I became an EMT in 1995, and had more trouble getting it right in my first job than I thought I would. After 2 years of trouble and stress it finally clicked on a summer night shift in 1997. Warm night in the city. Chilled out partner. Dinner was first on the agenda after truck check. This song (acoustic version) was on the ambulance stereo. I can still hear the dispatcher's "occasional" voice in the background. No pressured vocal tones, just chilled and total minimization of his airtime. This song was the theme for the first time something big clicked, confidence kicked in, and I was still in college thinking that was the biggest challenge life could possibly produce.
Brings me back to my freshmen days in college sitting inside my car in the parking lot watching as the world played out around me. Very nostalgic indeed.
If I could rewind back to when this topping the charts...back when I was capable of emotion and it all hadn't fallen apart yet. Still waiting for that time machine.
There's a certain sadness and desperation to this song that you don't realize you can sympathize with until it's too late, and you're the one guilt stricken and sobbing with your head on the floor.
Absolutely. I was 16 years old when this song came out and I haven't heard since I was like 18 or 19. I'm now 44 years old sitting here with two Ex-Wives five daughters just as many tours of duty in Afghanistan just as many bullet holes in me that have scarred over and what I would give to go back and do it all over again the right way. The fucking tears... They won't stop. It's been so long since I've heard this. And I'll tell you it hits like a fucking sledgehammer now. I thought it was a good tune back in the day. Didn't really get it I mean I was 16.... Oh believe me I get it now. It's a little bit late...... But somehow I'm still here. Listening to this just letting the tears fall. 😭
There are boatloads of people producing music like this today, they just aren't considered "pop" so don't get anywhere near same level of airplay they would have back then
This my preferred version of this song. It is very hard to find it. It reminds me of Prom 1997 and my freshmen year of college. Thank you for posting it.
This takes me back to 1997 when I met this girl in person from AOL. We had a strong connection and a few Brief Encounters between where I lived and she did. Long-distance eventually tore us apart and things went bad. A lot of the alternative songs from this time remind me of her and this one especially. I miss those days.
I cant tell you how many songs I shared with this girl on Yahoo when we were in middle school, we were best friends till after highschool, but nothing more.. I miss those good times,, but life is still good because of the music and the memories
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
I caught this version recently on the radio and this felt so new after all these years of hearing this song easily hundreds of times throughout my life. Awesome i found it here.
This reminds me of summer '97 when it was on the radio and I was in the car with my mom going through the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. It fit well with the slow driving in the rural area for two city gals.
@@ananda_miaoyin no, that’s not it. You’ve just become old and sound like the same old people that used to annoy you. I’m turning 40 soon, so this isn’t a kid saying this to you. Boomers said the same things about the music, trends and things you liked when you were a kid and now here you are doing the same.
@@Kravis63 You are correct. It appears each generation laments some of the things that progress, technology and innovations bring just because they are different to what they are used to. In this case, my lamentations are for things more objective - like musical ability. We are not far in age between us and I am hoping you can appreciate the years an artist will spend perfecting ones' craft to bring a truly exemplary display of musical prowess to bear versus some dude dorking around with a DAW basically photoshopping an album that would be impossible to perform in a live setting. By the way, old people did not annoy me when I was a child. We learned to respect the wisdom that (generally) comes with age. I learned far more from the mistakes of others than my own experiences. So you may take your presumptions of me and shove them straight into your ass.
Nope. This is the '96 recording that was on the first release of Villains. It was rerecorded a third time, and that's the hit. All future copies of the album had that one.
When I got this album, this is the version that was on it. IMO-still the far better version. Similar situation to the original version of "Broken" by Seether
For the life of me, I cannot remember, what made us think that we were wise and we never compromised. For the life of me, I cannot believe, we'd ever die for these sins! We were merely FRESHMEN!
As someone else said, this is a great version of the song, but it's not accoustic. The guitar is clearly not an acoustic guitar, and it's plugged in. :)
This is the most tonally appropriate version of this song, IMHO. The other versions I’ve heard don’t seem to capture the mournfulness of this song’s themes as appropriately as this.
....no. It's not. I bought this album the day it was released. This was on the first pressing, and was replaced with the new version everyone has heard a million times on all subsequent pressings.
Guess what, dude. I ditched school to buy it the day it came out. It has the shitty version on it. Don't tell me they only sent first pressings to some areas and not others.
Not gonna argue, but from Wikipedia: The song first appeared, in acoustic style, on their 1992 album I've Suffered a Head Injury. It was recorded a second time and released on the band's 1996 album, Villains. Later that year, the band recorded the song again, this time with the producer Jack Joseph Puig,[4] for release as a single in January 1997.[5] Subsequent pressings of Villains replaced the original album version with the single version. "The Freshmen" peaked at number 5 in the United States.
![The Verve Pipe - The Freshman [Acoustic]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
