April 14, 2005 at 1:37 AM

Posted in 'Ruminations' with tags 'music, kyoto, japan, bryan, andres, cat, amy, meg, camry, bonneville, lexus'

Some bands or albums are inextricably linked to places, and usually cars, in my memory. Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction is driving in the Bonneville with Andrés and Bryan. NOFX - Punk In Drublic is hanging out with Bryan and Andrés when we were living in Estancias (particularly, all of us harmonizing along with Linoleum in the Bonneville while leaving the neighborhood). Goldfinger is driving around in PR in the Camry when I was in high school (particularly, passing by that no-name pizza place on Esmeralda). Snake River Conspiracy is driving around in Clemson in the Camry (particularly, looking for parking in the Calhoun Courts parking lot). Hole is pulling into the CVS parking lot in Ohio with Cat. OSI is walking along the waterway between my host family's house and the subway station in Japan. Cafe Tacuba is riding the subway in Japan on my way to class. The Cranberries is driving to El Yunque in Papi's Lexus with Andrés, Meg, and Amy last Christmas. Godspeed, Rachel's, and Thornley all bring to mind working at Xapiens, but we'll have to let them settle a while to see if they will become distilled down to a singular image like the rest.

Am I the only one who has such specific memories associated with music?

Comments

Posted by Jeff 6 hours, 30 minutes later

No I'd say that is pretty common. Thats one of my favorite things about music is its ability to invoke such strong memories. I sort of also use it to keep my memories organized. For instance, if I get confused about when something happened I just think back to what I was listening to around that time and then I say "oh well this album was released before this one, so this event happened before this one." It makes sense to me...don't ask. haha

Posted by Scott 7 hours, 52 minutes later

Hole? HOLE?!

Posted by Dan 1 minute later

It wasn't mine, we were in Cat's car :) By the end of the week I started to sort of get into it though.

Posted by Bryan 6 hours, 31 minutes later

Exactly. Cat's my wife and I still hate Hole.

Posted by Amy 12 hours, 11 minutes later

I definately have the same situation with memories and music. Alot of driving ones one the way to school (when I was in highschool). I love listening to some music after I haven't for a while to bring back the memories. Sometimes, I'll even go as far as to not listen to music for long periods of time to ensure that memory comes back and isn't shadowed by a more recent memory. I am always very interested in what music I listen to today will bring back memories for me in the future