The Freshmen

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. "'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

[Verse 1] When I was young, I knew everything And she, a punk who rarely ever took advice Now I'm guilt-stricken, sobbin', with my head on the floor Stopped a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice, no [Pre-Chorus] Can't be held responsible 'Cause was touching her face I won't be held responsible She fell in love in the first place [Chorus] 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 [Verse 2] My best friend took a week's vacation to forget her His girl took a week's worth of Valium and slept And now he's guilt-stricken, sobbin', with his head on the floor Thinks about her now and how he never really wept, he said [Pre-Chorus] "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" [Chorus] 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 [Post-Chorus] Hey-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Hey-yeah Hey-yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah [Verse 3] We tried to wash our hands of all of this We'd never talk of our lacking relationships And how we're guilt-stricken, sobbin', with our heads on the floor We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip, we'd say [Pre-Chorus] "Can't be held responsible 'Cause she was touching her face And I won't be held responsible She fell in love in the first place" [Chorus] 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 [Outro] We were merely freshmen We were only freshmen