is it me?

i'm playing final fantasy IX again and i remeber where after they crash in this one forest in the beginning of the game and you have to save Garnet, and the band on the airship was playing the same song from final fantasy VII, they had the same song?

Yep, that song is called Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony, played in Junon. The ATE is called Orchestra in the Forest.

Yes, that's the same tune. I didn't notice that the first time I played through the game.

Yup. It's one of the many tributes to the previous games.

It's called a reference, Wikipedia has a list of the references.

link