My dad bought me The Fragile in Fall of 1999. He used to travel every six months to the US, as he had to attend conferences, sometimes presenting work from his company, other times just as part of a larger team involved with the oil industry, from an environmental viewpoint.

My dad was always a quiet person. It would take some time to get him going for conversation, but you could always talk about many topics with him. Same with my mom. My dad’s fave topics were always books, classic rock, and musicals. For books, he would be partial to Sci Fi (old school, not space operas) and technothrillers (Clancy, Crichton, you name it). Musicals, his inclination was always Webber, Sondheim, and sometimes Steinman.

He was always eager for those trips. Not only because it was a change of scenery, but he would go out of his own way and buy stuff for people, giving it as soon as he could. He couldn’t express how he felt, but if you got a gift from him, it meant he cared about you.

When I was a kid, the gifts were GI Joes. When I hit a certain age, it was CDs. Sometimes I’d give him a list, other times he’d take notes of what I was listening and sometimes check what I had on my collection.

I don’t think he ever approved of Nine Inch Nails, but bought me the album nonetheless. That period in 1999 was tough. I lost a good friend to cancer, and my mom was diagnosed later with cancer too. I know it’s a cliché but the album got me through.

There was a person that I fancied and I thought about inviting her out. I lost track of her for a few weeks and one day, I was hanging with some friends late at night outside a lab. We worked all afternoon and needed a breather. I saw my friend, and she now had a boyfriend. They looked so happy and they were dancing, and somehow, I heard in my head the piano part from Just like you imagined. Always felt like something Reznor borrowed from Bowie’s 1.Outside album. Or maybe from Tori Amos. A little digging confirms that Mike Garson, Bowie’s pianist, was the genius behind this part.

I survived that year and I still get along with this woman, as we are now great friends. Sometimes I listen to only Just like you imagined and wonder about those days, if I could’ve changed something, but then, I’d be a different person today and I’m not too keen on that.

Also, the trailer for 300 used this song.

-Sam J. Valdés López