TV Cream

Singles

‘I Believe In Father Christmas’ by Greg Lake


They say there’ll be no singles by prog rock bands this Christmas? Try telling that to pop’s premier firecely-guarded-persian-carpet-mounted bass guitarist, who took time out from conceptualising impenetrable album-length instrumental suites about that iguana that fought Captain Kirk or something to craft a three minute ode to Remembering The Real Meaning Of Christmas, in cahoots with his ‘please don’t use our names’ bandmates Lake and Palmer, and somewhat incongruously, colour-coded fa-la-la-ing TV variety show favourites The Kings Singers. Quite what he’s actually going on about is roughly as decipherable as the average ELP concept album concept, hardly surprising as the lyrics were written in cahoots with King Crimson’s Pete Sinfield (lest we forget, the man who gave the world “CAT’S FOOT! IRON CLAW! NEUROSURGEONS SCREAM FOR MORE AT PARANOIA’S POISON DOOR… 21ST CENTURY SCHIZOID MAN!!”) but it apparently has something to do with rumbling Santa as a false-bearded ‘phoney’ and asking us all to remember the Nativity instead of our ace presents. And yes, its catchy singalong nature is still tempered by ELP’s trademark ransacking of the ‘classics’, in this case a hefty instrumental quotation from the Troika section of Lieutenant Kije, fondly remembered by Cream Era viewers for its appearance in Music Time’s puppet adaptation of said ballet, complete with oily ‘Chancellor’ being hilariously booted down the stairs. Sadly, however, Greg forsook the use of puppet footage for the video, in favour of grainy film of him being all ‘progressive’ in the Holy Land.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Paul

    December 25, 2010 at 10:23 pm

    This is the best. Someone at work asked me what my very favourite Christmas song was. I had to think for about 3 seconds and then named this: It’s perfect. Many thanks to the TV Cream team for keeping this fantastic website going through the years – you guys are the best (now I’m getting teary – must be the Glenlivet). God Bless us one and all!

  2. Richard16378

    April 20, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    This is being a “grower” on me, at one time I wasn’t too keen on it but over time I’ve begin to like the finer points of it.

    With almost all Xmas songs it helps that they are shown on a loop on most Music channels for a couple of weeks when there’s no new releases to plug.

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