Desperate Straights

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Mar 1975

Overview Edit

Desperate Straights is an album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in November 1974. It was the first of two collaborative albums by the two groups and was released in March 1975.

Almost all of the album comprises Slapp Happy composed material and it is for this reason that it is generally regarded as a Slapp Happy album with backing by Henry Cow. The music is an unusual blend of avant-garde music and nostalgic pop, and the success of this collaboration led to the two bands merging. The lyrics of the song "A Worm is at Work" refers to the song "War", which was recorded during the same sessions as this album, but was released later on In Praise of Learning, the second Henry Cow/Slapp Happy album.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Straights. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
unknown
Catalog number:
ReR HCSH1
Release dates:
  • Jul 6 2004

Genres

Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Art Rock, Avant-Garde, Experimental, Pop, Rock. Vote on Genres

Track listing Edit

  • vinyl

    format:
    number:
    title:
    number name artist hh:mm:ss
    1
    Some Questions About Hats
    1:50
    2
    The Owl
    2:14
    3
    A Worm Is at Work
    1:52
    4
    Bad Alchemy
    3:06
    5
    Europa
    2:48
    6
    Desperate Straights
    4:14
    7
    Riding Tigers
    1:43
    8
    Apes in Capes
    2:14
    9
    Strayed
    1:53
    10
    Giants
    1:57
    11
    Excerpt from the Messiah
    1:48
    12
    In the Sickbay
    2:08
    13
    Caucasian Lullaby
    8:16

Credits Edit

  1. arranger

  2. performer

    1. Anthony Moore [instrument]
    2. Chris Cutler [instrument]
    3. Dagmar Krause [vocals]
    4. Fred Frith [Guitar, Violin]
    5. Geoff Leigh [instrument]
    6. John Greaves [instrument]
    7. Lindsay Cooper [instrument]
    8. Mongezi Feza [instrument]
    9. Muchsin Campbell [instrument]
    10. Nick Evans [instrument]
    11. Peter Blegvad [vocals and instrument]
    12. Tim Hodgkinson [instrument]
  1. producer

Other versions Edit

Desperate Straights 13 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: ReR
release dates: Jul 6 2004
view details
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