Henry Cow Box

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Henry Cow Box
HenryCow AlbumCover HCBox.jpg
Box set by
Henry Cow
ReleasedDecember 2006 (2006-12)
Recorded1973–1978
GenreAvant-rock
Length329:47
LabelRecommended (UK)
ProducerHenry Cow and others
Henry Cow chronology
The Virgin Years – Souvenir Box
(1991) 		Henry Cow Box
(2006) 		Stockholm & Göteborg
(2008)

Henry Cow Box is a seven-CD limited edition[nb 1] box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was released in December 2006 by Recommended Records and comprises the six original albums Henry Cow released between 1973 and 1979, including those recorded with Slapp Happy. A bonus 3" CD-single was given to advance subscribers of the box set which contains previously unreleased material taken from live performances in Europe by the Orckestra, a merger of Henry Cow, the Mike Westbrook Brass Band and folk singer Frankie Armstrong in 1977. The two bonus CD Orckestra tracks were later reissued on the 2019 Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow bonus CD, Ex Box – Collected Fragments 1971–1978.

The CDs featured here are the 1998 to 2006 reissues by Recommended Records and contain the original LP mixes. (Remixed versions of Legend, Unrest and In Praise of Learning were issued in 1991 by East Side Digital Records.) Concerts and Western Culture include the bonus tracks present on their respective CD reissues. The box set's album covers are CD-sized cardboard replicas of the original LP covers.

Cover art[]

Further information: Legend (Henry Cow album) § Cover art

The album cover art work was by artist Ray Smith and was originally used on Henry Cow's debut album, Legend (1973).

Track listings[]

Disc 1: Legend[]

Contains all the tracks (the US/Japanese vinyl mixes) from the Henry Cow LP, Legend (1973).

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Nirvana for Mice"Fred Frith4:53
2."Amygdala"Tim Hodgkinson6:47
3."Teenbeat Introduction"Henry Cow4:32
4."Teenbeat"Frith, John Greaves6:57
5."Extract from 'With the Yellow Half-Moon and Blue Star'"Frith3:37
6."Teenbeat Reprise"Frith5:07
7."The Tenth Chaffinch"Henry Cow6:06
8."Nine Funerals of the Citizen King"Hodgkinson5:34

Disc 2: Unrest[]

Contains all the tracks from the Henry Cow LP, Unrest (1974).

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Bittern Storm over Ulm"Fred Frith2:44
2."Half Asleep; Half Awake"John Greaves7:39
3."Ruins"Frith12:00
4."Solemn Music"Frith1:09
5."Linguaphonie"Henry Cow5:58
6."Upon Entering the Hotel Adlon"Henry Cow2:56
7."Arcades"Henry Cow1:50
8."Deluge"Henry Cow5:52

Disc 3: Desperate Straights[]

Contains all the tracks from the Slapp Happy/Henry Cow LP, Desperate Straights (1975).

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Some Questions about Hats"Anthony Moore, Peter Blegvad1:49
2."The Owl"Moore2:14
3."A Worm Is at Work"Moore, Blegvad1:52
4."Bad Alchemy"John Greaves, Blegvad3:06
5."Europa"Moore, Blegvad2:48
6."Desperate Straights"Moore4:14
7."Riding Tigers"Blegvad1:43
8."Apes in Capes"Moore2:14
9."Strayed"Blegvad1:53
10."Giants"Moore, Blegvad1:57
11."Excerpt from The Messiah"George Frideric Handel, arr. Blegvad1:48
12."In the Sickbay"Dagmar Krause, Blegvad2:08
13."Caucasian Lullaby"Chris Cutler, Moore8:20

Disc 4: In Praise of Learning[]

Contains all the tracks (the original mixes) from the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy LP, In Praise of Learning (1975).

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."War"Anthony Moore, Peter Blegvad2:25
2."Living in the Heart of the Beast"Tim Hodgkinson15:30
3."Beginning: The Long March"Henry Cow, Slapp Happy6:26
4."Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners"Fred Frith, Chris Cutler7:02
5."Morning Star"Henry Cow, Slapp Happy6:05

Discs 5 and 6: Concerts[]

Contains all the tracks from the Henry Cow double LP (with Robert Wyatt), Concerts (1976), plus the Henry Cow tracks on the double LP, Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (1974).

Disc 5
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners"Fred Frith, Chris Cutler5:41
2."Nirvana for Mice"Frith5:30
3."Ottawa Song"Frith, Cutler4:16
4."Gloria Gloom"Robert Wyatt, Bill MacCormick4:14
5."Beautiful as the Moon (Reprise)"Frith, Cutler3:11
6."Bad Alchemy"John Greaves, Peter Blegvad2:55
7."Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road"Wyatt5:50
8."Ruins"Frith16:29
9."Groningen"Tim Hodgkinson, Henry Cow8:54
10."Groningen Again"Henry Cow7:27
Disk 6
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Oslo"
  2.   "Part 1"
  3.   "Part 2"
  4.   "Part 3"
  5.   "Part 4"
  6.   "Part 5"
  7.   "Part 6"
  8.   "Part 7"
  9.   "Part 8"
Henry Cow29:00
5:38
3:16
3:24
3:01
3:00
1:45
4:55
4:01
9."Off the Map"
  •   "Solo Piano"
  •   "Trio"
Hodgkinson, Cutler, Frith
Hodgkinson
Hodgkinson, Cutler, Frith
8:23
10."Café Royal" (solo guitar)Frith3:20
11."Keeping Warm in Winter"Frith, Greaves1:00
12."Sweet Heart of Mine"Henry Cow8:58
13."Udine"Henry Cow9:39

Disc 7: Western Culture[]

Contains all the tracks from the Henry Cow LP, Western Culture (1979).

History and Prospects
No.TitleWriter(s)RecordedLength
1."Industry"Tim Hodgkinson26 July – 8 August 19786:58
2."The Decay of Cities"Hodgkinson26 July – 8 August 19786:55
3."On the Raft"Hodgkinson26 July – 8 August 19784:01
Day by Day
No.TitleWriter(s)RecordedLength
4."Falling Away"Lindsay Cooper26 July – 8 August 19787:38
5."Gretels Tale"Cooper26 July – 8 August 19783:58
6."Look Back"Cooper26 July – 8 August 19781:19
7."½ the Sky"Cooper, Hodgkinson15–29 January 19785:14
Bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)RecordedLength
8.Untitled (silence only)  1:29
9."Viva Pa Ubu"Hodgkinson15–29 January 19784:28
10."Look Back (alt)"Cooper26 July – 8 August 19781:21
11."Slice"Cooper26 July – 8 August 19780:36

Bonus 3" CD-single: "Unreleased Orckestra Extract"[]

Contains previously unreleased material taken from live performances in Europe by the Orckestra in March–May 1978. Given to advance subscribers of the box set.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1.UntitledFred Frith3:40
2."Would You Prefer Us to Lie?"Chris Cutler, John Greaves8:03

Personnel[]

Henry Cow[]

Slapp Happy[]

The Orckestra[]

See also[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ 200 copies, box set liner notes.
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