Henry Cow appreciation society

I came into Henry Cow through the Hatfield debut - (Geoff Leigh, courtesy of Henry Cow) - I thought HC was the name of some 'solo' guy.....
My first purchase was the 2LP Concerts album, back in the mid-90's, I fell in love immediately with the BRILLIANT 1st side. The rest took me a *lot* of time to digest. Then, not too long after I came across the first 'sock' album LegEnd, that was it - HENRY COW were a favourite. Over the years I managed to get all the Cow albums and the many LP's affiliated with HC - Art Bears, Fred Frith, Slapp Happy, John Greaves, News From Babel, Lindsay Cooper etc. and they are still all a fascinating listen, each and every one. I still think of the debut as a 'Canterbury' album. What an outstanding bunch of highly intelligent musicians who managed to think outside the box and make it all work.

Edited by Tom Ozric - May 13 2016 at 17:34

ALotOfBottle wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: Anyone here own the live release cut in Stockholm?  One of those I'm still trying to digest - complete headscratcher of a listen. I imagine it would be a lot easier had I attended the gig. Yeah, I've beem searching for the Stockholm tapes on Soulseek, nobody shares those (except for one guy, who shares the whole album as a private folder). Anyway, I'll look some more. And as always, I will probably end up buying the CD at a rip-off price. I really like Legend-era Henry Cow, so I found this video extremely interesting. And suprisingly I can understand about 35% of French which I have never learnt! Anyway, highly recommended!

Head to the ReR megacorp website, the CD is part of the sale - £5 UK!!

Padraic wrote: Rednight wrote: All this love for a band I hate (as well as Area). Two of the greatest bands ever.

I realise the Cow are not everybody's cup of tea.  The first album I heard was Desperate Straights, which was more of a Slapp Happy album (the result of the 'merger' between the two bands).  Despite loving it, 'Caucasian Lullabye' was inexplicable!

Lindsay was a really interesting figure if you consider all her political activity, too.

Flight123 wrote:

That Lindsay and Dagmar ?

All this love for a band I hate (as well as Area).

True.  Wigwam and the Cow the same night, it's not a concert, it's a miracle. 

Mammmmaaaa ! 

Someone wrote somewhere that the subsequent projects of Henry Cow's members would be enough to provide a lifetime of satisfying listening.  The musical bond was forged in the face of adversity as their label (Virgin) lost interest and the band took matters into their own hands.

I consider myself lucky at having seen them twice, in Nottingham (UK), in 1977 (Feb. then Oct.) - my most treasured musical memories!