Liverpool’s success in Istanbul just under a year ago brings back countless memories, and one of those is the rendition of “Ring of Fire” by the lads as they celebrated on the pitch. There are numerous stories about how the song became part of Reds’ massive repetoire of songs, one of which must be true, but that part can stay shrouded in mystery. It is our song. Johnny Cash lent it to us, nobody else. It’s time the world found out that we have it on permanent loan.
Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen fame is a Red and he’s joined forces with Tim Speed and Apollo 440 to form the Boot Room Allstars for their own rendition of Ring of Fire. It is available to download from today, exclusively from the official club site. It is LFC’s official FA Cup song for 2006.
Some of you will no doubt download it without any questions (you can’t buy a physical copy of it, so downloading is the only way to get hold of it). Others will refuse, saying it’s an insult to the original copy sung by our fans, or an insult to the original sung by Mr Cash. Maybe they just don’t like it. You might even be tempted to hunt out a copy of it for an illegal download – but that’s wrong, and even more wrong when you consider that the proceeds from this download go to charity – the Marina Dalglish appeal.
Worryingly, there have been incidents of fans of other sports teams performing this tune. The England cricket team are one example, and there’s no doubt that the England football team will try and tag onto it this summer. It isn’t their song though – it’s ours. Time we proved it. Liverpool FC have registered themselves with the people at the Top 40 (not JK and Joel, the people behind the scenes). If enough of you buy it, from anywhere in the world, you’ll get it to number one. It doesn’t take as many sales as it used to do to get a record to the top of the British charts, but this is no time for complacency.
Even if you don’t like the song, by downloading it you are making sure nobody else can claim it. And you can always bring out your own version any time after next week.
Keep checking the official site for the link to buy the track, and then buy it. You’ll be doing Marina Dalglish’s appeal a hell of a lot of good, and you’ll be making sure the world knows Ring of Fire is ours. Don’t let them take it away.
If you want to listen to what it sounds like, there’s a sample of Ring of Fire on the official site. You can also hear it on the Ian McCulloch MySpace site.
Listen to it, hum it, BUY IT.