The Verve Pipe -- 'The Freshmen'

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Traffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams.

It’s well known that despite being a teenager in the mid to late 1990s, I generally dig music that’s a good ten years older. However, there are definitive exceptions that recall for me my adolescence like no others can. One of those is The Verve Pipe’s “The Freshmen.”

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Iconically, I was a freshman in 1997-1998, when “The Freshmen” was re-re-recorded (yes, it was recorded once in 1992, with an even creepier pacing, and twice in 1997). The third version of the song became a hit.

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Like many songs, there are different origin stories for the lyrics, and several listener interpretations. I have my own, but in 1997, I thought the song mostly had to do with the superficiality and weakness of teen romantic relationships. I have come to believe the lyrics have a far darker meaning now.

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What songs evoke for you a quintessential aspect of your own teenage years?