Song discovery that was 'outta time'

Coincidental surprise: a scene from the video of Oasis' I'm Outta Time

It was something I wasn't expecting - an Oasis song and video from 11 years ago that I'd never encountered.

And the surprise had a layer of coincidence as the song's title, I'm Outta Time, is remarkably close to the title of my novel in progress, Alice Out Of Time.

The song is an outlier for Oasis,  if anything in their catalogue can be described as such. It was the band's penultimate single, and only their debut release peaked at a lower position in the UK charts. It is also one of only two Oasis hits penned by Liam Gallagher, rather than his brother Noel. Liam features in the video, alone.

It is a touching, almost heartbreaking ballad, that in hindsight foreshadows the final days of the band. A year after its release in 2008, Oasis were no more.

When I say I had not previously encountered the song or video, there is a caveat. It is true I'd never seen the video before, but it turns out I must have heard the song at least once. That was at Madison Square Gardens, in December 2008, at what was the seventh and last occasion I saw Oasis in concert.

I'd followed the band's career since their first success in 1994, going to concerts - including the Maine Road and Knebworth extravaganzas of 1996. When I left the UK in 2005, I owned five of their six studio albums. It was at this point I lost touch with their new music. I was no longer plugged in to mainstream TV and radio, and remained mostly unaware of the new songs that made up what was to be their final album, Dig Out Your Soul.

However, when they toured to promote that album in late 2008, I headed out on a cold, wintery evening in New York to hear again the great songs I knew from their back catalogue.

Work in progress: the Alice novel is now at the 'white cover working edition' stage

Last weekend, on discovering the video of I'm Outta Time, and wondering how such a gem had escaped my notice for 11 years, I did an online check of the setlist for that night in New York and discovered the song had been played, sandwiched between two of Oasis' bigger hits, The Importance of Being Idle, and Wonderwall.

It had been placed in the final quarter of the set, surrounded by the searing anthems that defined Oasis' success. As such, it had been lost to me on first hearing. But now, in isolation, the beauty of its understated nature was striking, as was the dreamy imagery of the video, with nature to the fore, including a signature motif from  Alice Out Of Time. As I continue work on the novel, which is at the "printed white cover edition" stage, I feel the song makes a fitting accompaniment.

Also, listen carefully and you will spot a sprinkling of micro-musical homages to The Beatles and John Lennon. There is a final surprise at the end. The video concludes with a record playing on a turntable, and the voice of Lennon. Asked if he missed England, having lived in New York for almost a decade, Lennon says: "As Churchill said, it's an Englishman's inalienable right to live where the hell he likes ... I said, what do you think, it's going to vanish? It's not going to be there when I get back?"
It is a poignant recording; two days later Lennon was shot outside his Manhattan apartment.

• The official video to Oasis' I'm Outta Time:

Video adds fresh spring to Harrison classic

Celebration of life: forty-four years after the song was recorded,
and 13 years after he died, an official video was made to accompany
George Harrison's What is Life. It captures the song's joy and freshness

When I came across the official video for George Harrison's What is Life, I was surprised and delighted; surprised because the 48-year-old track was never released as a single in the UK, therefore the existence of a video seemed unlikely, and delighted by the joy and freshness it exuded.

Harrison died in 2001. However, the video was made just four years ago. I'm sure it would have met with his approval. Before explaining how the video came to be made, here is some background on the jaunty track.

It was recorded around the time The Beatles broke up, and featured as the B-side of Harrison's first solo single My Sweet Lord, released in 1970 in the UK. It subsequently became a hit in its own right in many other countries in 1971 and went top ten in the US, making Harrison the first Beatle to achieve two top ten solo hits on the Billboard chart. It is a breezy, upbeat song about love and life that fits closely with the era of The Beatles and is dominated by a catchy chorus and masterful guitar-playing from Harrison and guest Eric Clapton.

While Harrison's version was never released as an A-side in the UK, a cover version by Olivia Newton-John made it into the UK top 20 in 1972.

So how did this video to accompany Harrison's song come to be made? In 2014, a retrospective of his solo music from his time with Apple Records was released. At the same time a competition was held for filmmakers to produce a promotional video to go with What is Life. Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison and son Dhani Harrison judged the entries and picked this video, directed by Brandon Moore, as the winner of the $5,000 first prize.

It was filmed in a neighbourhood of San Francisco. The carefree, youthful energy of the song is finely captured by two young ballet performers, Emma Rubinowitz and Esteban Hernandez. The dancing is not point-perfect, but that's why it feels so real and true to life as it celebrates free expression, imperfections-and-all, guided by joy. The transience of life and a tinge of otherworldliness are evoked as Rubinowitz twirls and bounds her way through rows upon rows of markers in the San Francisco National Cemetery as the lyrics ponder "what is my life?"

This visual imaging of a song that is almost half-a-century old adds to the appreciation of how well What is Life has stood the test of time. As to the question, what is life? Well, I can't say for sure, but if it's anything like the feeling of joy, verve and boundless possibilities that emanate from this video, I'll take it.