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 - Emerson Lake & Palmer - 2nd - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £25.00, $31.25, €29.25 (New Item) (arrived 30-Apr-2024 14:25)on May 2, 2024 at 11:19 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Emerson Lake & Palmer (1970 UK 6-track LP on the pink rim Island 'palm tree' label, including Lucky Man & Knife-Edge, matt picture sleeve. The sleeve shows just a little light shelfwear with a bit of edge scuffing & the vinyl remains in excellent condition with few cosmetic scuffs, not impacting play ILPS9132)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Welcome Back - VG - UK - 3-LP vinyl set - £20.00, $25.00, €23.40 (New Item) (arrived 28-Mar-2024 14:26)on May 2, 2024 at 11:19 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends - Ladies & Gentlemen (1974 UK 11-track triple LP recorded live on their 1973/74 World tour, including renditions of ELP classics such as Tarkus, Karn Evil 9, Hoedown & Jerusalem. Comes housed in an elaborate die-cut embossed tri-fold sleeve. The packaging [VG] shows some scuffing/creasing to the edges & all three vinyl discs are Excellent with just mild signs of play K63500)
- Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas - Solid - Manticore sleeve - UK - 7" vinyl - £10.00, $12.50, €11.70 (New Item) (arrived 27-Feb-2024 16:07)on May 2, 2024 at 11:19 pm
GREG LAKE I Believe In Father Christmas (1975 UK solid centre 7" vinyl single, also including Humbug, Manticore company die-cut paper sleeve K13511)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery - EX/VG - US - vinyl LP - £25.00, $31.25, €29.25 (New Item) (arrived 29-Feb-2024 16:37)on May 2, 2024 at 11:19 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Brain Salad Surgery (1973 US 8-track vinyl LP with the matching picture label, their fourth collaborative album release including the single Jerusalem. The special UK printed die-cut fold-out picture sleeve looks VG withsome scuffs & creases but comes complete with the Atlantic/Atco catalogue inner and the similarly shaped poster insert [as designed by H.R. Giger] while the US pressed vinyl does have some signs of play visible but remains in EX- / VG+ condition MC66669)
- Emerson Lake & Palmer - Works Volume 2 - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £10.00, $12.50, €11.70 (New Item) (arrived 06-Mar-2024 12:42)on May 2, 2024 at 11:19 pm
EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Works Volume 2 (1977 UK 12-track LP of the prog rock trio including the piano romp HonkyTonk Train Blues, white and black titled embossed sleeve. The sleeve has light storage wear, but the vinyl remains in excellent condition - a great play copy K50422)
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