a decided "acquired taste", there is much to recommend in it, for as it is often dissonant and challenging, it is also rich and exciting, and yields more insights upon repeated listening.
Henry Cow reunited in November 2014 to celebrate the music of the late Lindsay Cooper for shows in the UK and Italy.
Henry Cow was among the founding members of the movement dubbed Rock in Opposition (RIO).
A number of people passed through Henry Cow over the years:
* Georgie Born - Cello, Bass (1976-1978)
* Lindsay Cooper - Bassoon, Reeds (1974, 1975-1978)
* Chris Cutler - Drums, Percussion (1971-1978)
* Fred Frith - Guitar, Violin, Bass, Piano, Xylophone (1968-1978)
* John Greaves - Bass, Piano (1970-1976)
* Tim Hodgkinson - Keyboards, Reeds (1968 - 1978)
* Dagmar Krause - Vocals (1975 - 1978)
* Geoff Leigh - Flute, Reeds (1972 - 1973)
Henry Cow's repertoire included elaborately scored pieces (often with complex time signatures), tape manipulations, free improvisation and songs. It incorporated elements of jazz, rock, classical music and the avant-garde. Dagmar Krause's vocals added another dimension to their sound, giving it a dramatic, almost Brechtian flair.
Their music was often experimental, making classification all but impossible. However, the following styles (amongst others) are often associated with Henry Cow:
* rock (too general and therefore inadequate)
* progressive rock
* art rock
* avant-progressive rock
* avant-rock
* chamber rock
* experimental rock
* free improvisation
Some of these styles may come closer to describing their music than others, and often it contained elements of all of the above, but in reality, Henry Cow simply remains one of those unclassifiable groups.
Henry Cow's music was challenging, not only to the listener, but also to the band themselves. They often composed pieces to challenge their own capabilities. Some of their music was scored beyond the conventional ranges of their music instruments necessitating that they "reinvent their instruments", learn how to play them in completely new ways. And yet their music may not have been as good as it could have been. Henry Cow conducted their affairs as a committee, having regular, minuted meetings with no decisions being made unless approved by the group. This included their music. Band members brought their ideas to the table but often they ended up being watered down as a result of the collective process, rather than strengthened, and many of their best ideas may not have been fully realised. Who knows what Henry Cow might have produced had individual members been given more free reign.
While their music is a decided "acquired taste", there is much to recommend in it, for as it is often dissonant and challenging, it is also rich and exciting, and yields more insights upon repeated listening.
Henry Cow reunited in November 2014 to celebrate the music of the late Lindsay Cooper for shows in the UK and Italy.
A Heart
Henry Cow Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'A Heart' by these artists:
Grids/Units/Planes They hate that I'm different and call me a coward Cause…
Matilda Things are getting complicated Like words on a page all blur…
Rev. Milton Brunson & The Thompson Community Singers We knew you were calling before we picked up the…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Henry Cow:
Bad Alchemy I dream Hermaphrodite and I sit up all night Our eyes…
Deluge Don't disturb me while I'm dreaming Walk softly on my peace…
Gloria Gloom Like so many of you I've got my doubts about how…
Living in the Heart of the Beast Situation that rules your world (despite all you've said) I…
Nine Funerals of the Citizen King Down beneath the spectacle of free No one ever let you…
Nirvana for Mice Sweet mystery of life I will remember Sweet mystery of life…
Ottawa Song You and I could sail away to distant lands. In a…
Teenbeat Reprise Instrumental…
Viva Pa Ubu Here is a song for all you Ubists Fat & loathsome, Rich…
War Tell of the birth Tell how war appeared on earth Thunder an…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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bobsavage64
Situation that rules your world - despite all you've said
I would strike against it but the rule displaces...
There I burn in my own lights fuelled with flags
torn out of books and histories
of marching together, united with heroes, we were the rage, the fire.
But I was given a different destiny - knotted in closer despair.
Calling to heroes, do you have to speak that way all the time ?
Tales told by idiots in paperbacks;
a play of forms to spite my fabulous need to fight and live.
We exchange words, coins, movements
- paralysed in loops of care that we hoped could knot a world still.
Sere words, toothless, ruined now, bulldozed into brimming pits
- who has used them how? Grammar book that lies wasted :
conflux of voices rising to meet, and fall,
empty, divided, other...
Clutching at sleeves the wordless man exposes his failure :
smiling, he hurls a wine glass, describing his sadness twisted
into mere form : shattered in a glass, he's changed...
How dare he seize the life before him
and discompound it in sulphurous confusion and give it to the air?
He's rushing to find where there's a word of liquid syntax
- signs let slip in a flash : "clothes of chaos are my rage !"
he shrieks in tatters, hunting the eye of his own storm.
We were born to serve you all our bloody lives
labouring tongues we give rise to soft lies :
disguised metaphors that keep us in a vast inverted silliness
twice edged with fear.
Twilight signs decompose us
High in offices we stared into the turning wheel of cities
dense and ravelled close yet separate : planned to kill all encounter.
Intricate we saw your state at work
its shapes abstracted from all human intent.
With our history's fire we shall harrow your signs.
Now is the time to begin to go forward - advance from despair,
the darkness of solitary men - who are chained in a market they cannot control -
in the name of a freedom that hangs like a pall on our cities.
And their towers of silence we shall destroy.
Now is the time to begin to determine directions,
refuse to admit the existence of destiny's rule.
We shall seize from all heroes and merchants our labour, our lives, and our practice of history :
this, our choice, defines the truth of all that we do.
Seize on the words that oppose us with alien force;
they're enslaved by the power of capital's kings
who reduce them to coinage and hollow exchange in the struggle to hold us,
they're bitterly outlasting...
Time to sweep them down from power - deeds renew words.
Dare to take sides in the fight for freedom that is common cause
let us all be as strong and as resolute.
We're in the midst of a universe turning
in turmoil; of classes and armies of thought
making war - their contradictions clash and echo through time.
Coos Oorlog
That drummer has such elegance with his traditional grip there. I love to see talented musicians enjoying the process.
Fish to Lizard
Chris Cutler is an Octopus. Amazing!
Brian Hammer
@Damon Berry never said he was dead
Damon Berry
@Brian Hammer he's not dead and has not stopped drumming
brotzmannsax
One of the greatest bands of all time, Frith is a genius and his versatility knows no bounds, extraordinary composition!
meow'
@iamdamosuzuki_ (𝕱𝖊𝖒𝖇𝖔𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖟𝖚𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖎) tim is a legend
iamdamosuzuki_ (𝕱𝖊𝖒𝖇𝖔𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖟𝖚𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖎)
@Marty Gabriel Tim is a genius too.
Brian Hammer
no, but they were a pretty good group
Mike Hahaha
Zapa zapa zappa eappzpzpzozozzoepapdf
Marty Gabriel
The composition is Tim's.