The Verve Pipe Songs - The Freshman Lyrics

The Verve Pipe - The Freshman

The Verve Pipe - The Freshman Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Villains
Released: 1996

The Freshman Lyrics

When I was young I knew everything
And she a punk who rarely ever took advice
Now I'm guilt stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor
Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice

I can't be held responsible
Cause she was touching her face
I won't be held responsible
She fell in love in the first place

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

My best friend took a week's vacation to forget her
His girl took a week's worth of Valium and slept
Now he's guilt stricken sobbing with his head on the floor
Thinks about her now and how he never really wept he says

I can't be held responsible
Cause she was touching her face
I won't be held responsible
She fell in love in the first place

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

We've tried to wash our hands of all of this
We never talk of our lacking relationships
And how we're guilt stricken sobbing with our heads on the floor
We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip, we'd say

I can't be held responsible
Cause she was touching her face
I won't be held responsible
She fell in love in the first place

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen
We were merely freshmen
We were merely freshmen

Writer/s: VANDER ARK, BRIAN/BROWN, DONNY/CORELLA, DOUG/DUNNING, A.J.
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Freshman

The Verve Pipe's lead singer, Brian Vander Ark, wrote this about his ex-girlfriend getting an abortion. In the second verse, his girlfriend overdoses on Valium to commit suicide, but this part never happened and was made up by Vander Ark. (thanks, Ross - Cleveland, OH)

The band had been around since 1992 and was loved by critics, but didn't crack the charts until 1996 when "Photograph" made #53 US. "The Freshman" hit big a year later, but that was their last chart entry. They released two more albums - The Verve Pipe (1999) and Underneath (2001) - before calling it quits.

This song was first released on early copies of the 1992 Verve Pipe EP I've Suffered a Head Injury, which they released independently. The second recording appeared on the 1996 album Villains, and the third recording, which was the hit, appeared on a 1997 single and in the video. The song later appeared on various compilations.

In 2001, Brian Vander Ark explained what the song means to him on Verve Pipe's bulletin boards:
"When I was young I knew everything" - We all think we know everything at a young age. I thought I did. I realize I didn't know sh*t until I was 36.
"And she, a Punk who rarely took advice" - How many people do we know like that?
"Now I'm guilt-stricken, sobbing, with my head on the floor" - Something happened that caused this reaction, but I wouldn't want to give that away this early in the song, so let's throw in an some ambiguity:
"Stop a baby's breath, and a shoe full of rice, no" - First of all, forget the NO. Stop a baby's breath is just that. Abort the baby. A shoe full of rice is a result of a wedding. So - stop a baby's breath AND then you stop a wedding. She's pregnant, get her to abort, and then there's no wedding. And you know what?
"I can't be held responsible, cause she was touching her face" - When I wrote this song, The Divinyls had a song out called 'I Touch Myself.' The TV was on, she was touching her face in the video. Very sexy. So, I can't be held responsible because she was trying to be sexy, trying to seduce me, etc.
"I won't be held responsible, she fell in love in the first place" - I didn't tell her to fall in love.
"For the life of me, I cannot remember what made us think that we were wise, and we'd never compromise" - What was I thinking back then? Who am I to put a girl though that? Why was I unable to compromise? Guilty feelings.
"For the life of me, I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins, we were merely freshmen" - We were just kids, let it go, we all make mistakes, etc.
"My best friend took a week's vacation to forget her" - He needed to get away because of what happened.
"His girl took a week's worth of Valium and slept" - This is why this song is not that strong literally - it's confusing. HIS girl is MY girl. the same girl that had the abortion has now killed herself.
"Now he's guilt-stricken, sobbing with his head on the floor, thinks about her now and how he never really wept he says" - He has the same guilty feelings that I do about the abortion and death.
"We tried to wash our hands of all of this, we never talk of our lacking relationships" - We rarely spoke after the incident - we just tried to forget it. We never spoke of her or the fact that we can't have a decent relationship with anyone since then.
"We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip" - No matter how careful you might be, there are other perils out there.
The girl is real, the abortion is real. the death is not. it's poetic license to make the story more interesting.

Brian Vander Ark said of this song: "'The Freshmen' was written in 1991. One year before the Verve Pipe was born. I wrote it in a house on Gull Lake, Michigan. I had rented the movie The Freshmen with Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick, and the case was just sitting there the next morning and I found myself staring at it. then I realized that we are all freshmen at some point in our life - why not write a song for all of us? The song has nothing to do with the movie, though I owe the filmmakers tremendously. since the song is 11 years old - I'll make the commitment that every #1 song I write I will post a detailed definition, line by line, 11 years after it is written."

There is a theory that this song is about Romeo and Juliet. The young lovers were only 14 (about the age of a high school freshman) and the "weeks vacation" could be when Romeo went away while Juliet faked her death. The "weeks worth of Valium" could be when Juliet poisoned herself. (thanks, taryn - ducksvill, AK)

The music video was directed by Mark Neale, who had also done Counting Crows' "Round Here," and would later direct the documentary Faster.

While this was climbing the charts, British group The Verve had broken into America with their hit "Bittersweet Symphony." This caused confusion along the lines of the Black Crowes/Counting Crows/Sheryl Crow enigma of the early '90s.