I'm quietly celebrating the holidays with a new addition to my vast Jim Henson library - this is the Record Store Day exclusive limited edition picture disc of the music from Henson's 1977 television special,
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. The soundtrack was issued for the very first time for Record Store Day in 2018 and was limited to 2000 copies worldwide. This year a picture disc version was issued in a run of 2,500. Both editions were issued by the soundtrack record label, Varèse Sarabande.
All versions of the soundtrack feature 15 tracks from the TV special, a previously unreleased song called “Born in a Trunk” that didn’t make it to air, as well as extended liner notes featuring interviews with the film’s puppet performers, and more.
The film was Jim Henson's most complex endeavor to date. As Dave Goelz reflected in 2011:
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"We built a 55-foot-long river that was about 10 feet wide and went all the way across the stage, and they built a radio-control rowboat for Emmet. It was so lovely and lyrical to see Emmet rowing his mom down the river. The idea that there was life along the river and that it was all interconnected was a great metaphor for people."
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The soundtrack features all of Paul Williams' music from the special, including the fan-favorite, "Riverbottom Nightmare Band" and the heartwarming, "Where the River Meets the Sea," the latter of which was featured on the classic
John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together LP in 1979.
Though I was too young to have seen the original television broadcast in '77, I had the great pleasure of seeing
Emmet Otter along with
The Bells of Fraggle Rock together in the theater when they were featured by Fathom Events on December 16, 2018.
Now I've added the picture disc to my library of 60+ Jim Henson-related LPs. (There's one more Henson holiday disc I hope to secure, but as it has almost never surfaced on the resale market I'm going to keep it under wraps until one appears or a reissue is released.)
Happy holidays, everyone!