I remember when I first heard this song ... I was entering freshman year of high school (I believe, it was around that time). When I first heard The Verve Pipe's Freshmen, I instantly fell in love with it. I remember the video was shot in one frame (well, it seemed) ... but it's funny how you never really listen and interpret the lyrics. 6 years later I still listen to the song with only a vague understanding of the lyrics...

When I was young I knew everything
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 only freshmen

Of course, in the most general sense the song is about the failures in life we have being "freshmen." In America at least, being a freshmen is about trying new things. Finding yourself ... and it's okay to fail.

To that end, I always loved the meaning of the song ... it's about the failures that we all face in our lives, and our abilities to reflect on them. But the song has a more literal meaning (as I just found out).

This song is actually a very personal song from one of the members of Verve Pipe ... the story goes like this:

There was a groupie that the band pretty much passed around; she fell in love with one (or more of the members). Eventually she became pregnant ... but she had an abortion. The father of the child (who was known), didn't care much about the abortion. Because of this, the girl got really depressed and took a bunch of Valium (she didn't commit suicide though).

You can catch the key lines of the story in the most obscure line of the song: "Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice." A baby's breath is a popular arrangement at weddings, and a shoe full of rice is a wedding traditional (American?) that is supposed to symbolize good luck in the marriage... but "stopping" a baby's breath is also a reference to the abortion. It's a rather clever double entendre.

Well, I still love this song dearly ... do any of you remember it at all?