Memory: Trilogies

I was listening to some Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails this morning (do I even have to tell you who it’s by? One of the most popular albums of 1995, that’s for sure) and it evoked a memory.

I remember back when I was…15, 16 and listening to a LOT of Nine Inch Nails which Erik got me into.

I remember walking to Sonia’s on a fall evening with the wind blowing and the leaves hitting me from all angles. This is perfect weather in my opinion. I remember getting lost in my music all the time back home, just walking for hours around the town. It was great! Maybe that’s where my love of music stemmed from.

While listening to The Downward Spiral that day, I stumbled upon what I consider a trilogy of songs: Big Gun-A Warm Place-Eraser. Not a trilogy in the sense that they all had a common theme, but it was an emotional trilogy.

Big Gun – one of the most visceral songs that I’ve ever heard. Industrial music at its peak. If there was a rating in terms of agressiveness, give this a 10.
A Warm Place – one of the most calm songs I’ve ever heard. The songs are the extreme opposites of one another. I found it odd to have paired it up in such a way. Let’s give this a 1.
Eraser – The middle ground. It starts off calm and builds to (almost) the point that Big Gun was in terms of agressiveness. This songs starts out at 1 and builds to a 9.

I found this to be a very interesting way to play with someone who was listening to these three songs in a row…you pump them SO MUCH from listening to the first track and then crash them back down to serenity. Then you slowly bring everything back up to the level of the rest of the album. I loved it. In fact, my mix CDs of the past had a similar formula. Mix CDs in my opinion are not just something you slap some tracks onto…you have to mold them into the perfect listening compilation.

Anyhow, I remember getting to Sonia’s place and telling everyone in the room what I just experienced and nobody really said much and that was that.

But my key memory of this story is that years later Eric professed that when he heard me talk about NIN in this manner (Eric was the NIN fan of all time), that there was something a lot more to the Palmer you all know (well now you all know, but if you just met me like he did, you wouldn’t have known) and that this intrigued him and started our path towards a great, great friendship.

I always think of that moment in time when I listen to that trilogy of songs.

On another note, in NIN’s next album The Fragile he uses the trilogy of sound once again with No, You Don’t – La Mer – The Great Below. He wasn’t just toying around with some songs…he knew what he was doing all along. Awesome.

That was just one random memory that popped into my head, but I find it amazing how music can evoke memories of the past all the time.