From Loudersound.
Greg Lake‘s evergreen Christmas classic I Believe In Father Christmas is due to be re-released for Christmas 2020 thanks to the restoration of the original video to 4K. You can watch the brand new video in full below.
The song features on the recently released The Anthology – A Musical Journey which features music from Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Lake’s solo career, 1967’s Don’t Go ‘Way Little Girl, recorded with The Shame and 1969 psych rarity Love recorded with The Shy Limbs.
Despite it’s strong anti-commercial message I Believe In Father Christmas remains a warm, catchy and enduringly popular Christmas song. The single was originally a hit worldwide in 1975, reaching Number 2 in the UK charts and selling over 13,000 copies in two days only to be kept from the UK number one slot by Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
Greg, who died on 7th December 2016, aged 69, co-wrote the single with Pete Sinfield. ELP’s keyboardist Keith Emerson had encouraged each member of the band to come up with solo material, so in 1975 Lake teamed up with lyricist Sinfield to create something out of a “Christmassy” chord sequence Lake had written.
The result was thoughtful, but melodic too: a humanist, Christmas song that also manages to warm the cockles. By adding a snippet of twinkling sleigh-ride music by classical composer Sergei Prokofiev at Keith Emerson’s suggestion, summoning the sparkle of Christmas, creating, as Sinfield has said, “a picture-postcard Christmas, with morbid edges.”
This new 4K version of the original promo video has been painstakingly and expertly restored from a recently discovered rare copy of the original film for I Believe In Father Christmas which was shot partly on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and in the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The video includes previously unseen footage from the Vietnam War and was directed by Arnould Schwartzman who went on to win an Oscar in 1982 for his film Genocide.
The new video restoration included manually cleaning the film to remove the sticky residue from the sellotape joins to allow it to pass freely through the scanner, rebuilding the cuts to remove the jumps, recreating damaged frames based on those surrounding it, frame by frame dirt and scratch clean and eve repainting in camel legs!
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- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery - 1st - VG - UK - vinyl LP - £25.00, $34.00, €28.00 (New Item) (arrived 01-Apr-2021 10:55)on April 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Brain Salad Surgery (1973 UK 8-track LP with 'Made in UK' picture labels, housed in a superb fold-out/die-cut H.R. Giger designed sleeve with fold-out/die-cut lyric insert. The sleeve is very good with some storage scuffsto the back, otherwise the panels are clean & sharp & the vinyl is Excellent with minimal play K53501)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Emerson Lake & Palmer - 2nd - UK - vinyl LP - £35.00, $47.60, €39.20 (New Item) (arrived 15-Feb-2021 08:46)on April 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Emerson Lake & Palmer (1970 UK 6-track vinyl LP on the Island pink rimmed 'palm tree' label, picture sleeve. The sleeve shows just a little light shelfwear & the vinyl remains near 'as new' with few signs of play ILPS9132)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Tarkus - 1st - VG - UK - vinyl LP - £15.00, $20.40, €16.80 (New Item) (arrived 11-Jan-2021 11:43)on April 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Tarkus (1971 UK first issue 13-track vinyl LP on the pink rim Island label. The gatefold picture sleeve [VG+] displays a little colour fading and scuffing whilst the vinyl has just a few light surface marks and remains inVery Good condition ILPS9155)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Emerson Lake & Palmer - 1st - French - vinyl LP - £95.00, $129.20, €106.40 (New Item) (arrived 15-Jan-2021 09:52)on April 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Emerson Lake & Palmer (Rare 1970 French first issue 6-track LP on the pink with white 'i' label, with original powder blue inner, the daring debut by the power-prog trio, matt picture sleeve. The sleeve shows just a little light shelfwear with the label showing a name annotation & the vinyl remains in excellent condition with only light signs of play. A classic album worthy of a place in any prog collection ILPS9132)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Trilogy - UK - vinyl LP - £15.00, $20.40, €16.80 (New Item) (arrived 21-Jan-2021 09:06)on April 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Trilogy (Mid to late 70s UK issue of the 1972 9-track LP, the band's third studio album, featuring the brilliant 'Hoedown', gatefold picture sleeve with a montage inside of the band in Epping Forest. The sleeve shows minimalwear & the vinyl is in Excellent condition with few signs of play K43505)
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