"What the Hell Happened"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by bruce hornsby
I think one doesn't want to hear songs that are TOO on the nose on this day ("All Things Must Pass", "Days are Numbers", "Dust in the Wind", "Lost Soul"...), but bruce is the first artist to have two songs herein. Of course, miles will have two too (but not from TUTU).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8M4aAfttpo

"Virtual Insanity"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by Jamiroquai
If my feet can still shuffle on the day i die, if my legs have any lingering leap, if i can only wiggle one little finger, play this song and dance with me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JkIs37a2JE

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by Pink Floyd
There is no more perfect song in this world to play late at night when you're all alone, by the light of a single candle...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UXircX3VdM

"In the Air Tonight"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by phil collins
Most air-drummed drum fill ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1_OfmrPAfo

"There'll Be Some Changes Made"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by mark knopfler & chet atkins
Chet and mark trade laughs and licks. Has there ever been a more glorious celebration of this thing called guitar?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pklluASxfA

"The Cool, Cool River" (live Central Park)

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by paul simon
It hypnotizes, detours into temporary oases, then tightens and pulls your heart out of your chest as it lifts into eternity, the brass becoming the pulsing of your blood...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UioE0ljc9o

"I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by donald fagen
-by howard jones
Both of them. Yes, both.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogYgHlNnqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9F979uJVTI

"Sunflower Cat/It Takes a Lot to Laugh..."

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by bruce hornsby and the Noisemakers
Chugging, thumping, grinding, but gently pulling your heart away from your body with off-rhythms...then it flies away to the stratosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyGq_CTq-3M

"Free Jazz pt. 1"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by ornette coleman
I listened to six albums by this famous jazz experimentalist. Then i listened to them again. Then a third time. And still, nothing sounded "right". I couldn't make whatever he was getting at, sound good.
No scales? No chords?
EXCEPT...
For this track. It clicked into place, and became one of those rare songs that's just pure listening joy.
Go figure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0i4miN_r4g

"There Only Was One Choice"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by harry chapin
Am i just picking very longs songs to postpone the end? How can you ask? Is there anything more hypnotizing than a masterful magnum opus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MI6HSICrE8

"The Secret Handshake of Fate"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by j.d. souther
After some beautiful youthful artistic achievements, he came into his fullest flower at sixty. Ain't that a kick?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UyHtuIb99Y

"Three Views of a Secret"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-by jaco pastorius
How to express how this pulls my heart out of my chest...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R7eR1s9sjQ

"Sunflowers"

S.T.H.O.L.T.B.I.D.
(songs to hear one last time before i die)
-Wynton Marsalis Septet
I apologize for any disparaging thing i've ever said about wynton. Maybe i'd always been disinclined to favor him, because he came off as a poseur seeking miles' "greatest trumpeter" mantle. That perception may have zero basis in reality. Still, it always seemed there wasn't much soul beneath his technical wizardry.
I apologize...because of this song he wrote and performed. It's a full expression of music's magic...it lifts and transports you and drops you down, then flies you away again...once or twice you may even find yourself upside-down, laughing. The intricacies of rhythm, the interplay of instruments in his arrangement...just breathtaking. One can only cry at being alive to appreciate this. Thank you, wynton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaGA-lZ7Jlk