When I was 16 my ex girlfriend and I broke up because her parents didn’t want me to be near her. So, I made her a video with this song as background thanking her for everything she did for me as well as for sharing a beautiful year with me. She was my first love and probably the only girl I've ever felt she was made for me 100%. Today I listened to this song for the first time in 11 years... The nostalgia, I can remember smells, sensations, environments, people... It really makes me wonder how many things have changed since then. How many dreams I've archived, how many more I want to fulfill, how many people has come and gone, how many experiences I have live, how much things I have learned and suffered. Life is a beautiful journey, with ups and downs but when you learn to enjoy that by living in the moment, life becomes a present. The secret is to remember everything's impermanent. By doing so, you will enjoy the most any single event in your day because you know it will never happen again. Be grateful for living every moment. At the end, when you find yourself at your resting bed, it will not matter how many books you've read, or how much money you had. The only things that matters in those moments are the experiences you lived. May all of you always remember how much you have grown since you were kids! Please, live a life you love. You deserve it.
One of the greatest comments I've read in a very long time. And yes you are so right about all of it. For me nostalgia is a bittersweet thing and I can't ever get enough of it to the point where my soul longs to go back to those times I feel like it's going to kill me. But then I return and feel blessed and thankful for the experiences I had that were so worthy of the feeling. Life is a strange thing and only gets stranger the longer you live but it's a good ride. I hope you enjoy yours and thank you for writing such a great piece of wisdom and poetry I needed to hear those things.
I was 18 when I truly fell in love with a girl for the first time. The relationship ended because I was young, stupid, angry, and didn't know how good I had it. I'm in my 40s now but I still remember everything about her and our time together and how head over heels I was for her. I've moved on since then but a part of me will always love her. A part of my heart will be hers forever.
A great friend of mine committed suicide back in 2005. This was the first song I remember hearing after being told the news. It will forever be a tragically beautiful piece of music for me. RIP Thomas. 🖤
Freshman year of college, well actually the summer before I took some college classes. One of the guys in my class said the same thing, except it was when his friends got in a huge accident that killed them. I think we all have this. Like the song Collective Soul Run I heard when Columbine shooting happened.
@@murph1329 What was the process for writing “The Freshmen”? The melody came to me probably in 1989 or 1990, well before the song became a hit. But I started humming the melody and then I had this idea of a short story that pertained to me and a friend of mine who had dated the same girl and kind of went back and forth with her - I dated her for a while and then we broke up and he dated her and then I dated her again. And then one of us got her pregnant and she had an abortion. Neither one of us knew who the father was. So, that’s where the truth ends. And poetic license took over and had her commit suicide. But she didn’t in real life. So, the very heady, very tragic story - a little over-tragic, you know. But I felt like the melody and lyric had come together pretty easily. Everything rhythmically was working. But I was missing two elements. I worked on the song for six months, I think. And I was missing two elements after six months. And that was: I didn’t have that they were freshmen. I didn’t have, “We were merely freshmen.” And I didn’t have, “She was touching her face.” I used to work at a sporting goods store at the time and I was going to be late for work and I remember noodling around. I was playing the melody and I had the melody for “We we’re merely freshmen,” the ba-da-da-da-DA-da. And I was singing things around it like, “Gotta make some breakfast! Gotta quit my day job!” That kind of thing. And I’m sitting there and MTV is on and the volume is low, or down completely. And I look down at the coffee table, like, “What can I do here, the last line, I need this.” And I look down and there on the coffee table is copy of the VHS tape of the movie I rented the night before. And that movie was Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando called, The Freshman. And I was looking at this thing and it finally dawns on me like, “This is perfect!” It’s a couple of guys who were in college and you’re sympathetic to them because, you think, you do these kinds of things in college. And it was the perfect thing, the perfect moment. 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. You sang the song with this rugged vocal. What did that do for the blend with the lyrics and the story you were telling? Well, the first time we recorded it, we recorded it for Independent Records before we got signed to RCA. And it had a very Harry Chapin-esque tone to it. It was very deep and it demanded attention. And I never really liked that version. When RCA picked us up, they said, “Hey let’s re-record this and make it more of a modern rock version.” And then we recorded it again and we recorded it like a Chris Isaac tune. It was like a whisper sing. It supposed to be like I was gently telling it. I took the exact opposite approach. And it was six-minutes long. So, we decided this isn’t going to work either. So, we recorded it a third time and that was the time that it ended up being more growly, halfway in between the two is what it ended up being. I don’t quite sing that harsh now. But I think that entire Villains album is pretty much the common thread, it gives that edge to it. That’s what everybody was happy with at that time for sure. It fell right in line with the rest of modern rock songs at that time.
One of my friend’s committed suicide in 2004 when we were freshmen in high school. This song makes me think of him. RIP Aaron love and miss you 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Who is still loving this song in 2020? I remember meeting this band in ann arbor Mich in around 1991, at least 6 months before they hit it big. Great band and song. I still have the "I've suffered ahead injury" CD I bought that night (1st release) with a different version of the freshman on it. It was later re released without this song
@@edwarddailey21 Thanks man it's a very cool version of the freshman. It was only available on the first release of I've suffered a head injury. They later re-released that album under a different record label and without the freshman on it
Came out in 96.. was in 6th grade.. having the best times I would ever have. Just couldn't realize it at the time.. Life doesn't even feel real anymore. Only in my adolescence, was I alive... and now........ Who knows
Oh, WOW! This song is now put in the "deeper meaning than I ever imagined" category...of course, it was from a time when music actually had something to say to you...gosh I miss being a kid in the90's :'(
Gobbles wells what you miss is an mtv telling what to hear. get a grip, there's lots of music going on these days. good music. there's just not a mass media vehicle telling you what's good and what is not anymore. With regards to being a kid in the 90's yeah i miss it too, being old sucks. peace.
This song always fills me with nostalgia. I get taken back to high school, when a couple bros and I had a campfire out in a field next to a pond. We told each other stories, talked about life and dumb topics, cracked jokes... All that. We listened to music too, including the campfire song, but this song right here... We sang this one twice, cuz it hit us all so hard with feels.
having gone through the most traumatic experience of my life freshman year.... this song hit home and helped with healing. i am now at the point, listening to it years later, to be able to listen to it without bawling. thank you
When this song was new, I was cursing metal for being so metal that it lost the trust of the record companies and got booted from radio and MTV. Looking back, I missed out on some good music, including this masterpiece. I'm glad some people have hung onto it and posted it online so I can hear it now.
Finding all my mommys old music ❤❤ she used to sing this to me as a child. Haha! I miss her a lot. I don't get to see her often so I listen to her old music.
I vaguely heard this song before in 1998 when I was in year 8, but listening to it now 21 years later (2019), I find this song more relevant. Espercially about the chorus, it just reminds me of the past mistakes that I had made and the missed chances I could've taken to make myself a better person
Love reading comments about those who grew up in the 90s about this song. I heard this in the movie American Reunion and had to look it up. Beautiful song. I’m a 2000s baby but I’m an old soul
Meaning aside,..... This song has economic use of guitar and the notes are carefully chosen. These notes create such an impact and fell to this song that even WITHOUT lyrics, if the lyric melody was hummed or played on an accompanying guitar or keyboard, the song STILL carries HUGE weight. This is an absolute Masterpiece. 👍🌟👍!
1996... I liked this song when it came out, I even bought the cd. I haven't heard this song since 1997... now, 26 years later, I watch a tiktok and there it was, those years came rushing back. It takes your breath sometimes when you are reminded of the seemingly blinding speed of life.
I love this song but at the same time, it makes me think of past regrets, bad shit I've done.. people I've hurt. It's super depressing, but it's a reminder to me everytime I hear it to... just do better. Still in a rut at 33 years of age.. hoping it gets better one day soon.
Don’t listen to the knucklehead… I do believe that we can’t ever really fully rid ourselves of guilt, shame, and depression, those of us that have it at least, but we can learn how to cope with them in a way that allows us to find some acceptance and happiness through it all. You still have a long life ahead of you, and time is capable of healing a lot of wounds… if you wake up most mornings from now on choosing to be a better person to those you care about that are still in your life, and not being so hard on yourself about things you can’t change now, eventually you will have more to be proud of than to regret. As Brother Ali says: “If I don’t like my life I gut it and rebuilt it, f*ck it, keep nothing but god and my children… if to grow I got to shed my skin then let it be done.”
God I miss the 90's greatest music decade ever, not sure if The Verve Pipe are one hit wonders but shit most one hit wonders from the 90's are better than most of the shit these days put together.
+daniel sarn plus that one hit song means more to a lot of people than entire catalogs or some of the garbage artists out there. I never felt being a "one hit wonder" was as bad a thing as people say. It means you created that one in a billion thing that connected with EVERYONE.
daniel sarn Not even close to the best decade .. and this sentimental nonsense hardly makes the decade's music better. I saw them do this song in bars when they were a college band. I didn't like it in college and still can't believe this song was their one big hit.
Listening to lithium on xm today. I spent the break reminding the hubs of this song. When by divine intervention, it came on next... for the life me, I can not believe that happened.
I'm pregnant with my first baby. I love this song and asked my mom about it and I guess she listened to it while she was pregnant with me. It's so weird how you can find these songs you really can feel just to find out your parents felt the exact same thing.
You did what you thought was best. Vision to the past is always 20/20; don’t beat yourself up. I’m not here to even pretend to think I can offer magical wisdom but keep pushing forward and find a way to honor him/her if I’m interpreting correctly. We all wrestle w second-guessing and you’re no less of a person because of something.
We’d always jam out to this in the 90s as tweens. I knew it was about OD but never “got” the song. Now 25 years later I am listening to it again and hits differently remembering all of the people I lost to overdoses.
it reminds me of my daughter... reminds me that I failed and for years I lived in denial. and I think back on it all.. I love you Abby, Daddy loves you so much. I'll never forget about you.
I think that's the real lesson. learning to keep going after you lose something, after taking a hit so close to the chest. I don't know your struggle through my own walks, but I understand through a similar means. you don't know me, but if you need to talk, I'll listen.
Allen listen to the lyrics of the song "I won't be held responsible" I can't possibly say l understand your pain but l would be lying. Live for Abby stay strong and keep the faith.
I'm a father as well, and I feel for you. I do not know what it's like to lose one's own child, but my sister does. I walked in her home to take her somewhere, and her baby boy, my nephew, was lying in his bed, and he was dead. SIDS is a real problem. While I don't know what you're going through personally, by proxy I can understand. Live for Abby's memory, and she will never perish.
I don't understand why but I can't stop listening to this song. 9/11/01 never forget. No idea why this song is attached to that for me but it is. Never again! Never forget!
I'm in 9th grade right now, actually..recently returned from a suspension and was dumped by the guy who promised he'd support me. So the line "My best friend took a weeks vacation to forget her, his girl took a weeks worth of Valium and slept." resonates with me. Not that I'm in any position to kill myself. But I mean, just feels terrible. Thinking you're finally enough for someone..
+Meulin Leijon Oh girl, I know it doesn't seem like it right now but I promise, you have a LOT more living to do and high school is just a blink in time, when you look back. head up, his loss! ~J
Juniper Sloane, I know that it's been a while since your post, but life will go on for you. H.S. is just a quick vapor in the grand scheme. You will be ok. You are an amazing person who will inspire others to do great things. So keep being you, the best way you know how 😊
Well this song has a very special meaning in my life. This song is the mirror of my life. The only difference im still alive unlike the woman who took the vallum. But this song has a very special meaning to the people who wrote it and i thought it fit to share the beauty of this song and why its such an amazing song. Especially when you understand it was written from his heart.
For the life of me I cannot believe he'd ever die for my sins, he was just a freshman Reminds me of a friend who 'fell in love' with me when I was a sophomore in college. He was a freshman in high school (there was really only a 2-3 year age gap, because of odd grade things). He was incredibly depressed and I was the only one who could make him happy, so I made him a lot of promises than I eventually couldn't keep cause I was just an 18 year old with problems of her own. When I cut things off with him, I was terrified of what he might do, convinced any harm that came to him would be my fault. Fortunately I was friends with friends of his and I was able to get in touch with his parents, and they helped him through things. He's still miserable now but I can only watch because he hates me now. But that's life, you know?
The best decade every. I met and married my husband. We were 17. We dated for a year and got married July 15,1995 and we had 2 kids. We have been separated for 3 years and I miss him so bad. We are friends now but it's give the rest of my life for over more week with him because it was my fault.
This really is a great song. I think alot of people can pinpoint that one that got away. The part that sticks out to me "we've never talked about our lacking relationships". Its crazy how the girl I think of and myself fit that to the T. Not to tell a life story, but with all the garbage music out these days its crazy how this one random song can speak to you.
This song is the official funeral song that was played New Years Eve in 1999 as we all stood helplessly and watched 2000 take place; unable to stop it. The end of what was arguably the greatest era ever... Generation Legendary.
This reminds of a friend with Bipolar Disorder. She was power harassed at work and pushed into a Bipolar Depression. it lasted for a year. i didn't have the heart to tell her that her meds made her gain weight and her eyes looked dead while alive. that's the real tragedy when you realize that saving a life just prolongs one's pain. i'd save her life in a heart beat if i could again. 😭
7th grade was the year I was in when this song came out. It reminds of the good ole days before heroin took over my life. I'm clean now but, I remember listening to this song in the very beginning. I shouldn't have memories like that but, I do.
Will have to check out the bands other songs . This was the only single I bought by them great song . Re recording it on to USB ❤❤😂Sydney Australia 23/8)2023
When I opened up for Brian and the boys at the Saugatuck film festival, they were kind enough to insist I use their sound system, and were generally very cool guys. Totally professional and great on stage. Great memory. Check out Jim Gibson Up My Sleeve if you like.
The singer's girl had an abortion because he didn't want to marry. His friend's girl committed suicide after her abortion. Again Vander Ark spoke of his lyrics and you can easily google it. Seems you are the idiot.
Before there was the internet, before there was social media, before there was “Stranger things” there was I time I heard this in a tree house by my friends older brother...and it was probably the first alternative rock song i had ever heard and talked about what the lyrics meant
