Topic: New Tab Postings
"Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends..." Sometimes, though, the show does get stalled a bit. That's why there hasn't been anything new posted for a while. I've had a cold (ugh) and I've had a computer in crisis, claiming that it couldn't possibly eat another byte. So I had to spend time dumping files from the computer onto a flash drive, trying to make some room.
ELP's "I Believe In Father Christmas" is probably my favourite contemporary Christmas song by a pop/rock act. After doing the tab of it, I was surprised when I looked on YouTube and couldn't find a copy of the version I had tabbed. The song has had three lives just with Greg Lake/ELP alone. The first version was Greg Lake's recording of it, released as a solo project. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqOfXumI18A) Then a more stripped-down version of the song appeared on ELP's Works, Volume 2. The choir and orchestra backing of the original are removed in this version. This is the first version I knew, the one I'll always like the best, and it's the version I tabbed. The band re-recorded the song once more, with a slightly different guitar line, and some added backing vocals. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSUP_b88Sdg) All three versions are quite similar, but not exactly the same. (The version I tabbed also has two guitar parts in the Intro, which I don't think the others do.) I know I'm biased toward the Works version because I knew it first, but I also love the simplicity of it. Just a couple of acoustic guitars, a bit of synth, and Lake's lead vocal. There are lots of postings of the song at YouTube, but finding the version I tabbed was a tough task. Finally, with some perserverence, I found a video that used that version as background music. (The link for it is below.)
It's interesting to read comments at YouTube about this song, plenty of people saying that it's anti-religious, anti-Christmas, anti-Christian, etc. I think they mostly object to the first few lines of the second verse. It isn't the cheeriest Christmas song you'll ever hear, but I don't think it's any of those above named things, and Lake has made it clear in interviews that it's not meant to be any of those things. But I think it's a song of its time (written in 1974), a time when "message" songs were the order of the day. The Vietnam war was still ongoing. In the video of the orginal version, Lake sings the last line, "The Christmas we get we deserve", then there's a montage of video clips of the Vietnam war, finishing with a clip of a soldier arriving home and his young son running into his arms. Lake says the song protested the over-commercialization of Christmas, but to me it seems more like a loss of innocence song about how at Christmas adults fill childrens' heads with idealistic platitudes about peace on Earth and good will to men. But as those children grow up they realize that wars and crime and social ills go right on, even at Christmas time. I don't see the song as bitter or depressing; it just seems to be saying that Christmas itself isn't a magic panacea that makes the world a wonderful place. People have to do that. People have to make those platitudes about peace and good will mean something by their actions. The "Christmas we get we deserve" line suggests that the world is only what we make it. Which means there's always the option to make it better. So for me, the song sounds a note of hope and possibility, too. My two cents worth, anyhow.The song has been covered by everyone from Toyah Wilcox to Honeymoon Suite, including new versions this year by both Sarah Brightman and U2. The Lake and ELP versions will, of course, always be the best.
The tab: https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/vartab/elp-ibelieveinfatherchristmas.txt
The audio of the version on Works, Volume 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ_Glj_JVuM
Posted by planet/zerofret
at 2:03 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 2:38 AM EST
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Updated: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 2:38 AM EST
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