The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
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, no
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 oh
Valium and slept
And now he's guilt stricken sobbing with his
Head on the floor
Think's about her now and how he never really
Wept he says
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
Hey, yeah
Hey, yeah
Hey, yeah
We 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
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
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
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, no
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 oh
Valium and slept
And now he's guilt stricken sobbing with his
Head on the floor
Think's about her now and how he never really
Wept he says
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
Hey, yeah
Hey, yeah
Hey, yeah
We 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
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
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
Lyrics submitted by kevin, edited by NormaJean122, rocdragon
The Freshmen Lyrics as written by Douglas Corella Donald Brown
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
The first verse is about the singer and his girlfriend getting pregnant and then having an abortion. The second verse is about his best friend breaking up with his girlfriend and his girlfriend committed suicide. The third verse is about the fact that the two men never moved on from these tragedies. The Chorus is about how stupid they were to let their small teenage problems blew up and they are still paying for what they did when they were young.
Experiences.
It's like reading a book and seeing a word that you don't understand. You either stop and deliberate over its meaning or if you're like me and you don't always have a dictionary on hand, you'll keep going and hope you understand the passage anyway. But then you realize how important that one word really was--it's what changed the entire passage and potentially the story.
We aren't dictionaries, we don't understand every little detail in our lives at every moment. We sort of just skim a lot and hope for the best. We continue and we continue and then one day--it's like damn, I wish I took the time to think that one through. I wish I didn't just skim over it.
Regret.
Experiences and regret. That is the worst. Then again, that's life. I can't complain.
That is a brilliant metaphor, and fits this song exactly. They didn't mean to cause terrible harm and mess up their lives -- they just weren't paying very close attention. They never imagined their youthful obliviousness could have such consequences, and still have trouble accepting what happened. <br /> <br /> The one note of hope is the "for the life of me, I cannot remember..." It suggests at least regret, and humility, which is indeed the beginning of real wisdom.
Beautifully said. Thank you.
You people are all wrong!
The true meaning of this song as stated in an interview with lead singer/songwriter Brian Vander Ark:
What is "The Freshmen" about? It was written by Brian Vander Ark. It told the story of a guy whose girlfriend had committed suicide. At the height of the The Freshman success, Vander Ark told reporters that the song was based on bits and pieces of a conversation he'd overheard at a party. Now he admits that the song was more personal than he previously led the public to believe, and that his actions in covering the truth were cowardly. "It happened to me," he said, "but I didn't want to expose myself in that way, especially without a safety net. It's funny because The Freshmen was written about a situation that had happened to me and I said it was about somebody else," Vander Ark says."I was feeling guilty about the success of The Freshman, because it came from exploiting a girlfriend who committed suicide. So, I thought, Okay, I'm successful now because I wrote a song about this. That's basically exploitation.Then I thought, screw it. Because I wrote this song, I made so many people happy and so many people could identify. It was therapy for those people. So, I thought, I'm a jerk but I want to be a hero."
Speaking of “The Freshman”, did any of that song actually happen ?“Yeah, I mean I used a dramatic license to have the girl commit suicide when she is actually still alive and well. But, for the most part, yeah. She had the abortion and that’s about the whole story.”
@Googlymoo I don't know how much I can believe the songwriter after all of that. I actually think the first verse sounds like the murder of a baby girl via asphyxiation rather than abortion with the:<br /> <br /> "Stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice, no<br /> <br /> "Can't be held responsible<br /> "Cause she was touching her face"<br /> <br /> People are asking what the touching of her face means, but it's right after "stop a baby's breath." Seems pretty obvious to me that it was about a young mom putting her hand on a baby girl's face and smothering her.
"stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice" I believe means that they got pregnant and were told to get married but instead the aborted the baby and therefore no wedding. Especially since in the third verse he it states: "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 my I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins we were merely freshmen." The compromise that they were probably encouraged to do was to get married but didn't want to, thus the "shoe full of rice," but instead they aborted the child, thus the line "stop a baby's breath" and for this choice they were shunned and told what they did was sinful even though they were so young and not ready to be married and have child. The "Baby's Breath" can also be a play on words because it is used in weddings and can have a double meaning as a symbol of a wedding and an abortion. I believe this is so simply because the word "stop" is in front of of the whole line.
The latter verses are about his friend having some break up or falling out with a girl where he hurt her enough to make her want to commit suicide, except that he didn't care for her as much as she did for him, which is partially why he feels so guilty because he probably used her. Now together he and his friend are trying to forget the abortion and the suicide, but they can't which is what the line "we never talk about our like of relationships" means. And they know that they are to blame as much as the girls they hurt but they make excuses saying that it was her fault that she fell in love and that they were merely freshmen so they were too young to take responsibility for it.
And I do not believe the analysis about the song being about two guys using a girl that committed suicide because they hurt her because when he talks about his friend's situation he refers to his friend's girl as "his girl."
Good catch with the baby's breath. Wow.
She was touching her face? Anyone? ? It's the last line that I don't get.
@IbbyVK Sometimes women drag a finger down their lip seductively and somehow it works. I don't understand why or how.
@IbbyVK @IbbyVK. <br /> Maybe it could mean ....she was touching her face out of worry. Like, something goes terribly wrong - - - <br /> Example: when u put your hand over your mouth and gasp-- oh no, kind of moment?? That is what i've always imagined.
@IbbyVK I visualise someone brushing away tears, but trying to be subtle about it. <br /> People who are that depressed, enough to be seriously contemplating suicide -- well, there are things you might see, but sometimes you have to be looking carefully, because they often try to hide it. In the '90s this was even more the case, because although the stigma is still out there, it was much worse then.
@IbbyVK This is the most legit source I’ve found on this:<br /> americansongwriter.com/the-freshman-by-the-verve-pipe-behind-the-song/<br /> In here Brian Vander Ark is quoted as saying this about this line: <br /> Then the “She was touching her face” came right after that on MTV. Like I said, it was on in the corner, and it was the Divinyls video for, “I Touch Myself.” She was laying back, touching her face. It makes it sexy. And I was like, “Oh my god, this totally fits in this puzzle piece here.” And it doesn’t really mean anything according to the song but, of course, that’s one of the most quoted lines – especially now with COVID and people saying not to touch your face. And I got it right in that song. So, those were the two last puzzle pieces. Then I remember I got so excited about it that I had a show a couple nights later and I played this song before I was ready to play it. I didn’t have it memorized enough and I messed up all the words. But I got the “she was touching her face” and the “for the life for me” and at the end of the song, I had so many people come up and say, “What was that song about her touching her face.” So, I knew then that I had something here. From there, it just took off.
Do not get me wrong, this is a great song. I listen to it every day, and I don't pretend to know anything about this band. However if the story about the girl killing herself is true, I feel like the fitting thing the band could have done was to break up and never play music again. They made so much money off that song, and unless they gave it to the girl's family, (which they may have done, I wouldn't know) I feel like morally this song shouldn't exist. It seems like a poor way of repaying the girls memory. I commend the band for realizing they were wrong, but I don't feel like this is the correct way to express it.
10 pages of comments and nobody mentioned “a week’s worth of Valium and slept” should read “a week’s worth of Valium and slapped him”? “Slept” works, but I hear “slapped him” and think it is more appropriate–she slapped him bu taking a weeks worth of Valium, thus killing herself, and that is quite a slap in the face. That is how I’ve always heard it, anyway. Also, I think the baby’s breath line should read “it’s not a baby’s breath...” Obviously, this is interpreted as “this won’t lead to a wedding” (baby’s breath is a flower often used in wedding bouquets and rice is often tossed at weddings) and not anything to do with abortion.
Just my 2¢.
Hate to break it to ya discern, but the lyrics are right. it's slept and stopped. sorry, but it's true i've looked up the lyrics a bazillion times(exaggeration but still) and all of the lyrics sites say that it's slept and stopped.
@discern Not all of the lyrics here are correct, but those two are. You probably heard the "and" as "him", since the verse has the words so close together. <br /> <br /> It's "Thinks about her now.." instead of "Think somebody now..", though.
@discern I like your metaphorical interpretation of "slapped him," but in reality, a "week's worth" of Valium is rarely fatal in an otherwise healthy young person (though it depends what the daily dose was, of course) unless it's combined with other CNS depressant drugs, like heroin, alcohol, etc. The person who posted these lyrics did get the line wrong, though not in the way you suggest — it should be:<br /> <br /> "...his girl took a week's worth of Valium and slept and now he's guilt-stricken, sobbing with his head on the floor..."<br /> <br /> I can see how the additional "and" could make it sound like "slapped him."<br /> <br /> I think the flower you're talking about is Gypsophila paniculata. I didn't know that it was associated with weddings.
@discern He says "and slept...and now he's...."<br /> The "slept and" run together. i thought he said "slapped 'em down" for the longest time.
Sixteen years later, this song still haunts the fuck out of me, and I never even had to deal with any of what it talks about. It is so profoundly sad, beautiful, regretful, and human. Its poetic license based on the (fortunately less tragic) events that inspired it is excused ten times over. It's great art...full stop.
baby's breath is a flower maybe it symbolized flowers put on her grave? just a guess
in fair verona...