[Roger Slater]

I love that song as well, John. If I had to name a favorite TH song, though, I think I'd pick "Heaven."

[Jim Moonan]

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Thank you to all who have contributed music to this thread. It’s like a garden to me.

John, I like the Talking Heads, too, for their proclivity for delving into the philosophical. Dylan has a smorgasbord of songs that send me. John Lennon’s solo work (“Mother” “Isolation”, “Instant Karma” to name a few) are favorites for their intensity.
Ned, all great choices. “Raymond and the Wires” is fantastic. (it has a bit of your sound in it, I think). Elliott Smith and Tracy Chapman, too, have that gift I’m looking for.

I’m looking to discover those songs that stand above the noise that is most music. Those songs that combine words with music to be transcendent. Music (as well as all other forms of art) acts as a conduit to entering the non-material existence that undulates beneath us, perhaps above us. Like the ocean or the sky. We are terrestrial beings aching for cosmic (aquatic?!) salvation. Music jettisons me toward the heavenly. I am there, in the clouds, light as air; or conversely, submerged, floating, sinking into the strangeness that is like an ocean.

Here’s Lennon’s “Isolation” performed by Spoon: https://youtu.be/b2w0JLAf5rY?si=XNmM_MSjnyBNvy8Q


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[Jim Moonan]

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I forgot to mention your offering, Rogerbob (and I didn't mention a few others that also touched me.)

Yes, Stardust is a true homage to the music of love. Watching Willie Nelson find the pulse of this song is a remarkable thing to witness.
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[Joe Crocker]

Leonard Cohen's version of Cavafy's "The God Abandons Anthony" always does it for me. Here is a live version with Sharon Robinson singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-V9UvJZKIY

[Ned Balbo]

Jim, glad you liked the ones I shared. Yes, John Lennon's early solo work is amazing when he's at his best--"Mother" & "Isolation" especially. (Also "Remember.")

Spoon is a favorite of mine. Do you know "Fitted Shirt," which pays tribute to Britt Daniel's dad & bygone days? The subject matter is unusual for a song that's basically a rocker.
https://youtu.be/NU3qhr-NBk0?si=HyyYxHY49j_Lekdd

This third one, I've read, is about James Murphy's psychiatrist & friend. The song recounts receiving news of the death, the aftermath, & subsequent mourning.
"Someone Great," LCD Soundsystem.
https://youtu.be/sZDKP5pnhhM?si=SZIM3DYXc8qbo95q

In a totally different vein is my late father's favorite love song, "You're My Everything" (not R.E.M.'s excellent song!). I'd never heard the original intro till I ran across this version. https://youtu.be/V1IweGJJu_c?si=reM8TZ42UtQMPeMI

[Shaun J. Russell]

These days I mostly listen to heavy (and very heavy) music that doesn't really channel this thread's purpose, but there are definitely some songs that hit that deep part inside.

One is "Phosphorescence" by Peter Hammill. Something about how the strings work with the lyrics, the plaintive, naked tone of the lead, and the choral background singing (by the singer's daughter) come together to evoke the wistful feeling of what the moments after special moments feel like.

Another, by a more well-known band, is "Apart" by The Cure. Yes, they're best known for their goth-pop and proto-emo work, but this one captures the feeling of a relationship that was amazing, but just inexplicably starts to break down. I'd liked the song when I first heard it in the late '90s / early 2000s, and always found its emotional impact genuine and sincere... But it took on special meaning when things started going downhill with my ex-wife and I a decade ago.