This is getting to be like 2016 all over again.

I’ve already noted the recent deaths of Mac Davis and Helen Reddy. I hadn’t mentioned Toots Hibbert, who reportedly invented reggae, as I’ve never been much taken with that genre of music but I knew Toots and the Maytals were influential. Nor did I note earlier the passing of Tommy DeVito of the Four Seasons. (Their work wasn’t particularly outstanding to me.)

But now there have been two losses in 24 hours. I saw last night that Eddie Van Halen had died and I woke this morning to the news of the death of Johnny Nash.

What with the wider world in a state of confusion it feels like we’re still in that annus horribilis 2016.

I always liked this song. Its maybe the optimism of the thing. But the long sustained cadence over the word “skies” in the middle eight is quite a feat for a pop singer.

Johnny Nash: I Can See Clearly Now