October 5, 2007

Exit Music (For a Dodge Neon)

Ok Computer (which I am listening to right now - I'm going to make it a habit to post while I'm listening to each album) reminds me of my first car. Well, not my first car ever, but the first car I ever bought with my own money (which, so far, I have only done twice) and also the first new car that I ever owned. It came out around the same time I bought my 1997 Dodge Neon. I was trying to save money so I went with the cassette deck option (and also the 72-month loan instead of 60, which I think cost me money in the end but I was all about the lower monthly payments) and on the strength of "Karma Police" I borrowed someone's CD (cannot remember whose for the life of me) and made a tape of OK Computer to listen to in the Neon.


It was one of only 3 or 4 tapes I ever got around to making, and I spent a lot of time in that car, so I listened to it over and over. Actually, I listened to track 6-12 over and over. Tracks 1-5 were on one side of the tape and 6-12 were on the other. Although I was in the car a lot, it wasn't often for long enough to listen to a whole album so I frequently rewound Side 2 and listened to "Karma Police" through the end over and over. And over. Tracks 6-12 were my soundtrack for a lot of late night, aimless drives around the Washington Beltway in the late 90s.

Once I sold that Neon to my sister in 2002 I didn't have any means of playing cassettes and I never got around to getting it on CD. I guess I had listened to it enough to hold me over for years because it wasn't until I got my Zune last Christmas and got all of my music organized onto my computer that I bothered to download it and listen to it again. It's great listening to it again, but I can't imagine ever getting on a kick again where I listen to it often. It's too fixed in time for me. Or something.

4 comments:

JahidiHoya said...

I love the tags on this post. I do not think there would be anything funnier in the history of the internet than finding a person that does some type of search for "OK Computer" and "Dodge Neon" at the same time.

LenBarker said...

That's great, AYM! That reminds of how many times I listened to this album in the old Lotus.

venerableseed said...

Microsoft Zune, Dodge Neon, cassettes, and the Washington Beltway . That explains the pain in Thom Yorke's voice pretty well.

Eurowags said...

I had no car, but I definitely had the album on tape and probably gave it more listens than any other tape I have ever owned. So, I am there with you on that. I didn't finally break down and get the CD until 2003 or so.