Living in the Heart of the Beast
Encyclopedia
"Living in the Heart of the Beast" is the title of an extended song written and composed by Tim Hodgkinson
in 1975 for the English
avant-rock group
Henry Cow
. It was recorded in 1975 by Henry Cow with Slapp Happy
, who had recently merged with Henry Cow after the two groups had recorded a collaborative album, Desperate Straights
the previous year.
"Living in the Heart of the Beast" was the first of two "epic" compositions Hodgkinson wrote for Henry Cow, the second being "Erk Gah
" (1976), later known as "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine".
began writing "Living in the Heart of the Beast" in mid 1974 and presented it a few months later to Henry Cow as an unfinished and untitled instrumental. The group cut the piece up into fragments, interspaced them with improvisional
sections, and performed it live. One such performance, Halsteren was recorded in Halsteren
in the Netherlands
on 26 September 1974, and appears in Volume 2: 1974–5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
(2009). This instrumental suite was also performed in Groningen in the Netherlands two days later, and part of it was released as "Groningen" on Henry Cow Concerts
(1976). In early 1975, after a successful collaborative album, Desperate Straights
with Slapp Happy
, the two groups decided to merge, and Henry Cow, for the first time, acquired a vocalist, Dagmar Krause
from Slapp Happy. Plans were made for "Living in the Heart of the Beast" to be recorded for Henry Cow's next album, this time with vocals and lyrics added.
Hodgkinson commissioned Slapp Happy's songwriter Peter Blegvad
to write lyrics for the piece for Krause to sing. However, after several attempts, Blegvad (who was soon to be asked to leave the band) admitted that he was "out of [his] depth", and Hodgkinson wrote the lyrics himself. Blegvad presented a slightly different interpretation of this situation in a 1996 interview with Hearsay magazine, stating "The piece that got me kicked out [of Henry Cow] was "Living in the Heart of the Beast". I was assigned the task for the collective to come up with suitable verbals, and I wrote two verses about a woman throwing raisins at a pile of bones. [...] Tim Hodgkinson said, 'I'm sorry, this is not at all what we want’, and he wrote reams of this political tirade. I admired his passion and application but it left me cold. I am to my bones a flippant individual. I don't know why I was created thus or what I'm trying to deny, but it clashed with the extreme seriousness."
"Living in the Heart of the Beast" was recorded in February and March 1975 and released on In Praise of Learning
in May 1975. It is a 15-minute piece that opens with an "atonal
, highly distorted electric guitar solo" and closes with a "stately modal
march".
After recording the album, the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy merger ended, but Krause elected to remain with Henry Cow. The final song version of "Living in the Heart of the Beast" was performed live by Henry Cow between 1975 and 1977. In a concert with Robert Wyatt
at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
in Paris
on 8 May 1975, Wyatt joined Krause in singing the closing verses.
In 1986 "Living in the Heart of the Beast" inspired the title of the Kalahari Surfers
's second album, Living in the Heart of the Beast. Former Henry Cow members Chris Cutler
and Hodgkinson had toured with the South African band across Europe in the mid 1980s and Cutler's Recommended Records
had released several of their albums.
:
Tim Hodgkinson
Tim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds and keyboards. He is best known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968...
in 1975 for the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
avant-rock group
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
. It was recorded in 1975 by Henry Cow with Slapp Happy
Slapp Happy
Slapp Happy was a German/English avant-pop group consisting of Anthony Moore , Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause . The band formed in Germany in 1972. The band members moved to England in 1974 where they merged with Henry Cow, but the merger ended soon afterwards and Slapp Happy split up. Slapp...
, who had recently merged with Henry Cow after the two groups had recorded a collaborative album, Desperate Straights
Desperate Straights
Desperate Straights is an album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in November 1974...
the previous year.
"Living in the Heart of the Beast" was the first of two "epic" compositions Hodgkinson wrote for Henry Cow, the second being "Erk Gah
Erk Gah
"Erk Gah" is the title of an extended song written and composed by Tim Hodgkinson in 1976 for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. "Erk Gah" was performed live by the band between 1976 and 1978, but was never recorded in the studio...
" (1976), later known as "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine".
History
Tim HodgkinsonTim Hodgkinson
Tim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds and keyboards. He is best known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968...
began writing "Living in the Heart of the Beast" in mid 1974 and presented it a few months later to Henry Cow as an unfinished and untitled instrumental. The group cut the piece up into fragments, interspaced them with improvisional
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
sections, and performed it live. One such performance, Halsteren was recorded in Halsteren
Halsteren
Halsteren is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Bergen op Zoom, about 1 km north of that city. Halsteren has an old church from 1457 and a new church, built in 1919...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
on 26 September 1974, and appears in Volume 2: 1974–5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RēR Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings made between 1972 and 1978 from concerts, radio...
(2009). This instrumental suite was also performed in Groningen in the Netherlands two days later, and part of it was released as "Groningen" on Henry Cow Concerts
Henry Cow Concerts
Henry Cow Concerts is a live double album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at concerts in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway between September 1974 and October 1975...
(1976). In early 1975, after a successful collaborative album, Desperate Straights
Desperate Straights
Desperate Straights is an album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in November 1974...
with Slapp Happy
Slapp Happy
Slapp Happy was a German/English avant-pop group consisting of Anthony Moore , Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause . The band formed in Germany in 1972. The band members moved to England in 1974 where they merged with Henry Cow, but the merger ended soon afterwards and Slapp Happy split up. Slapp...
, the two groups decided to merge, and Henry Cow, for the first time, acquired a vocalist, Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler...
from Slapp Happy. Plans were made for "Living in the Heart of the Beast" to be recorded for Henry Cow's next album, this time with vocals and lyrics added.
Hodgkinson commissioned Slapp Happy's songwriter Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. He was a founding member of the avant-pop band Slapp Happy, which later merged briefly with Henry Cow, and has released many solo and collaborative albums...
to write lyrics for the piece for Krause to sing. However, after several attempts, Blegvad (who was soon to be asked to leave the band) admitted that he was "out of [his] depth", and Hodgkinson wrote the lyrics himself. Blegvad presented a slightly different interpretation of this situation in a 1996 interview with Hearsay magazine, stating "The piece that got me kicked out [of Henry Cow] was "Living in the Heart of the Beast". I was assigned the task for the collective to come up with suitable verbals, and I wrote two verses about a woman throwing raisins at a pile of bones. [...] Tim Hodgkinson said, 'I'm sorry, this is not at all what we want’, and he wrote reams of this political tirade. I admired his passion and application but it left me cold. I am to my bones a flippant individual. I don't know why I was created thus or what I'm trying to deny, but it clashed with the extreme seriousness."
"Living in the Heart of the Beast" was recorded in February and March 1975 and released on In Praise of Learning
In Praise of Learning
In Praise of Learning is an album by British avant-rock groups Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1975...
in May 1975. It is a 15-minute piece that opens with an "atonal
Atonality
Atonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale...
, highly distorted electric guitar solo" and closes with a "stately modal
Musical mode
In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
march".
After recording the album, the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy merger ended, but Krause elected to remain with Henry Cow. The final song version of "Living in the Heart of the Beast" was performed live by Henry Cow between 1975 and 1977. In a concert with Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on 8 May 1975, Wyatt joined Krause in singing the closing verses.
In 1986 "Living in the Heart of the Beast" inspired the title of the Kalahari Surfers
Kalahari Surfers
The Kalahari Surfers is the moniker of South African composer and musician Warrick Sony. It began as a solo recording project in the early 1980s to subvert the total media and propaganda onslaught of P. W. Botha’s Apartheid South Africa...
's second album, Living in the Heart of the Beast. Former Henry Cow members Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
and Hodgkinson had toured with the South African band across Europe in the mid 1980s and Cutler's Recommended Records
Recommended Records
Recommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
had released several of their albums.
Live recordings
Two live recordings of "Living in the Heart of the Beast" appear in The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box SetThe 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RēR Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings made between 1972 and 1978 from concerts, radio...
:
- 8 May 1975 in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(Volume 2: 1974–5) – a concert with Robert WyattRobert WyattRobert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
, who joins Dagmar KrauseDagmar KrauseDagmar Krause is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler...
on vocals near the end of the piece. - 25 August 1976 in VeveyVeveyVevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
for the Swiss TV program, Kaleidospop (Volume 10: Vevey) – released on the only known video recording of Henry Cow.
External links
- Living in the Heart of the Beast lyrics. The Canterbury Website.