Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem

Last updated

Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem
Henry Cow - The World is a Problem.jpg
First edition book cover
AuthorBenjamin Piekut
Cover artist Ray Smith
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Henry Cow
Genre Biography, music criticism
Publisher Duke University Press
Publication date
September 27, 2019
Media typePrint (hardcover and softcover)
Pages512
ISBN 978-1-4780-0405-9 (hardcover)
781.66092/2—dc23
LC Class ML3916 .P53 2019

Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem is a 2019 book by American academic Benjamin Piekut. It is a biography and analysis of the English experimental rock [1] group Henry Cow and their turbulent existence between 1968 and 1978. The book is Piekut's second and was published in September 2019 in the United States by Duke University Press in both hard- and soft-cover.

Contents

Piekut analyses Henry Cow's music, their political stance and how they functioned as a collective. He sourced material for the book from interviews with members of the band and their notebooks and diaries, from magazine and newspaper articles, and from journal papers and books. The World Is a Problem was generally well received by reviewers, although one found sections of the book "heavy going", [2] and another felt it should have addressed issues like "why Henry Cow thought their awkward and somewhat mannered music could ever be popular with audiences". [3]

Background

Piekut is a historian of experimental music and an associate professor of music at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He had previously written Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits (2011), had edited Tomorrow Is the Question: New Directions in Experimental Music Studies (2014), and co-edited with George E. Lewis Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies (2016). [4] Piekut has also published several papers on Henry Cow, including "Music for Socialism, London 1977" (2019), [5] and "Another Version of Ourselves: The Enigmas of Improvised Subjectivity" (2018). [6]

Piekut sourced the content of The World Is a Problem from interviews (published and unpublished), notebooks and diaries, magazine and newspaper articles, journal papers, and books. [7] He conducted his own interviews between 2011 and 2016 with all living members of Henry Cow and those associated with the band, [8] and was granted access to personal archives of several players, including Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper and Peter Blegvad. [9] Piekut wrote in the book's Preface that where written records and memories disagreed, "only by reading many of them together and against one another has it been possible to determine what actually happened with any accuracy." [10] [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2]

The sock painting on the book's cover is by artist Ray Smith and was originally used on the cover of Henry Cow's second album, Unrest (1974). Piekut took the book's subtitle, "The World Is a Problem" from a statement Hodgkinson made in one of his notebooks, paraphrasing Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed , that Henry Cow wants to "transform the world; the world is a problem, not a given". [13] [14]

Synopsis

The World Is a Problem chronicles the history of Henry Cow and their exploration of music and activism, from their inception in 1968 to their break-up in 1978. It explains how Henry Cow were at odds with the status quo, the music industry and the world at large. They were politically outspoken and embraced Marxism and Maoism. They were not content to settle and continually experimented with new ideas. The brief merger with Slapp Happy in 1975, the formation of the Orckestra with the Mike Westbrook Brass Band and folk singer Frankie Armstrong in 1977, and the establishment of the Rock in Opposition movement in 1978, were some of several ventures they initiated.

Henry Cow's approach to composing, including collective composition, is discussed. The musical structure and lyrics (where present) of many of their more prominent works, including Frith's "Ruins" and Hodgkinson's "Living in the Heart of the Beast", are also analysed in detail. The band improvised much of their music, particularly during live performances, and this style of playing included free improvisation, studio improvisation to tape (for example on their 1974 album, Unrest ), and open improvisation. [lower-alpha 3]

The book analyses of the nature of the band and the way they functioned. They were a collective with a strict work-ethic that demanded total commitment from its members. They held regular meetings where all aspects of the group, its music and activities were debated. This tended to suppress individualism, making the band more important than its members, which strained relationships within the group, and with partners on the outside.

To describe Henry Cow's internal conflict, Piekut coined the term "contraviviality", which he defines as "the adversarial relations" that result from "an improvisational stance of living that matched the musical form of [the group]'s modus operandi". [16] Interactions between group members were functional, but cold and impersonal. Domestic matters were not discussed – the group was not the place to raise personal problems. Disagreements and disputes frequently surfaced in meetings, but were often left unresolved. Discord reached a head in early 1978 after the Sunrise recording sessions in Switzerland, which led to the band breaking up six months later.

The author noted that Georgie Born, one of the last members to join the group, described Henry Cow's collectivism as "a kind of distributed autism ... in which the enormous intellectual and human potential of the individuals ... were not matched by the quality of the encompassing everyday relationships across the ... totality of the group". [17] Piekut asserted that Henry Cow "held themselves together in an ongoing state of tension", [18] and that they believed that "struggle, hardship, and contention" were necessary for "aesthetic success". [19]

Reception

Reviewing Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem in the British progressive rock magazine, Prog , Sid Smith called it an "impressively detailed account [that] chronicle[s] [Henry Cow's] triumphs and camaraderie". [20] He added that through their "often-turbulent existence", the band's struggle "against the prevailing tides of commerciality and popular culture ... has a heroic quality about it". [20] Smith wrote that if the success of a music biography is measured by the desire to revisit the group's albums, then this book is "enormously successful". He said Piekut's "forensic examination" of Henry Cow's recordings adds another dimension to their music. Smith concluded that the book "is a fitting tribute to Henry Cow's importance and legacy in a notable but marginalised movement of 20th-century music." [20]

Phil Howitt wrote in the Canterbury scene magazine, FaceLift that while Henry Cow may not have been part of the Canterbury scene, Piekut's book can be read as "almost a parallel narrative to that of the Canterbury scene", given the number of musicians from that "genre" who either played in, or were associated with, the band. [2] Howitt described The World Is a Problem as a "definitive biography" that is "meticulously researched" leaving few stones unturned. [2] He said that just as Henry Cow were "an intensely serious band", this is an "intensely serious book" that requires "considerable powers of concentration and assiduousness". Howitt found the analyses of their different types of improvisation and their political alignments "heavy going". He also felt that the in-depth descriptions of some of the band's compositions were "somewhat unnecessary" as they would only benefit a limited audience. [2] What was also missing, Howett felt, was a timeline of events covering Henry Cow's history. But overall Howett called The World Is a Problem "a remarkable project" that is "compelling [and] unique". [2]

In a review of the book in The Free Jazz Collective, Phil Stringer wrote that Piekut has written a "fascinating and immensely readable account" of Henry Cow and the "remarkable music" they created in response to the world they found themselves in. [21] He noted how Piekut highlights the contradictions that result from a collective attempting to balance the pursuit of an ideal and the practicalities of daily living. Stringer felt that the book could do with a chronology and a discography, but added that revisiting the band's music was rewarding and felt that it "remains as relevant [today] as it did in the 1970s". [21] Stringer concluded that Piekut's The World Is a Problem made him think of Nietzsche's statement in Thus Spoke Zarathustra : "One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star', and stated that Henry Cow's experiments in collective music "gave birth to many dancing stars". [21]

Rupert Loydell was a little more critical of the book. In a review published in Punk & Post-Punk, he described Piekut as "an interesting critic" who "doesn’t do much more than arrange and re-present information ... in a highly readable manner". [22] Loydell said the book is "a coherent and engaging history of one of the strangest and off-the-wall bands of the late twentieth century", [3] but added that it "doesn't ... show the band in a good light". It reveals how Henry Cow were inclined to "take themselves ... way-to-seriously" and were unable to "empathize with each other" or "understand opposing points-of-view". [22] Personal issues were "anathema" to them and they felt no qualms about sacrificing individuals "for the communal good". [23] Loydell stated that Henry Cow "were political in the extreme", which pervaded their music and the way they conducted themselves, but felt that, "[i]n the end they would pretty much implode from their political ambition and discourse, along with their personal social ineptitudes". [22] Loydell added that the book's afterword "feels like an aside" and does not address issues like "why Henry Cow thought their awkward and somewhat mannered music could ever be popular with audiences". [3]

Reviewing the book in Jazz Journal , Nic Jones called Piekut's analysis of Henry Cow, "borderline forensic", and his "attention to detail ... exemplary", but felt that the author focuses too much on their music and the "rigours of the road", and neglects the "human" side of the band, for example their "dogged determination" to keep going. [24] Jones said Henry Cow's music was always difficult to categorize. They "stretched the rock form" beyond many progressive rock bands of the day, many of whom relied and capitalized on "received virtuosity". [24] Jones concluded that one of the book's "lasting impression[s]" is that Henry Cow's "very existence was a strong and deep-running spur", and that the "cult followings" its members continue to receive shows that "'difficult' music has and probably always will be the stuff of cults." [24]

Notes

  1. ↑ Cutler remarked that where Piekut had to interpret different people's accounts of events, it is likely that not everyone in the band will concur with his analysis. Cutler said that "subjectivities are profoundly complex", and attempts to "unearth things that were already hidden when they were current" will be "guided by [personal] biases and interests". [11]
  2. ↑ Frith said "I learned a lot about memory" while working with Piekut, "how we each remembered things differently ... not emotions or atmospheres, but facts!" Frith complimented Piekut on the book's "meticulously martialled and researched 'facts'", but added that "something is missing – it doesn’t feel like us, a lot of the humor is missing, the surreal escapades, the extraordinary generosity of folks who remain close friends to this day." [12]
  3. ↑ Piekut distinguishes between open and free improvisation; he defines the former as "improvisation without a plan or necessary telos", and the latter as "a narrower genre marker referring to John Stevens, Derek Bailey, and their European confreres". [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Frith</span> English musician and composer

Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Cow</span> English avant-rock group

Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, bassist John Greaves, and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members alongside Frith and Hodgkinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Cutler</span> English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist

Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and (briefly) Gong/Mothergong. He has collaborated with many musicians and groups, including Fred Frith, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins, Peter Blegvad, Telectu and The Residents, and has appeared on over 100 recordings. Cutler's career spans over four decades and he still performs actively throughout the world.

<i>Legend</i> (Henry Cow album) 1973 studio album by Henry Cow

The Henry Cow Legend is the debut album of British avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios over three weeks in May and June 1973, mixed in July 1973, and released in September 1973.

<i>Unrest</i> (Henry Cow album) 1974 studio album by Henry Cow

Unrest is an album by British avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1974. It was their second album and was released in May 1974. It was their first album including oboe and bassoon player Lindsay Cooper, who replaced saxophonist Geoff Leigh. American critic Glenn Kenny said Cooper's presence on the album grounded the band in European art music.

<i>Desperate Straights</i> 1975 studio album by Slapp Happy with Henry Cow

Desperate Straights is a collaborative studio album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow. It was recorded at Virgin Records' Manor Studio and Nova Sound Studios in November 1974, and released in February 1975. It was Slapp Happy's second album for Virgin, and they had invited Henry Cow to record with them.

<i>In Praise of Learning</i> 1975 studio album by Henry Cow with Slapp Happy

In Praise of Learning is a studio album by British avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1975, and released in May 1975. On this album, Henry Cow had expanded to include members of Slapp Happy, who had merged with the group after the two had collaborated on Desperate Straights in 1974. The merger ended after recording In Praise of Learning when Peter Blegvad and Anthony Moore from Slapp Happy left the group.

<i>Western Culture</i> (album) 1979 studio album by Henry Cow

Western Culture is a studio album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Sunrise Studios in Kirchberg, Switzerland in January and July–August 1978. It was their last album and was released on Henry Cow's own private label, Broadcast, in 1979. Later editions appeared on Interzone in the US and Celluloid in France. Only the UK Broadcast pressing used the custom label artwork design.

<i>Gravity</i> (Fred Frith album) 1980 studio album by Fred Frith

Gravity is a 1980 solo album by English guitarist and composer Fred Frith. It was Frith's second solo album, and his first since Henry Cow disbanded in 1978. It was originally released in the United States on the Residents' Ralph Records, as the first of three solo albums Frith would record for the label. Gravity has been described as an avant-garde "dance" record that draws on rhythm and dance from folk music across the world.

<i>Hopes and Fears</i> (Art Bears album) 1978 studio album by Art Bears

Hopes and Fears is the debut album by the English avant-rock group Art Bears. It comprises tracks by Henry Cow, Art Bears's predecessor, recorded at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg in Switzerland in January 1978, and tracks by Art Bears, recorded at Kaleidophon Studios in London in March 1978.

<i>The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set</i> 2009 box set by Henry Cow

The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RēR Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of almost 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings made between 1972 and 1978 from concerts, radio broadcasts, one-off projects, events and the studio. Included are new compositions, over four hours of free improvisation, and live performances of some of Henry Cow's original LP repertoire.

"Erk Gah" is a song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English experimental rock group Henry Cow. "Erk Gah" was performed live by the band between 1976 and 1978, but was never recorded in the studio; three live performances of the song would later be released on the live album Stockholm & Göteborg in 2008 and the compilation The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set in 2009. In 1993, fifteen years after Henry Cow disbanded, Hodgkinson recorded the composition under the title "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine" for his solo album Each in Our Own Thoughts (1994), featuring former Henry Cow members Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, and Dagmar Krause.

"Living in the Heart of the Beast" is a 1975 song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in 1975 by Henry Cow with Slapp Happy, who had recently merged with Henry Cow after the two groups had recorded a collaborative album, Desperate Straights the previous year. The song was released on In Praise of Learning in May 1975 by Virgin Records. The song's title is a quote from the nineteenth-century Cuban poet and liberation fighter José Martí. "Living in the Heart of the Beast" was the first of two "epic" compositions Hodgkinson wrote for Henry Cow, the second being "Erk Gah" (1976), later known as "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Orckestra</span> English avant-garde jazz and rock group

The Orckestra were a 12-piece English avant-garde jazz and avant-rock ensemble formed in March 1977 with the merger of avant-rock group Henry Cow, the Mike Westbrook Brass Band and folk singer Frankie Armstrong. They gave two performances in London in March and June 1977, and then embarked on two tours of Europe between September 1977 and May 1978, where they performed in Italy, France and Sweden.

"War" (originally entitled "War (Is Energy Enslaved)") is a 1975 song composed by Anthony Moore with lyrics by Peter Blegvad for the English avant-pop group Slapp Happy. It was recorded in November 1974 by Slapp Happy with Henry Cow for their collaborative album, Desperate Straights, but was only released in May 1975 on their second collaborative album, Henry Cow's In Praise of Learning.

"Ruins" is a 1974 instrumental composed by Fred Frith for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in February and March 1974 by Henry Cow, and released on their May 1974 album, Unrest by Virgin Records.

"Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners" is a 1975 song composed by Fred Frith with lyrics by Chris Cutler for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in February and March 1975 by Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, and released in May 1975 on their collaborative album, In Praise of Learning by Virgin Records.

"Nine Funerals of the Citizen King" is a 1973 song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in May and June 1973 by Henry Cow, and released in September 1973 on their debut album, Legend by Virgin Records.

<i>The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow</i> 2019 box set by Henry Cow

The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow is a seventeen-CD plus one-DVD box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow; it was released by RēR Megacorp in November 2019. The box set comprises the previously released 2006 Henry Cow Box and the 2009 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set, totalling over sixteen hours. A bonus CD: Ex Box – Collected Fragments 1971–1978 was given to advance subscribers of the 2019 Box Redux, and contains newly recovered and previously unreleased recordings, plus the contents of the 2006 box set bonus CD-single: "Unreleased Orckestra Extract". The 2019 Box Redux plus the Ex Box bonus CD contains all the officially released studio and live recordings of Henry Cow, excluding "Bellycan" as released on the 1991 East Side Digital version of Legend, and the complete version of "The Glove" from the 1991 East Side Digital version of Unrest.

"Teenbeat" is a 1973 suite of three instrumentals, "Teenbeat Introduction", "Teenbeat" and "Teenbeat Reprise", by the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. The three pieces were composed by Henry Cow, Fred Frith and John Greaves, and Fred Frith respectively. They were recorded in May and June 1973, and released on Henry Cow's debut album, Legend by Virgin Records in September 1973.

References

  1. ↑ Lake, Steve; Dallas, Karl (April 24, 1976). "Prophet, Seers, and Sages". Melody Maker . ISSN   0025-9012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Howitt, Phil (November 4, 2019). "Henry Cow – the World is a Problem – Benjamin Piekut (Duke University Press)". FaceList. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Loydell 2020, p. 151.
  4. ↑ "Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem Book Release". New York University College of Arts & Science . Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  5. ↑ Piekut, Benjamin (2019). "Music for Socialism, London 1977". Twentieth-Century Music. 16 (1): 67–93. doi:10.1017/S1478572219000100. ISSN   1478-5722. S2CID   166627020.
  6. ↑ Piekut, Benjamin (2018). "Another Version of Ourselves: The Enigmas of Improvised Subjectivity" (PDF). Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. 14 (1). ISSN   1557-2935 . Retrieved October 28, 2019.
  7. ↑ Piekut 2019a, pp. viii–ix, 457–478.
  8. ↑ Piekut 2019a, pp. 455–456.
  9. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 456.
  10. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. ix.
  11. ↑ Cutler, Chris. "PIEKUT, BEN: Henry Cow:The World is a Problem (hardback)". ReR Megacorp. Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  12. ↑ Rees, Rick (June 19, 2022). "Fred Frith Interview". The Non-Writer. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
  13. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 151.
  14. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 416 (Introduction, footnote 127).
  15. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 26.
  16. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 242.
  17. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 283.
  18. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 147.
  19. ↑ Piekut 2019a, p. 156.
  20. 1 2 3 Smith, Sid (October 2019). "Socks and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll". Prog . No. 102. p. 117. ISSN   2050-2745.
  21. 1 2 3 Stringer, Phil (February 17, 2020). "Benjamin Piekut – Henry Cow: The World is a Problem (Duke University Press, 2019) *****". The Free Jazz Collective. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  22. 1 2 3 Loydell 2020, p. 149.
  23. ↑ Loydell 2020, p. 150.
  24. 1 2 3 Jones, Nic (February 19, 2020). "Henry Cow. The World Is A Problem". Jazz Journal . Ashford, Kent. ISSN   2041-8833 . Retrieved April 26, 2020.

Works cited

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.