Cathal Coughlan - ‘Im Long Mé Measaim’
A few words on Cathal Coughlan’s first post-Microdisney recording. ‘Im Long Mé Measaim’ is a cover version of an Irish poem by renowned Gaeltacht Mhúscraí poet Dónal Ó Liatháin set to music by Peadar Ó Riada.
“Everytime I hear him sing something I want to rush back and hear ‘The Helicopter of the Holy Ghost’, the B-Side of the first single I think it was, and one of my favourites. Cathal Coughlan and that’s a flexi disc on Caff Records, the title of it I can’t tackle at the moment I have to admit, but I look forward to the first release from The Fatima Mansions.”
John Peel
‘Im Long Mé Measim’ along with Peel’s intro and back announcement can be heard below (we’ll forgive him the terrible pronunciation of Cathal’s name):
Im long mé measaim,
fé last fé sheol
Is gan caladhfort romham
Im leabhar mé scríofa
i dteanga ón spéir
Is níl aon ní a thuigfeadh é
Dónal Ó Liatháin (1978)
A Ship I am,
under cargo, under sail
With no haven before me
A book I am,
written in a language from the sky,
There is no one out there who understands me
English translation taken from the sleevenotes of Bringing It All Back Home (Hummingbird Records, 1990)
‘Im Long Mé Measaim’ was released as a 7” flexi disc on Bob Stanley’s The Caff Corporation Records in 1989.
“My blas [accent/pronunciation] is uafásach [awful] and I wish I hadn’t recorded it but I did, it was the first thing I probably did,” Cathal told me as he reflected on the period directly after the demise of Microdisney. His blas is actually much better than he gave himself credit for.
He continued: “I had had to rediscover my enthusiasm for music and at the same time as all the other things that I was not getting right, not doing well with. Irish music was the backbone of it really. There was a particular Peadar Ó Riada record that I was pretty gone on [Peadar Ó Riada, Dord Records, 1987]. It was really eclectic, there were home recordings of him playing the piano with the fire crackling in the background. It was bloody-minded, quite a Lo-fi record, the Cór Chúil Aodha recorded in the church.”
Cathal Coughlan - ‘Im Long Mé Measaim’ / East Village - ‘Freeze Out’ (7” Flexi Disc, CAFF1 The Caff Corporation, 1989). Images from Discogs. Cover Star: Albert Finney. Photographed by Lewis Morley for a publicity shot for Billy Liar. The original photograph is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
In Part 3 of Iron Fist in Velvet Glove - the story of Microdisney (an oral history) Cathal talked about his rediscovery of Irish music in the late 1980s:
Cathal Coughlan: “Irish music was the thing I rediscovered, particularly Ó Riada [Seán Ó Riada], The Bothy Band, anything Lunny [Donal Lunny] did really. I thought it was pretty cool when I was younger but I didn’t have any records, I only knew what I heard on the radio, but I did remember that the odd Bothy Band thing was incredible like ‘Tiochfaidh An Samhradh’ [Summer will Come, from Old Hag You Have Killed Me, Mulligan/Polydor, 1976], anything with the Ó Domhnaills [Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill] singing and the tunes, the whole thing, those records are classics really. It’s a shame that they didn’t get to continue, they had some bad luck with things.”
“How I had gotten into it was through English Folk music. It was through coming to hear the likes of The Watersons and Richard and Linda Thompson and Sandy Denny, through the British Public Library system and the fact that you could get all these things at a time when albums were expensive and there wasn’t any money. It didn’t matter if you didn’t have a record deal, you could still hear the same stuff you’d been hearing. That set me thinking about Irish music as well but it’s not something I’ve ever really pursued because no way into it ever manifested, it would be kind of bogus as an English speaker from the suburbs you know. I don’t know if John Spillane was always a Gaeilgeoir [Irish speaker], but he’s certainly become one, a genuine one, totally genuine.”
Click the image below for more.
The Caff Corporation released 17 singles between 1989 and 1992 including titles by Buffalo Tom, The Field Mice, Television Personalities, Phil Wilson, The Lilac Time, and Pulp. A Galaxie 500 7” released in 1989 by Caff sells for around €230 these days.
CAFF1 (featuring Cathal and East Village) came free with a copy of Stanley’s Honey Hunt fanzine. Honey Hunt also has an interview by Bob Stanley with Cathal. Stanley would form Saint Etienne with Pete Wiggs in 1990.
Stanley’s Honey Hunt interview with Cathal is reproduced below (my thanks to the reader who send the scans my way - #grma).
Bob Stanley’s Honey Hunt fanzine.
