Autumnal Imprinting

Hello again. I was thinking about giving this post some really sensational title as kind of an experiment, just to see how much the newest reinvention of Facebook will affect the traffic to this site. But, eh. Maybe another time.

It seems my posting is becoming less frequent now that we're knee-deep in the school year, but I suppose that's to be expected. The weather has been cool this week, cool to the point where I've actually considered switching my thermostat over to 'heat' for the first time in not enough months. But so far I've resisted, much in the same way that I continue wearing shorts right up until the day it becomes completely ridiculous for me to do so instead of just mildly ridiculous like it is now. But hey, 70s on the way next week. If we saw temps like that in March, the beaches would be populated by college kids looking to get head starts on their spring break tans.

But it isn't March. And as of Friday, we're officially in autumn. The days have slowly started becoming darker and cooler as the world almost imperceptibly begins slipping into another long period of dormancy, ushering in what has always been my favorite season. And even though some pretty dark times have changed the way I see Autumn now, it probably still is my favorite season. The world here starts huddling together, reintroducing a level of fellowship between the start of the school year and the more generic communal bond of football season beginning at so many different levels. We feel the cold on the horizon, and make the most of however few beautiful days are left, and even appreciate them that much more because we know what's to follow. Autumn almost feels like a closing down and a renewal in the same breath. Maybe that's the reason why I have so many albums that I associate with it.

I think I covered this ground way back when, writing about music that I associate so closely with specific events of the summer. The same is true with autumn, and maybe even more so than summer. It's usually comes from my discovering a new album and overplaying it so much that my brain programs a connection to it. That isn't always the case though; I feel I have to point out that my four favorite albums of all time were autumn releases or discoveries for me, but they became such critical strands of my music DNA that they superseded any seasonal attachment. I don't know why it works out that way -- maybe that will be a round of self-analysis I'll attempt another time. But for now, here are some of the albums that have the stronger ties, and how they bind me to the season.

**"Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp. A high school standard for me. Listening to the rootsy rock music he was doing back then while I drove through the rustic landscape between where my family lived and the town where we did everything built a connection impossible to avoid. This one actually has a counterpart: "Nervous Night" by the Hooters. I bought these two albums on the same day, on cassette, at the Mariner Mall in Superior, Wisconsin. Some similarities but not a lot, and yet they're forever linked for me.

**"Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits, particularly side 2, the one that didn't have any hits. When saw the "Two Cathedrals" episode of "The West Wing" for the first time and heard them using the title song to the album in the background, I flashed back to varsity soccer games, played in the dark, steam rising from our faces, most of us halfway wishing the season would just end already since there was no chance we were seeing any post-season play.

**"Bat Out of Hell II" by Meat Loaf. The album that led to Meat's short-lived comeback and Celebrity Apprentice appearance. Epic, operatic, and anything but subtle. I nearly wore this one out.

**"The Downward Spiral" by Nine Inch Nails. I had only heard the song "Closer" on the radio a couple times but read so much press about the album I had to check it out. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before, particularly the apocalyptic combination of "A Warm Place/Eraser" opening Side 2. I remember listening to those songs after seeing some awful sci-fi movie on a Saturday afternoon as I drove home. That music, along with the golden light outside and the typically seasonal cloudy sky made the whole world seem beautifully menacing.

**"Secret World Live" by Peter Gabriel. One of my favorite live albums, and a good example of the live album reversal syndrome for me -- this one had several songs on it I hadn't heard before, so the live tracks became my definitive versions and the original studio tracks always seemed a little off to me when I eventually heard them. The side 2 sequence of "Secret World / Don't Give Up / In Your Eyes" might be one of the most epic live sets ever recorded by anyone.

Wow. You know what I just realized? Every example I listed here has something surprising in common -- these are all albums that I originally owned on cassette. I wonder if that has anything to do with the imprinting. I suppose cassettes lend themselves more to playing the whole album, or at least one side of the album in its recorded continuity instead of picking out favorite songs to shuffle through over and over. Hmm. Maybe that will be a post for another day....