Tucked away in a fold of history,

a band of poets as talented, life-enhancing and

influential as that legendary band from Liverpool

Click below to

John Webster

Welcome to my website! Growing up with The Beatles

- and feeling bereft when they split up - I discovered

some of their magic in the work of three great poets –

Keats, Shelley and Byron, plus their friend and supporter

Leigh Hunt. Over the years I've been giving their lyrics

a soft rock/indie folk makeover, with the help of musician Dave Eastoe.

       

Now I call them 'The First Fab Four', and see them

as anticipating, even paving the way for The Beatles in many ways.

If you'd like to check them out our compilation album

‘The First Fab Four’ gives easy access to their work.

 

 Click on album cover to download; listen on Spotify here;

think yourself back into their world with info on the songs and their background

at Lyrics and Commentaries.

 

'The First Fab Four' opens with ‘Jenny Kissed Me’,

(a medley of their love lyrics); introduces Lord Byron

in ‘Lord B. in Motion’, and explores Byron and Shelley's 

political side in Marathon, Rise like Lions and Wild Spirit.

After two song versions of Keats classics including

To Autumn, Shelley’s beautiful Italian love lyrics

and his thoughts on hope and mortality, the album

concludes with songs that see the group

passing into history.

 

TRACK LISTING:

1. Jenny kissed me (Medley of love lyrics from the Four)

2. Lord B. in Motion (Byron travels from Ravenna to Pisa)

3. Marathon (Byron dreams of freedom for Greece)

4. Rise like Lions (Shelley defends the British people after Peterloo)

5. Wild Spirit (Shelley renews his poetic vision)

6. To Autumn (Keats writes one of the world's classic poems)

7. On the Shore (Keats seems to anticipate his own early death)

8. The Pine Forest (A collection of late Shelley love lyrics)

9. Many a Green Isle (Shelley reaches for consolation in the midst of misery)

10. The Funeral (Trelawny tells the story of Shelley's death and funeral)

11. Adonais (Mary Shelley pays tribute to her late husband)

12. Epitaph (Byron assesses the impact of his life)

13. The World's Great Age (Shelley throws a progressive vision into the future)

14. So we'll go no more a roving (Byron's bittersweet lyric serves as the group's momento)