‘Right up there with the greatest protest songs’: why is the Ukip Calypso getting five-star reviews on Amazon?
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Version 0 of 1. On Monday morning, the Ukip Calypso by the Independents had garnered three five-star reviews on Amazon. At the time of writing the number had grown to 128. “Masterpiece” and “genius” were just two of the superlatives used to describe the track, which sees Mike Read – the former Radio1 DJ best known for banning records – singing in the worst Jamaican accent since Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places. Let’s look at this curious avalanche of hyperbole: “Having been deaf since birth one can only imagine my surprise and delight at hearing the haunting strains of this calypso masterpiece. At first I thought I was perhaps having a stroke...” – Miss s l soley “I thought such great lyrical talent and song writing ability were lost with the likes of Freddy [sic] Mercury taken from us, but it seems I may have judged to [sic] soon.” – mrcgp “Right up there with the greatest protest songs – I’m sure the Specials felt the same sense of changing the world when they released Free Nelson Mandela.” – Mark Sellers “The only thing that could have made this better is a rap in the middle by Nigel Farage and a cameo [from] Douglas Carswell on bongos and Mark Reckless on maracas.” – Derektrotteresq “Just wait till Capital radio do one of their dance remixes on it, I vote for Tiesto to do it.” – Robert Page “I thought the calypso had disappeared with the steel band and other delights of my youth, so you have cheered me enormously. I’m a member of Ukip for all the right reasons.” – Salty Old Seadog “I love it and have been playing it non-stop all day, to the delight of my friendly neighbours … I have ordered a few copies as Christmas presents.” – Jack Albert “I’ve a feeling the ratings on this won’t be based on the song…” – Jimbo88 |