In Praise of Learning

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The album cover art work was by artist Ray Smith and was the third of three of his "paint socks" to feature on Henry Cow's albums, the first being on Legend (1973).

Smith was not credited on the original LP release of the album. He was not happy with the text on the cover and asked that it be omitted, as was done on Legend's cover. But his request was denied. When he asked to be credited under a pseudonym, that was also denied and his name was left off the credits. [15] He was later credited on the CD releases of the album.

Hegarty and Halliwel suggest that Smith's red sock is "an antidote" to the "extravagant" album cover art work of commercial progressive rock bands. [14]

Remixes and reissues

The album was remixed in 1985 for a vinyl reissue on the band's own Broadcast label. This remix was used in the 1991 East Side Digital Records CD issue, with one extra track, "Lovers of Gold" (an alternate version of "Beginning: The Long March" by Chris Cutler). [16]

In 2000 Recommended Records and East Side Digital issued a remastered version of In Praise of Learning on CD with the original 1975 mix and without the bonus track. The "Lovers of Gold" bonus track would later reappear on the Cow Cabinet of Curiosities disc in The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009).

Reception

In Praise of Learning
HenryCow AlbumCover InPraiseOfLearning.jpg
Studio album by
Henry Cow with Slapp Happy
Released9 May 1975 (1975-05-09)
RecordedFebruary–March 1975
Studio The Manor, Oxfordshire, England
Genre Avant-rock
Length37:28
Label Virgin (UK)
Producer Henry Cow, Slapp Happy and Phil Becque
Henry Cow chronology
Desperate Straights
(1975)		In Praise of Learning
(1975)		 Concerts
(1976)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [17]
Christgau's Record Guide B [18]

A review at AllMusic called In Praise of Learning, the result of Henry Cow and Slapp Happy's brief merger, "stunning" and "bracing", and said "No one has ever, before or since, sounded like this incarnation of Henry Cow". [17] The reviewer described the Moore/Blegvad composition "War" as "enormous [in] proportion and power" that would not have succeeded in the hands of the "relatively quiet trio". [17] Music journalist Robert Christgau described the album's lyrics as "literary if not pompous in print", but said Krause's "abrasively arty, Weill-derived" singing "manage[s] to find a context for [the] words". [18] Christgau complimented Frith's atonal piano, but felt that the musique concrète on side two of the LP is "less than winning". [18]

In another review of the album in Let It Rock , Dave Laing said that Krause's vocals have the same "brittle style" that American singer and songwriter Judy Collins used in "Pirate Jenny" and the Marat/Sade . [2] He was impressed with Hodgkinson's "Living in the Heart of the Beast", its "long controlled lyric" and its "determined fermenting movement to its climax". Laing noted, however, that the political themes of the album are damped a little by Blegvad and Moore's "War", which he felt is "musically limp and politically liberal", and by the presence of the two "experimental" instrumentals. [2] But Laing concluded that it is still "an unexpectedly fine album, pointing a way forward for both avant-garde and 'committed' music in Britain". [2]

Reviewing the album in Melody Maker , Steve Lake called In Praise of Learning "the album of the year". [19] He said it is "revolutionary" in the sense that it is both "innovatory" and promoting "a revolution in government". With quotes from Mao Zedong, "no punches [are] pulled ... all the cards are on the table", although Lake did feel that Henry Cow tend to be "over-scholarly" at times. [19] He described the music on the album as "nothing less than staggering", and called "Living in the Heart of the Beast" the LP's "tour-de-force". [19] Lake said the 15-minute song is "threatening and propulsive", and culminates in an "almost majestic theme". Finally, Lake described the instrumental "Beginning: The Long March" as "the finest use made by any rock band of electronics and free form." [19]

Music critic Ian MacDonald wrote in New Musical Express that In Praise of Learning "manages to be simultaneously the group's most extreme and most accessible album so far". He called it "a demonstrative, theatrical, and didactic record" that blends ideology with art. [6] MacDonald described "War" as "downbeat mythologising and exploding musique concrete" that "heaves and thrashes like an octopus caught in a ship's propellor[ sic ]". "Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners" starts off well, but is let down later by pretentious lyrics. "Living in the Heart of the Beast" also begins well, but despite "a remarkable instrumental interlude", it "sinks awkwardly to earth beneath the would-be climactic exhortations of the finale". [6] MacDonald said "In Praise of Learning is, like all efforts by compulsive perfectionists, imperfect – but aimed high". He praised the group for their "risk-taking" and added that "we should be thankful for the ... commitment that leads a group like Henry Cow to pursue so single-mindedly the limits of the feasible in our music". [6]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."War" Anthony Moore, Peter Blegvad 2:25
2."Living in the Heart of the Beast" Tim Hodgkinson 15:30
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
3."Beginning: The Long March"Henry Cow, Slapp Happy6:26
4."Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners" Fred Frith, Chris Cutler 7:02
5."Morning Star"Henry Cow, Slapp Happy6:05
1991 CD re-issue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Lovers of Gold"Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, Cutler6:28

Personnel

Henry Cow
Slapp Happy
Additional musicians
Production

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The title of "War (Is Energy Enslaved)" was taken from the line "For war is energy enslaved, but thy religion" in the poem, Vala, or The Four Zoas – Night the Ninth by William Blake. [3] [4]
  2. ↑ Other poems in this series include, "In Praise of Communism", "In Praise of Doubt", "In Praise of Illegal Work", "In Praise of Study" and "In Praise of the Work of the Party". [11]

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References

  1. ↑ Piekut 2019, pp. 200–201.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Laing, Dave (September 1975). "Henry Cow/Slapp Happy: In Praise of Learning (Virgin V2027)" . Let It Rock . Retrieved 27 November 2019– via Rock's Backpages.
  3. ↑ Cutler 2019, p. 55.
  4. ↑ W. H. Stevenson (12 May 2014). Blake: The Complete Poems. Routledge. p. 448. ISBN   978-1-317-64436-1.
  5. ↑ Piekut 2019, pp. 175–178.
  6. 1 2 3 4 MacDonald, Ian (7 June 1975). "Henry Cow: In Praise of Learning" . New Musical Express . ISSN   0028-6362 . Retrieved 11 June 2018– via Rock's Backpages.
  7. 1 2 3 Cutler 2009, p. 12.
  8. ↑ Cutler 2009, p. 39.
  9. ↑ "Chris Cutler interview". Chris Cutler homepage. Retrieved 15 November 2007.
  10. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 187.
  11. ↑ "Brecht's Works in English: A Bibliography". University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries . Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  12. ↑ Hegarty & Halliwell 2011, pp. 155–156.
  13. ↑ "Song of Solomon: Chapter 6". King James Bible Online. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  14. 1 2 Hegarty & Halliwell 2011, p. 155.
  15. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 197.
  16. ↑ Ramond, Michel; Roussel, Patrice; Vuilleumier, Stephane. "Discography of Fred Frith". New York Downtown Scene and Other Miscellaneous Discographies. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  17. 1 2 3 "In Praise of Learning". AllMusic . Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  18. 1 2 3 Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: H". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved 26 February 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Lake, Steve (5 July 1975). "Henry Cow: In Praise of Learning (Virgin)". Melody Maker . ISSN   0025-9012.

Works cited

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