"I can see clearly now the rain is gone / I can see all obstacles in my way / Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind / It's gonna be a bright / Bright sunshiny day" I Can See Clearly Now was written by the Houston-born singer-songwriter Johnny Nash. First released in 1972, it became a huge hit and the song has been covered by hundreds of artists, from the Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff to the Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers. For recording engineer and producer Luke DeLalio the original of the song is 'a masterpiece', with a sublime vocal performance and an arrangement that is surprisingly experimental for such an apparently simple song. Professor Kathy M. Newman of Carnegie Mellon University tells us about Johnny Nash's life and career, from his early years as a clean-cut crooner and teen idol, to his time recording in Jamaica and his later years, living on a ranch in Texas. For author and psychologist Peggy DeLong it's a song of hope, resilience and love. It was once meant to be her wedding song but took on new significance after she lost her fiancé as a young woman in the 1990s. The song appeared in Brenda Drumm's life when she needed it most. In a moment of darkness and worry, it came on the radio as she was driving home from a day of tests at the hospital near her home in County Kildare. It allowed her to dare to plan for the future. Poet Jack Mapanje was detained in Malawi’s notorious Mikuyu Prison without charge from 1987 until 1991, under Hastings Banda's regime. He remembers singing the song when other political prisoners were released - "it's a song of hope". And the author Joanne Harris talks about the song's "sense of perpetual sky" and how the lyrics provide grounding and comfort in troubled times. Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
This was an impregnable fortress.
The only way you got out was.
In a wooden box.
The controversial maximum security prison, impossible to escape from.
One of the duties of a political.
Prisoner is the escape the IRA inmates who found a way.
I'm Carlo Gabler and I'll be navigating a path through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in british and irish history.
The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
Escape from.
From the maze.
Listen first on BBC Sounds.
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I can see clearly.
It's about the most optimistic song in the world.
I can see clearly now the rain.
Is gone it has a natural, beautiful, uplifting quality that is so unforced.
The performance is so perfect and so felt.
Bright, bright, bright sunshiny Day my name is Luke Dalio.
I'm a recording engineer and producer from New York and I'm very interested in the historical and cultural baggage that great recordings have, in addition to the technical side of them and how they were made.
I can see clearly now it was recorded in London at Air Studios in 1971.