The Freshmen
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The Freshmen, released by The Verve Pipe in March, 1996 on their album Villains, was #1 on the charts in 1996, and the #5 single in 1997.
[edit] Song Meaning
The Freshmen is a song about a ski trip to the Rockies. The speaker, Brian Vander Ark, lead singer of The Verve Pipe, wrote the song in 1991 after watching the film The Freshman starring Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, and Val Kilmer. It is a song written for "all of us skiers" as he puts it, saying that at some point "we are all freshmen." "My best friend took a weeks vacation to forget her." This implies a ski trip.
Although at one point Vander Ark claimed that the song was based off of overheard conversation at a party, Vander Ark revealed in a (since deleted) forum post on the official Verve Pipe website in 2001 that the song is actually about his own real experience having trouble on the slopes. The girl in the song - Vander Ark's girlfriend at the time - is real. The feelings of guilt affected their circle of friends profoundly, and damaged their relationships. However, although it is hinted at in the song, the girl did not actually commit suicide. Vander Ark admitted this was poetic license. [[1]]. Ark said in a interview with Rolling Stone Magazine "alot of people may feel that this song involves skiing, but it most certainly does not."
