Song of the Day: Henry Cow - War

A song that tells "of how war appeared on earth" in mythic style, from their album In Praise of Learning. It contains one of my favourite lyrics, "violence completes the partial mind", which has some kind of perfect rhythm to it and neatly summarises the idea of the track, that war is an inevitable conclusion of dumb humans being led by godlike, bloodthirsty forces beyond their control. "Boasting they are led by peace" is also a nifty turn of phrase that skewers the crusading, 'mission accomplished' attitude of war throughout the ages. Essentially, there is no better song about war - including every earnest Vietnam folk song and punk fuck-you anthem. When faced with the horrifying, go with the bizarrely allegorical every time. The Fall covered the song on their album Middle Class Revolt.

Henry Cow repeatedly deny that they named the band after forearm pianist Henry Cowell, claiming it meant nothing much of anything. Perhaps Fred Frith and Tom Hodgkinson once met a cow named Henry, a meeting they swore never to tell of again. 

Around 60 countries are currently involved in wars around the world, so click here to support Responding To Conflict, a peacebuilding and non-confrontation consultancy organisation.