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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
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
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
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
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
we were merely freshmen
we were only freshmen
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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.
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.
My cousin knows all about this stuff, and he told me it's about a girl who wants to quit school and go up to Toronto for Clown College ("never die, 40 cents"). So, one night she puts on circus makeup (she was touching her face) so she can surprise the guy and they then will make love while she's dressed as a clown. BUT, when she jumps out of the closet, he's so scared that he poops in his pants, and then she feels so guilty that she runs away and jumps in a frozen pond and kills herself. I think there's a baby thrown in there also.
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."
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.”
Just my 2¢.