A lovely gatefold digifile CD, with a disturbingly red vampyric outer cover and a soothing blue lacustrine gatefold. We've chosen this format as it minimises use of plastic in the packaging, while still giving a bloody lovely product!
Includes unlimited streaming of Geneva's Shore
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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£9.50GBP
about
Leigh Hunt was a poet, publisher and critic. He was on the outer fringes of the Byron set, but was buddies with Percy Shelley and John Keats. He ran a popular salon with his wife Marianne, and her sister Elizabeth Kent. This ménage a trois was much-discussed and appeared somewhat scandalous. Although this song suggests that Elizabeth might have had to put up with Hunt's "wandering hands", there's very little evidence to suggest this was the case. Elizabeth was probably exactly what she claimed to be - a highly efficient salon manager - albeit one whose qualities were eclipsed by the popularity of the Leigh Hunt "set".
It was only later in life that Elizabeth came into her own. In 1823, she published a beautiful volume entitled "Flora Domestica" (Household Plants), which discussed the care and cultivation of popular flowers and shrubs, and their history. She illustrated each chapter with beautiful poems...some of which appear in this song. Bloody lovely work, Liz!
lyrics
(The lyrics include phrases from some of the poems Elizabeth Kent cites in her book, Flora Domestica):
Put on your brightest richest dress
Wear all your gems blest vale of ours
My fair one comes in her loveliness
She comes to gather flowers
Damask Rose, Marygold
Arabian Jessamine
Bower-of-Bliss, Faerie Queen
In the Gardens of Fair Proserpine
I’m the sister of the wife of a certain Leigh Hunt
Bon viveur, raconteur and bit of a column gossiper
I manage his house, wash his clothes and fend off his wandering hands
They call me “Flower of the House”, but no-one understands
That I have yet to blossom
Flora Domestica - Elizabeth Kent
Flora Domestica - Seems like I’m heaven-sent, but I have yet to blossom
Mingle your charms of hue and smell
Which Flora wakes in her spring-time hours
For my fair one comes across the dell
She comes to gather flowers
Aloe, Bloody Amaranth
Arum Lily, Asphodel
Aurora, where is Laura now?
Laurel and Hardy Perennial
I’m the sister of the wife of the man who was Shelley’s fool
Cockney School, Surrey Gaol, and a bit of a multi-purpose tool
I tidy his cell, welcome his guests and fend off his wandering hands
They call me “Flower of the House”, but no-one understands
That I have yet to blossom
Flora Domestica - Elizabeth Kent
Flora Domestica - Such a heavenly scent, but I have yet to blossom
Phoebus rest on thy ruby wheels
Look and envy this world of hours
For my fair one now descends the hills
She comes to gather flowers
Heady Balsam, Cardamine
Belvedere and Columbine
Lady’s Smock and Sops-in-Wine
Anemone and Celandine
credits
from Geneva's Shore,
released August 20, 2021
Kev McInally - vocals
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