Great discussion thread. I love Nick Cave, Joni Mitchell, & Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" (the latter was my dad's favorite song, which he played on diatonic accordion).
Here are some songs I find moving or comforting in different ways.
Tracy Chapman: "3000 Miles": is she thinking about her own past from 3000 miles (& many years) away? Or still back in Cleveland imagining herself 3000 miles away in order to survive everything around her?
https://youtu.be/-8h-h7dULhs?si=9mFKlqYlEsd4DhVw
Elliott Smith: "L.A.": I imagine elation in sunny L.A. after terrible despair; a kind of awed shock that he came so close to "throwing it all away" but didn't.
https://youtu.be/TLlu9XjJg3s?si=WZVkHjGr9MgoyYzf
Robyn Hitchcock: "Raymond and the Wires": the son remembers his late father (U.K. writer/painter Raymond Hitchcock) in all his vulnerability. Placing the trolley bus at center adds such touching counterpoint to the elegy.
https://youtu.be/VBaPy02P-hE?si=o3Jzlh4wv2gtZnYc