Benjamin Piekut provides a seemingly exhaustive history of the English rock band Henry Cow in his book Henry Cow: The World is a Problem. There is even a preface discussing the countless hours of interview tape recorded with band members. Despite this fact, however, Piekut explicitly states his 'thick book' remains incomplete. This is most likely due to the fact that, while on the surface, the focus of attention is on the literal stage performance of the band Henry Cow; however, when delving into the book it is clear Henry Cow merely acts as a conduit in which to scrutinize a seemingly elusive moment in time with various lenses. This broad scope Piekut undertakes allows for a multilayered and interdisciplinary engagement with British rock music of the 1970s, the performative nature of interactions amongst musicians, music theory, identity politics, and academia.
Henry Cow emerged during the 1960s in which the pop music spawned by the British Invasion was permeating throughout the United States of America. Yet, the Cambridge band had an 'avant-garde' style more aligned with fellow British progressive rock bands of the era such as Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson. Piekut highlights the term avant-garde throughout his discussion of Henry Cow and gestures to the idea that, although often used, the term references something irreducible. This irreducibility is only solidified by the very improvisational and collaborative style for which the band Henry Cow, often simply referenced as 'The Cow' in the book, aligns themself. The Cow adopted their name from American composer Henry Cowell, yet little is said about why; Piekut states although the members took Cowell's name, the similarities and affiliation with Cowell end there, making the name choice, itself, an impromptu decision.
This extemporaneous nature of The Cow's music is further performed by the very writing style of the author. While Piekut begins each of the eight chapters with a particular year and point in time, he quickly shifts focus to address a variety of themes that relate to the band.
One of the themes explored within the text is the company the band kept. Although Henry Cow was popular in Europe during the 1970s, those with whom they were affiliated drew international stardom. For instance, Chapter 2 begins by addressing The Cow signing with the label Virgin Records in 1973. However, the book quickly shifts to the past in order to offer 12 pages focusing on the history of the founder of Virgin: a then-unknown Richard Branson. In addition, many of the bands with whom The Cow 'gigged' are household names: Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, The Velvet Underground, and Mike Oldfield, to name a few. Multiple histories of various people and bands with which The Cow came into contact are discussed to help historicize the moment.
Another theme Piekut chooses to sparse throughout the book is the discipline of music theory, which is framed as an academic, and ultimately elitist, endeavor. Rock music started as a rebellion against the formal constraints imposed by society, and this included formal music education and its focus on classical pieces. Hence, rock musicians typically align with the informal narrative of song writing: picking up a beat-up guitar, being self-taught, and simply jamming. Henry Cow departs from this informality since music theory informed their compositions; and while their nuanced approach to compositions distinguished them from others, it also placed them on the fringes. Piekut notes of Henry Cow: "Their virtuosity and sophistication will make them too pedantic to appeal beyond cerebral listeners, he intimated. In other words, you might like them, but you'll have to work for it" (140). The cerebral approach is also illustrated in Piekut's writing style. For instance, transcriptions of sheet music are included in the book along with descriptions of various time signatures and key modulations. The inclusion of such artifacts acts to further illustrate the accessibility, or inaccessibility, of the songs created by Henry Cow. While the aforementioned items delineate the complexities of instrumentation, it presents a barrier in that it can only be deciphered by those who read music. The average reader may not necessarily know precisely what something like a 12/8 time signature means in relation to music. Like the listener processing the intricacies of Henry Cow, there are times in which the reader must do work to comprehend the performative text of Piekut.
Finally, the most notable theme that is evident both within the writing of Piekut and the compositions of Henry Cow is their relationship to political movements and ideologies. The very subtitle of the book stems from the mission statement of Henry Cow: "The world is a problem, unfinished, requiring intervention; the band forges its relationship with that open-ended world not in theory but through action, where surprise and resistance from the material lead to response, adaptation, dialogue, and awareness" (153). Such a mission statement echoes chants from the field of performance studies in which hegemonic structures are challenged. The form of protest The Cow chooses to confront the world is, very simply, their literal performances. The central goal of the band was to engage with a wide audience, both via a studio recording and in a live setting; music was seen as a way to intervene in the world and not simply reflect it. This goal is depicted by Tim Hodkinson, co-founding member, and his "Music for Socialism" - an organization founded in 1977 comprised of musicians from various genres. The ultimate goal was to deploy a variety of musicians and identities to challenge capitalism and its constraints through festival-style performances. "Music for Socialism" was to illustrate how diversity can exist in the world.
Academia, politics, and The Cow all converge at this theme. Henry Cow discussed the works of Marx to guide their political ideologies, and ultimately their music, to provide a forum for those voices who were oppressed in society. However, their desire for a collective, and not simply a minority elite, was complex and strained. For instance, multi-instrumentalist and co-founding member, Fred Frith, was not only formally trained in music, he also earned a Master's Degree in English Literature from Cambridge University. The balance between the have and have-nots was a point of contention both within the band (not all musicians in The Cow had formal education and privilege) and externally (mass audiences were not receptive to The Cow's esoteric compositions). This tension created a revolving door of musicians who would consistently enter the band only to leave or be let go within a short amount of time. This stress informs a discussion about identity, and the collective, which include names like Brecht, Althusser, and Adorno. Henry Cow was well aware of such theorists and deployed their ideas to argue for the fluidity and interconnectivity of music, self, and society. The need for continual change was informed by the works of Brecht in which their stage performances would feature multiple costume changes; such changes dramatized the varying identities the band would use to interact with the audience, and the world, with the hope of societal change. Althusser and the ways in which the subject is labeled, or hailed, by the world triggers a reaction from the subject; Henry Cow used musical improvisation on stage, and in the studio, to push back against the mass commercialization and formulaic rigidity of modern music. Finally, Henry Cow adopted Adorno's idea that mass produced music could not simply be reinvented and mobilized to create change; a completely new form of music had to emerge in order to protest. The core members of Henry Cow were constantly seeking new strategies in which to compose music and engage with the audience. The core members of Henry Cow acted, and reacted, to a variety of infrastructures that ultimately informed their musical identities. Since the performance of group ontology and individualism are ever-changing, the ability to perform individual identity, let alone a collective identity, is in constant flux. Consequently, it would be this very desire to spark change and differentiate themselves from others that would lead to the demise of the band.
Piekut closes the book at the break-up of Henry Cow in 1978, which is apropos since the personal lives of each individual are not readily divulged by the members. This theme is found throughout the book; while the band did spend time together touring and recording, they rarely, if ever, disclosed any personal information to one another. Frith noted: "We were all English, after all" (146). The aloof disposition of the members created strain that undoubtedly led to the collapse of the band as a collective unit. The Cow is identified in terms of the company they kept, the use of music theory to compose, and theoretical ideologies concerning the collective. Moreover, the way in which Piekut thematically authors this account of The Cow mirrors the identity of the band in its performance. While the majority of rock music biographies focus on the individuals of the band and their personal lives, Piekut turns this trope on its head. At times, the text can be aloof, inaccessible, and improvisational, but it perfectly captures the spirit of Henry Cow.
— Reviewed by James Perez, Colorado Mesa University
James Perez is a professor in the Mass Communication department at Colorado Mesa University. He completed his PhD at the University of California, San Diego, in which he focused on language use within reality television courtroom programs. His current research interests focus on linguistics as related to law, public relations, and gender.
