Artist	Song
Henry Cow	As Beautiful As The Moon....(Concerts)
Henry Cow	Nirvana For Mice -Introduction (LegEnd)
Henry Cow	Half The Sky (Western Culture)
Henry Cow	War (In Praise Of Learning)
Slapp Happy / Henry Cow	Riding Tigers (Desperate Straights)
Slapp Happy / Henry Cow	Bad Alchemy (Desperate Straights)
Henry Cow	Little Red Riding Hood Hits The Road (Concerts)
Henry Cow	Extract From "With The Yellow Half Moon And Blue Star" (LegEnd)
Henry Cow	Teenbeat Reprise (LegEnd)
Henry Cow	The Tenth Chaffinch (edit) (LegEnd)
Henry Cow	Sweet Heart Of Mine (Greasy Truckers 2)
Henry Cow	Slice (Recommended Records Sampler)
Henry Cow	Viva Pa Ubu (Recommended Records Sampler)
Henry Cow	Bittern Storm Over Ulm (Unrest)
Henry Cow	Ruins (Concerts)
Henry Cow	Deluge (Unrest)
Henry Cow	...As Terrible as An Army With Banners (Concerts)
Fred Frith	The Complete Works Of Henry Cow (Miniatures -Morgan Fisher)

Comment:

Think you know your prog? Well here's the South Face of the Eiger. The Eleventh Dan.

Actually that's not quite right. This isn't "Prog" as applied to the likes of Yes, ELP, Genesis & the rest; rather it's progressive music in the true sense of the word: formally, aesthetically & politically.

No empty displays of technical expertise here. The Cow's music WAS demandingly difficult to play, however the intention wasn't to spotlight the (undoubted) viruosity of the performers instead it was simply the most practical way of developing their abilities -by composing music that was beyond their (then) capabilities.

I've structured this non-chronologically (taking my cue from the running order of side one of Concerts) and it demonstrates they didn't so much "improve" incrementaly over time,but that they emerged virtually fully-formed with a degree of instrumental facility far in advance of the majority of their peers and that subsequent releases served mainly to refine and expanded (as commited dialecticals they'd understand the contradiction there)the expressive musical vocabulary at their disposal. The jump-cut from track 2 (the opening of their debut album) to 3 (the last track on their final) illustrates this nicely, I think.


Elsewhere, there are songs, tightly written passages, sections of free improvisation and for those for whom such things are important demonstrations of the bands ability to RAWK (albeit in non-generic formats) and on tracks 9 & 15 evidence of why Fred Frith demands a niche in the pantheon of guitar greats.

The final track is taken from one of the more eccentric artefacts of the post-punk period. In 1979 / 80, former Mott The Hoople (among other things) keyboarist Morgan Fisher invited a number of perforrmers / artists to contribute a track of not longer than one minute to a compilation he was assembling. This is what Frith provided: a mathhematically determined collage of extracts from every piece of music the Cow ever committed to vinyl.

The late & wise John Peel once said that in order to be financially successful, "progressive music shouldn't progress an inch, otherwise nobody would buy it".

Well, no-one ever accused the Cow of laughing all the way to the bank.

And the band themselves have consistently scotched any notions of re-forming stating that they refuse to turn the band into a pension-scheme.

Pity others haven't made a similarly principled stand.

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