Crucial Track for 02 June 2025

"Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction

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Describe music that reminds you of a specific place you've traveled.

When I was 17 years old, I went on a road trip with my best friend and her parents from Washington to Arizona, where they used to live, and where we'd go on a week long hike from the top rim of the Grand Canyon all the way to the bottom, then back up again. We made the drive in their very comfortable old van, and I remember sitting back there for hours with my friend, both of us on our Walkmans, listening to cassette after cassette. I had been really into the Pixies for ages, but someone had given me Jane's Addiction's Ritual de lo Habitual, and how had I missed that? I listened to it all the way there and all the way home. My friend's parents were evangelical Christians, so I was careful to not share what I was listening to. Last they'd heard I was still going to church, so I'd brought along some Petra and Amy Grant just to keep the illusion going. Later I would discover how totally weird they found me, despite all my attempts to appear normal.

I got so sick in the heat when we first arrived, and all her Arizona family just said, "Oh, you're new here, that's just the heat sickness, it'll go away in a few days," And it did. But I never fully adjusted, despite how beautiful I found the desert. We didn't carry our Walkmans with us on the hike, our backpacks (old external frames, I actually loved mine) were held to strict weight standards - I was annoyed at that when we set out, but grateful when I was carrying it all back up, exhausted. I got really ill on the hike back, they said it was heat stroke (and didn't tell me how serious the situation was until days later). They had me sitting in the shade, trying to figure out what to do, when suddenly out of nowhere it started to rain! I cooled down, got sopping wet, and I was able to walk myself out of there.

Arizona was hot, sticky (huge rains hit when we got there, that surged down the street, flooding up over all the curbs - they had no storm drains!), and just an entire experience in itself. When I think about sun-baked deserts with cacti everywhere and lizards perched on rocks, I think of Jane's Addiction.