ASMIF/Neville Marriner: Banks of Green Willow (6mins 6secs) Album: Fantasia on Greensleeves Decca / 4527072 Web Link 1: http://www.calculator.net/Butterworth/
BACKGROUND
This is an intriguing transition from the Chicago blues of Willie Dixon to the idyllic English Banks of Green Willow. The key connecting piece is Cream's Pressed Rat and Warthog, from Wheels of Fire. One of the best-know tracks on that album is a cover of Spoonful, and one of the least-known is the delightfully quirky Pressed Rat and Warthog, in which the English folk tune Green Bushes is repeated during the fade-out. This evocatively bucolic melody is the second theme in Butterworth's piece. All that could sound rather contrived and academic, but each piece is excellent in its own right and none of them would sound out of place on Late Junction.