Review: Henry Cow – In Praise Of Learning (1975)

Released in May 1975, In Praise Of Learning is the third studio album by Henry Cow, formed in 1968.

In November 1974, Henry Cow participated as backing band and arrangers on the art pop band Slapp Happy’s album Desperate Straights. Henry Cow’s contribution to the album was so significant that it was released under the joint credit of Slapp Happy / Henry Cow. But most importantly, the collaboration between the two bands felt so fruitful that they decided to continue working together. The bands merged into one entity.

Slapp Happy’s Antony Moore (piano, electronics, tapes), Peter Blegvad (guitar, clarinet) and Dagmar Krause (vocals) joined forces with Henry Cow’s Fred Frith (guitar, violin, xylophone, piano), Chris Cutler (drums, percussion), Tim Hodgkinson (organ, piano, clarinet) and John Greaves (bass, piano) to make their next album in early 1975. Lindsay Cooper (oboe, bassoon), who had been dismissed from Henry Cow for personal reasons after the release of Unrest, was also asked to rejoin the band. The group now consisted of eight members, who were certainly not lacking in ideas or virtuosity.

”Art is not a mirror – It is a hammer”

Politics and everyday life in Henry Cow

In Praise Of Learning is Henry Cow’s most political album to date. This is made clear by the red stocking placed on a red background on the album cover (again by artist Ray Smith), but even more so by the lyrics, which clearly but cryptically acknowledge the color and, for their part, encourage communist revolution.

The album’s title comes from a poem of the same name by East German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Brecht had a series of poems entitled ”In Praise Of…”, which included In Praise Of Learning, In Praise of the Work of the Party, and In Praise Of Communism. The back cover of the album is adorned with a quote from John Grierson, a maker of political documentary films: ”Art is not a mirror – It is a hammer.”

The back cover of the album is adorned with the quote ”Art is not a mirror – it is a hammer,” which comes from political documentary filmmaker John Grierson. The quote is fitting, as Henry Cow really wanted to change things, not just reflect the existing situation.

In the 2020s, a communist revolution seems like a distant prospect, but in 1970s Europe and England, it had a real chance of happening. For its part, Henry Cow wanted to be involved in promoting the cause. The members of Henry Cow had long been left-leaning, some more passionately than others. Chris Cutler and Tim Hodgkinson were the most enthusiastic, while John Greaves was the least interested. Fred Frith was somewhere in between. Of the newer members, Lindsay Cooper and Dagmar Krause were also strongly committed to the cause, in addition to being enthusiastic activists in the field of feminism. Krause was also very interested in singing political lyrics instead of Slapp Happy’s clever, but perhaps somewhat inconsequential, witticisms.

”Others experimented with drugs; we did it with radical politics.”
– Chris Cutler

The band’s political thinking was comprehensive and was the subject of constant debate and meetings within the band. Politics extended to both the music and the lyrics. Both had to be progressive in form. It is very interesting that Henry Cow wanted to reach the uneducated working masses with their music. Henry Cow truly believed that their music could contribute to the communist revolution. In retrospect, this idea is truly perplexing, not least because the band’s music was extremely complex and its lyrics, with their allegories and ancient myths depicting revolution, were so obscure that it is very difficult to imagine them inspiring factory workers to join the barricades and fight for revolution.

However, Henry Cow believed that revolutionary music had to be progressive in both form and message. Henry Cow considered conventional pop music to be bourgeois and reactionary, and the band was very critical of, for example, the simple left-wing progg music played by Swedish bands, with whom they had many connections due to their political background. Henry Cow accepted the message of progg bands, but not the music it was wrapped up in.

Surprisingly, Henry Cow’s music was apparently very well received by the masses in Italy, for example, where the band often performed at the invitation of the Italian Communist Party. Henry Cow believed that this was because the music press in rural Italy had not conditioned people to think of the band’s music as strange or complex, and people were open and curious about it. Perhaps so, but it is still difficult to believe that the average Italian farmer would have understood much of the band’s lyrics or message. But perhaps I am guilty of elitist underestimation here!

”This is where our music comes from: from a disgust with Capitalism & its degrading of everything into money relations…”
-Excerpt from the band’s lengthy mix of advertisement and manifesto that was never published.

Political thinking was taken to a practical level in the band, alongside the music and lyrics. Everyone was equal and had an equal say in matters concerning the band. This applied to the entire organization of the band (which was small). Roadies, sound engineers, and band members earned the same amount (i.e., not much), and decisions about the band were made by consensus. All decisions required the approval of the entire group. If this was not achieved, the matter was discussed and the direction was changed until everyone agreed. In the end, this kind of equality is, of course, superficial, because there are always those who are more skilled or louder at persuading others to agree with their opinion. The female members of the band have also said in retrospect that gender equality was not always achieved in the band.

”What we’ve done is to literally teach ourselves to compose music which we could not initially, play. Because of that attitude, we can go on forever. It’s a self-generative concept which gives us a sense of purpose most groups simply don’t have.” – Fred Frith

Life in Henry Cow was harsh. From the beginning, it was about challenging oneself as a person and as a musician. The goal was to develop as far as possible in both roles. The band constantly challenged itself not only by repeatedly and deliberately composing music that was too difficult to play with their current skills, but also by rehearsing intensively in order to develop and respond to the challenges presented by the compositions. This forced them to practice intensively in order to develop and meet the challenges posed by the compositions. The band practiced constantly. When Henry Cow wasn’t on tour, the band rehearsed from eight in the morning until six in the evening, six days a week. Their dedication to the band was 100%, and in a way, Henry Cow had a certain cultish quality. The difference was that, in retrospect, none of the members seem to harbor any great bitterness about those times, as is usually the case with cults when they eventually break up. One important thing in reality, of course, distinguishes Henry Cow from a true cult: the band had no single leader whose orders the other members blindly followed; it was a genuine democracy.

”We’d improvise for a couple of hours, rehearse the written material and then spend some time experimenting with additive rhythms, poly-rhythms and cycles. We’d think of numbers and play every variation and internal subdivision imaginable, dreaming up different possibilities and then running them with of agains one another, until we could all feel all of the rhythms at once and not be distracted whatever else was going on.”
– Chris Cutler on a typical practice day with Henry Cow

The band’s lifestyle was also pretty controlled. Drugs and alcohol were mostly frowned upon, and the band tried to eat healthy. Chris Cutler, who was a bit of an ascetic, was the band’s moral guardian. Cutler’s other job besides being a musician (all Henry Cow members had two or more roles in the band’s organization. For example, Fred Frith was a driver and navigator) was to take care of the band’s food and cooking on tour. Sugar was banned and vegetarian food played a major role in the band’s diet. In practice, the band often went hungry because they had so little money. In connection with the sugar ban, Dagmar Krause has recalled how, on a tour in Paris, she and Lindsay Cooper sneaked out to buy some pastries. And lo and behold, who should be walking around the corner of the bakery but Chris Cutler… Ouch! Apparently, the matter was discussed in a serious tone afterwards.

In Praise Of Learning

In Praise Of Learning contains five tracks. Three of these are carefully crafted compositions and two are fairly free-form studio improvisations. Frith’s role as composer is smaller this time around than on previous albums. He has only composed the track ”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners.” Slapp Happy’s Moore and Blegvad composed the wonderful miniature ”War,” which opens the album, but the highlight of the album is Hodgkinson’s long-worked-on ”Living In The Heart Of The Beast.”

The instrumentation is more minimalistic than on previous Henry Cow albums. The role of wind instruments is relatively small on In Praise Of Learning, and the soundscape is dominated more clearly than before by the piano and organ, and of course Frith’s guitar. Of course, Cooper’s bassoon and oboe and Hodgkinson’s clarinet still have their roles here and there, but not as clearly as on the first two albums. Frith also plays the violin on the album and nimbly handles a few xylophone parts.

Like its predecessors, In Praise Of Learning was recorded at Virgin Manor Studios. In terms of sound, the band continues to strive for natural instrument reproduction and a live sound. However, Phil Becque’s recording is not quite as successful as Simon Heyworth’s work on Leg End and Unrest. The sound is slightly muddier and less distinct. Most of the music was recorded live by the band, with occasional overdubs.

”War”

The album kicks off with the breathtakingly intense track ”War,” which was originally composed and recorded for Desperate Straights. The song is reminiscent of the art pop tracks on that album, but the arrangement is much more violent, with distorted guitars and aggressive drums. Adding to the rawness are Mongezi Fezan’s piercing trumpet and Geoff Leigh’s soprano saxophone. Rhythmically, the song is also much more complex than most of the music on Desperate Straights.

In fact, ”War” had been composed before Desperate Straights, and Slapp Happy had played an earlier, longer but simpler version on DJ John Peel’s radio show in June 1974. At that time, the song was still called ”War (Is Energy Enslaved).”

The biggest impact in Henry Cow’s version of ”War” comes from Dagmar Krause’s vocals, which are absolutely stunning to hear. Krause’s harshly broken accent, half sung and half spoken, is probably the most impressive performance of her career to date. In Finnish terms, her voice on ”War” could well be described as ”Pikku Myy* on steroids.” Or perhaps Pikku Myy in the grip of political fervor. The revolution is happening here and now! However, Blegvad’s lyrics are not as political as Cutler and Hodgkinson’s elsewhere on the album; instead, the lyrics in ”War” take a surrealistic look at how war came to be.

*Pikku Myy (Little My) is a feisty girl character in Tove Jansson’s Moomin books.

Thunder and herbs
Conjugated sacred verbs
Musicians with gongs
Fertilised an egg with song
Asleep in the sphere
Her foetus was a knot of fear
She butted with her horn
Split an egg and war was born
A miracle of hate
She banged her spoon against her plate
Upon her spoon this motto
Wonderfully designed
”Violence completes the partial mind”
– Peter Blegvad (Ote ”Warin” lyriikoista)

“Living In The Heart Of Beast”

Tim Hodgkinson’s 15-minute composition ”Living In The Heart Of Beast” was the most ambitious and challenging music Henry Cow had ever made. Hodkinson had been working on the composition for about two years, and excerpts had been played live before its final completion. Like many other Henry Cow songs, ”Living In The Heart Of Beast” strives to avoid repetition at all costs, even in its rhythms, and the tempo of the song remains almost constant motion throughout its duration. The music is very dense. There is constantly something new happening, and Hodgkinson introduces new melodic material at a furious pace. The sung sections alternate with long, sometimes very aggressive and sometimes atonal instrumental sections. The virtuoso instrumental section that begins around the ten-minute mark, with Cutler drumming in his typically heavy style, is one of the most inspiring moments in Henry Cow’s repertoire. Clearly, communists make better music than degenerate bourgeois!

The composition is strongly inspired by modern art music, and Hodgkinson’s organ parts in particular show clear influences from the music of Olivier Messiaen, which is not surprising given that the celebrated French maestro was one of Hodgkinson’s most admired composers. It is worth mentioning here that Hodgkinson never used synthesizers in Henry Cow. This was at least partly because Henry Cow was a poor band and synthesizers were very expensive in the 1970s. Hodgkinson therefore had to make do with a piano and a cheap Farfisa organ, which was often run through various basic effects units. For these reasons, Hodgkinson’s keyboard sounds differ significantly from those of many other prog keyboard wizards who worked with larger budgets. Hodgkinson managed to turn his limited resources into a strength, and his sound does not feel overly tied to his era, as has been the case with many other keyboard players in their weaker moments.

In ”Living In The Heart Of Beast”, it is also worth noting how different Dagmar Krause sounds compared to ”War”. After the angry and rough growls of ”War”, she starts ”Living In The Heart Of Beast” with a really clear and beautiful voice, demonstrating her versatility as a vocalist. Throughout the 15-minute song, she effectively and skillfully varies her singing style to match the music and the drama of the lyrics. And the demands were high. The challenge of ”Living In The Heart Of Beast” is evident in the fact that even Krause, an extremely talented singer, had to rehearse her vocal parts intensively for two weeks to get it right. Krause made a big impression on the band with her work ethic, stubbornly battling her way through the labyrinth of time signatures and demanding retakes until she was completely satisfied with her performance.

Krause does impressive work on vocals, but ”Living In The Heart Of Beast” was originally an entirely instrumental composition and was intended to remain so. However, when Slapp Happy joined the band, Henry Cow became interested in the possibility of bringing their political message across more clearly in the form of lyrics, and of course Dagmar Krause had to be given something to sing. Such a resource could not be left untapped!

Peter Blegvad, who wrote most of Slapp Happy’s lyrics, was tasked with writing lyrics to extremely complex music. Hodgkinson gave Blegvad themes he wanted her to write about (including ”sense of self in impotence” and ”destiny does not rule – in action you escape limiting sense of limitations”). Blegvad set to work enthusiastically, but also a little fearfully, wanting to prove his worth. He struggled with the lyrics for three weeks. However, according to his own account, the end result was just a couple of strange verses in which a woman throws raisins at piles of bones… The lyrics were immediately rejected, and Hodgkinson ended up writing the lyrics himself. Blegvad’s failure at this task weakened his position in the band.

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 stillness
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.
– Tim Hodgkinson (excerpt of ”LiTHoB” lyrics)

The song title ”Living In The Heart Of Beast” refers to the beast in the Book of Revelation, and Hodgkinson’s lyrics liken this creature to the chaos of modern capitalist cities. The lyrics tell of people struggling in this confusing environment that is alien to human nature and describe the struggle to escape it. The song leaves the outcome of the battle somewhat open, but at least the optimistic and almost majestic marching section at the end, with lyrics such as ”Now is the time to begin to determine directions…”, suggests that there is hope.

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.
-Tim Hodgkinson (excerpt of ”LiTHoB” lyrics)

”Beginning: The Long March”

”Beginning: The Long March” is the first improvised track on the album. The music of ”Beginning: The Long March” is like a huge machine violently jerking and banging its way forward. Perhaps a rusty tank that, after years of lying in a muddy grave on the battlefield, jolts back to life to resume its work of destruction.

The music of the song is initially powerful, aggressive, and percussive, but occasionally quietens down to a faint hum, only to grow again into a clanging and rattling industrial nightmare. The song is an interesting experiment in sound, but in my opinion, it does not quite measure up to the improvisations of Unrest.

An alternative mix of ”Beginning: The Long March” was also made, with vocals sung by Krause and lyrics written by Cutler. This very different version is included as a bonus track on the CD edition released by ESD.

”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners”

”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners” is the only composition by Fred Frith, who dominated Unrest, to appear on the album. Frith’s seven-minute composition begins directly with Krause’s vocals and Cutler’s lively drumming. Like Hodgkinson’s lyrics in ”Living In The Heart Of The Beast,” Cutler’s lyrics also move in an apocalyptic mood, juxtaposing the communist revolution with the paradise that will come after the end of the Bible, mixed with Greek myths about Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, and who knows what else. The lyrics are at least as twisty as the music! The song’s title comes from a verse in the Old Testament’s Song of Songs. The theme of ”the road to revolution through struggle” in Hodgkinson and Cutler’s lyrics is so similar that it can’t be a coincidence. The lyrics of both songs are also characterized by extreme seriousness. These guys are so serious that it’s almost comical. Personally, however, I have always appreciated art that is taken seriously. Even at the risk of being ridiculed.

Musically, ”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners” is a rather complex piece, but not nearly as challenging for the listener as the constantly shifting ”Living In The Heart Of The Beast.” The song has a hymn-like melody, but also a march-like rhythm and more repetition than Frith’s earlier compositions or Henry Cow songs in general.

The part heard around the five-minute mark, where the piano plays an atonal solo over Greaves’ bass ostinato, is truly impressive, as is the finale, which returns to the main theme with massive pathos accompanied by Krause’s vocals. The ending is magnificent and one of the most emotional moments in Henry Cow’s music (which may not be the band’s strong suit in general).

”Morning Star”

The second improvisation on the album, ”Morning Star,” is a wild and chaotic piece in which Hodgkinson’s virtuoso clarinet playing plays a major role. Cutler also gets to bang on his drum kit to his heart’s content. The song has some really great moments, but it also fades into meaningless avant-garde noise at times. Fortunately, at the end, Hodgkinson’s wildly strange looping clarinet riff lifts the mood again and brings the album to a dignified close.

You can find more to read about Henry Cow here

Diffusion

In economics, diffusion is the opposite of fusion. It refers to the division of a single company into two or more smaller companies. The surprising merger of Henry Cow and Slapp Happy had borne fruit for a short time, but in the long run, the clash of very different personalities and political and musical ambitions made it impossible to maintain the balance.

”Fred fired me because I couldn’t play F sharp diminished seventh”
– Peter Blegvad

The Slapp Happy/Henry Cow fusion broke up before it even got properly started. This was partly because Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad simply weren’t skilled enough musicians to play Henry Cow’s music. Or, as John Greaves put it, ”They couldn’t play anything.” Greaves’ comment is certainly an exaggeration, but compared to the Henry Cow crew, Moore and Blegvad’s playing skills were very limited. In the end, Blegvad and Moore had very little to play on the entire album, as the members of Henry Cow were more than capable of handling all the instrumental parts themselves and were not willing to compromise on their compositions to allow certain sections to be played by Slapp Happy (with a few exceptions). Moore and Blegvad were able to participate a little in the improvisations, and Moore in particular was useful in the tape loops and effects on those songs. Krause, on the other hand, was a valuable new addition to the Henry Cow mosaic. Finally, the band had a figurehead for concerts and, more importantly, a charismatic and technically highly skilled singer to spread the band’s message.

”We needed Dagmar. We didn’t need Anthony and Peter – they couldn’t play anything!”
– John Greaves

Problems with Slapp Happy’s members escalated after the album was recorded, when the reunited band began rehearsing for a tour. By this point, it had become clear that Henry Cow’s music was too difficult for Moore and Blegvad to play live, which caused frustration on both sides. On the other hand, Slapp Happy’s songs didn’t really work in a live format, and they weren’t very keen on mixing them with Henry Cow’s repertoire anyway. Hodgkinson in particular opposed this, feeling that Slapp Happy’s music would water down Henry Cow’s message and carefully considered musical direction. Anthony Moore did not feel comfortable performing live in general. Blegvad suggested adding performance art to the concerts to make himself more useful, but these ideas were rejected. Blegvad also did not feel comfortable in Henry Cow’s extremely serious atmosphere and was not as politically committed as the rest of the group.

The final nail in the coffin was the breakdown of Moore and Krause’s marriage (Krause’s affair with Frith didn’t help matters). Moore and Krause separated, and Moore also left the band. Blegvad soon followed his most important ally, either getting fired or resigning, depending on who you ask. John Greaves was disappointed by Moore and Blegvad’s departure, but the other members of Henry Cow were not particularly affected by the change. This was especially true since the most important member of Slapp Happy, Dagmar Krause, decided to stay with the band. After the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow fusion broke up, In A Praise Of Learning was released under the name Henry Cow alone.

In Praise Of Learning is perhaps Henry Cow’s most relentless, harsh, and challenging album, even though the band’s last studio album, Western Culture (1979), contains some even more complex music. There is something so unyielding and angular about the music on In Praise Of Learning, and its political message is so deeply ingrained that I can well understand why the album might be too challenging for the casual listener. However, after listening to it for some twenty years, I have come to find it a truly rewarding experience. In Praise Of Learning may not be quite as perfect an album as its predecessor, Unrest, but it is still just as enjoyable in its own way.

In Praise Of Learning is one of the pioneering works of avant-prog and one of the first masterpieces of that subgenre of progressive rock.

After In Praise Of Learning, Henry Cow slowly began the process of severing ties with their record label, Virgin, in order to become completely self-sufficient and able to operate as freely as possible outside the music industry. This marked the beginning of a new era of complete freedom for Henry Cow, but it also sowed the seeds of the band’s demise.

Best tracks: “War”, “Living In The Heart Of Beast”, “”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners”

The quotes from musicians are taken from the following books: Benjamin Piekut: Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem, Einar Trond: Henry Cow: An Analysis of Avant Garde Rock, Mike Barnes: A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970’s

Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

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Tracks:

Side A

1. ”War” Anthony Moore, Peter Blegvad 2:25
2. ”Living in the Heart of the Beast” Tim Hodgkinson 15:30

Side B
3. ”Beginning: The Long March” Henry Cow, Slapp Happy 6:26
4. ”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners” Fred Frith, Chris Cutler 7:02
5. ”Morning Star” Henry Cow, Slapp Happy 6:05

Tim Hodgkinson: organ, piano, alto saxophone, clarinet Fred Frith: guitars, violin, xylophone, piano John Greaves: bass guitar, piano, vocals Chris Cutler: drums, percussion, xylophone Lindsay Cooper: bassoon, oboe, recorder, vocals Dagmar Krause: vocals Peter Blegvad: guitar, vocals, clarinet Anthony Moore: piano, electronics, tapes

Guests:

Geoff Leigh: sopraanosaksofoni (”War”), Mongezi Feza: trumpetti (”War”), Phil Becque: oskillaattori (”Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners”)

Producer: Henry Cow, Slapp Happy and Phil Becque

Label: Virgin