Of all the wonderful prog bands I was introduced to in 7th grade by a friend’s older brother (doesn’t it usually work like that?) I’m most thankful for Henry Cow. In place of the D&D imagery most prog bands employed, the Cow were of a distinctly leftist, worldly bent. Dead serious and as likely to quote Schoenberg, Webern and Messiaen as they were to freely improvise an entire set, this was powerful and stern stuff. As is proclaimed on the sleeve their 3rd LP, 1975’s In Praise of Learning, “Art is not a mirror, it is a hammer”. Yeah ! Being comprised of some of the strongest, most idiosyncratic players in all the U.K. : guitarist Fred Frith, Drummer Chris Cutler, Keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson, reed player Lindsay Cooper and vocalist Dagmar Krause, each of whom deserving of multiple posts of their own devoted to their massive amounts of notable great works, they were one of the first bands signed to Virgin records and toured with the likes of Faust and Captain Beefheart during their relatively breif run in the mid-70’s. I seriously doubt that any hardcore Cow fans don’t aleady know about the following beautiful footage, the only known to exist of the band, playing most of the aforementioned LP live in a field somewhere in Switzerland in 1976 as released as part of a lavish box set a few years back. Still, I’ve been meaning to post these here since I first joined the DM crew and I hope you enjoy them.
 

 
Much more vintage live Henry Cow after the jump…