Living in the Heart of the Beast

The piece began as an unfinished instrumental that Hodgkinson brought to the group. It was cut up and played live in 1974 with improvised sections added, and a September 1974 performance from Halsteren is in the second volume of The Road. After the merger with Slapp Happy, Hodgkinson asked Peter Blegvad to write words for Dagmar Krause to sing. After several attempts Blegvad admitted he was out of his depth, and Hodgkinson wrote the lyrics himself.

On the album it is the second track and the longest, at 15 minutes 30 seconds. Steve Lake of Melody Maker called it a threatening and propulsive tour-de-force. Ian MacDonald in the NME found that it begins well and has a remarkable instrumental interlude, but sinks awkwardly to earth beneath the would-be climactic exhortations of the finale. Dave Laing in Let It Rock praised its long controlled lyric and its determined fermenting movement to its climax. It made the band's left-wing political leanings explicit, with Krause's voice adding a new dimension to their music.