When We Were Young
When We Were Young Lyrics
Do you remember when we were young?
Life was so simple, we just had fun
Do you remember when we were small?
And everything around us was so much taller
[Chorus]
Yeah, we remember when we were younger
And all we wanted was the summer
No, we don't wanna grow cold
No, we don't wanna grow old
So we'll just remember when we were young
[Verse 2]
Do you remember when we were kids?
And all that we wanted was to go outside with our friends
Do you remember falling in love?
Passing notes in sixth grade, I got detention every day
[Chorus]
Yeah, we remember when we were younger
And all that we wanted was each other
No, we don't wanna grow cold
No, we don't wanna grow old
So we'll just remember when we were young
About
“When We Were Young” sees Ben reflect on his youth with a great sense of nostalgia, but this perspective changes subtly halfway through.
The first and second verses are sung from an older perspective, with him reminiscing about youth, this evident in his utilisation of past tense.
The first and second verses are sung from an older perspective, with him reminiscing about childhood and pre-adolescence respectively, this evident in his utilisation of past tense. Before his use of ‘younger’ and ‘kids’ there was no way to gauge time, so younger was used loosely to describe a time—whereas in the second verse “remember when we were kids” implies that he is now speaking as an adult.
Then, the bridge becomes the song’s moment of reflection. If you read from the second chorus onwards it becomes apparent that the writer is no longer reminiscing about his youth, but rather confronting the reality that he’s now older, seemingly hoping that his awareness of that will see he doesn’t grow cold with age.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.When We Were Young
- 2.Young Blood
