Now’s the time to go across to the official Liverpool FC website and download a copy of the official Liverpool FC FA Cup song, ‘Ring of Fire ’.
There is already a serious case of misinformation being spread by the media about who “owns” Ring of Fire. The once proud music magazine NME has incorrectly reported on its website that the England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff was the first to use the song in a sporting sense. NME might be very good at predicting who’s going to be the next Kurt Cobain but they really seem to be lost when it comes to sport. As all Reds know, Ring of Fire was connected to Liverpool FC long before Flintoff played it in the England dressing room a couple of months ago. It’s hard to find out when it really started, but Carra and Gerrard’s rendition in Istanbul wasn’t its first appearance in a Red shirt.
If you download the song today you will be helping to make the song number one in the charts. For years to come Ring of Fire will be associated with Liverpool. If you don’t download it then you’ve only got yourself to blame if you hear it being sung by England fans wearing Manchester United or Chelsea shirts in the summer. You’ll also be helping a charity that means an awful lot to Liverpool fans.
Kenny Dalglish’s wife Marina set up the Marina Dalglish appeal in an attempt to raise funds for breast cancer treatment facilities in Liverpool, after she had herself recovered from breast cancer. The recent re-run of the 1986 FA Cup final was played for the benefit of this charity. Every single copy of this song that you download through LiverpoolFC.tv will be putting more funds into Marina’s appeal.
Even if you don’t like the song, download it. You’ll be helping charity and making sure the world knows who the song belongs to now. We think you will like it though – a lot of people who said they hated it are slowly coming to terms with the fact that they are walking around humming it. It’s an uplifting version of the song, and includes samples of Reds supporters singing the instrumental version.
Ian McCulloch himself is delighted to be a part of it, asked recently about the tune he explained how he thought it was something that really put a smile on the fans’ faces: “It cheers me up and I’ve said on previous interviews it cheers the crowd up. The amount of times during a match you can be laughing at something someone’s said and it’s more of the quick wittiness. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what the song is or the chant, it’s just the quickness of it and it’s like one touch singing. It lifts the players obviously and it lifts our fans but it also makes the opposition feel like na, na, na, na, na! You know, that kind of mockery which is good as it gives you an edge in the game I suppose.”
Mac is genuinely pleased that he has become a part of Liverpool history himself now as lead singer on this track: “It’s mad and it makes me proud. Because I have been away it hasn’t really sunk in but I’m attached somehow to the club now officially for life and that’s a great thing, an honour.”
Top of the Pops is shown on a Sunday now, how good would it be to see this song played as the number one song, alongside footage of Steven Gerrard lifting the FA Cup the day before? Stevie and the boys are in charge of getting us the cup, but you are in charge of us getting the number one. Do your bit Reds fans.
The download is available via the internet, and UK residents have the additional option of buying it through their mobile phone. Full details here: www.liverpoolfc.tv/ringoffire .