I Believe In Father Christmas
Soul Music
BBC
4.7 • 831 Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some people say it's a protest song about the commercialisation of Christmas, others that it's anti religious.
I Believe In Father Christmas is neither, although lyricist Peter Sinfield concedes it does include a touch of cynicism.
But ultimately it's a song of joy and hope.
When Greg Lake co-wrote it in 1975 he had embarked on a solo career away from Emmerson, Lake & Palmer.
Those around him at the time, including songwriter Peter Sinfield and broadcaster Bob Harris, recall how repeating a simple acoustic guitar exercise led to this giant of a song. It includes a full choir, orchestra, and an extract from Prokofiev to create an enduring Christmas anthem.
For many people it's a comforting song, conjuring images of nostalgic picture postcard Christmases of childhood spent in the ambience of Christmas tree lights and candles with "eyes full of tinsel and fire".
For others, it's a cautionary reminder of the need to look beyond the materialism and commercialism to a more spiritual, quiet time.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2022.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Traitors is back and so is that mysterious cloaked figure with the familiar fringe. |
| 0:06.7 | Yeah, it's me. |
| 0:07.9 | And when you've watched Claudia in the castle, join me, Ed Gamble, for the official visualised companion podcast. |
| 0:13.7 | And remember, I'll be listening. |
| 0:15.9 | Okay? |
| 0:16.7 | No, seriously, I love it. |
| 0:18.5 | What a faithful. |
| 0:19.7 | We'll unpack betrayals and spill scandalous secrets with |
| 0:22.7 | celeb guests, traitors' legends, and murdered and banished players. |
| 0:27.1 | The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:28.4 | Watch on EyePlayer, listen for more on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.1 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:37.5 | Comment upon Christmas with our work, we see a whole lot of struggle. |
| 0:42.6 | You see people's stress levels start to really elevate. |
| 0:46.2 | You see a lot less rent being paid. |
| 0:49.2 | If there's mental health issues, then they're definitely being |
| 0:53.1 | exacerbated at that time of year. |
| 0:55.5 | There's addictions, usually, they start to ramp up around that time of year because |
| 0:59.4 | Christmas is such a focus on family and good times and material wealth. And so all of that |
| 1:05.7 | contributes to this persistent turmoil that you can kind of see building in people ahead of Christmas. |
| 1:12.5 | I'm Constantine Palmer. I live in St. John's Newfoundland. I'm a social worker here with the |
| 1:18.4 | provincial government and I'm also married to an Orthodox Christian priest. So we have a little |
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