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Friday, February 17, 2017

Kathe Green - Run The Length Of Your Wildness (1969 us / uk, smart baroque psych folk, 2009 remaster)



Strangely scattershot, if fitfully entertaining LP, Run the Length of Your Wildness can't quite make up its mind whether to be pop-folk, Swinging London pop/rock, or middle of the road pop. In that respect, as well as in its Baroque orchestral arrangements (which verge on the fruity at times), it's reminiscent of another late-'60s record, Dana Gillespie's Foolish Seasons -- not surprising, as Wayne Bickerton produced both albums. You can throw in some similarities to a few other British female vocalists of the time straddling the lines between pop and folk, like Marianne Faithfull and (much more distantly) Judith Durham of the Seekers. Kathe Green's record, however, isn't nearly as good as Gillespie's, in part because Gillespie's a significantly better singer, though Green's adequate. 

The material's also better on Foolish Seasons, and both the similarity and disparity between the two singers is emphasized by a song that appears on both LPs ("Tears in My Eyes"), which is handled notably better by Gillespie. Green did write or co-write much of the material on Run the Length of Your Wildness, and some of it's above average for this orchestrated British pop-folk-rock genre, particularly "Primrose Hill" and the slightly Donovan-ish "Promise of Something New." 
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Primrose Hill (Kathe Green, Liz Sacks) - 3:47
2. Ring Of String (Kathe Green) - 3:25
3. Only A Fool (Jackie Lomax, Wayne Bickerton) - 2:17
4. Why? (The Child's Song) (Kathe Green) - 1:51
5. Bossa Nova (Kathe Green) - 1:54
6. Tears In My Eyes (Tony Waddington, Wayne Bickerton) - 3:05
7. If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind (John Cameron) - 3:11
8. Promise Of Something New (Glenn Close, Kathe Green) - 2:38
9. Once There Was You (Kathe Green, Liz Sacks) - 2:43
10.Part Of Yesterday (Kathe Green, Liz Sacks) - 3:47
11.I'll Never Forget (John Cameron) - 2:55
12.Run The Length Of Your Wildness (John Cameron, Kathe Green, Liz Sacks) - 5:16
13.I Love You (Though You Are Not Here) (Kathe Green, Pat Lewis) - 0:43

*Kathe Green - Vocals

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