[Bombs Away] Blues For Ceausescu

Dave Walsh, a friend of mine from Greenpeace who runs the fantastic site blather.net has recently opined about one of his favorite bands from Back In The Day (post 80s) over on Sweeping The Nation that is an absolutely fascinating read:

Whatever this was on the radio, it wasn't fucking Duran Duran. The genius behind this fantastic racket was furious, that was for sure. But why was he so worked up about Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania's communist dictator, who had been executed, along with his wife, while singing the fourth word of the communist song L'Internationale on Christmas Day 1989? I had no idea. I was a smart enough kid, but was only lurching towards an understanding of international politics. Fanning's voice came on, and told it was a guy called Cathal Coughlan and the band was the Fatima
Mansions. The song was called Blues For Ceausescu.
[snip]
That's 16 years ago, and I'm still thinking over what Cathal Coughlan was singing about. I've met the man, but never asked him about it. Sometimes I think he's musing on the return of Ceausescu, Messiah-like, or as an anti-Christ, but this time as the King of England. Other times I think it's not really about Ceausescu at all, but the whole fucked up state of the UK at the time... and, for that matter, Ireland. Maybe it's a fusion of all these - a goodbye and good riddance to Ceausescu, with an observation that the late dictator would have felt right at home in Thatcher's Britain.

Click here to read the full article. It's an engrossing exploration of a song and a place in search of meaning both for the original artist, and the listener. A bang up job, Walshy.