The Blink-182 song Tom DeLonge regrets
Pop-punk masters Blink-182 are much more than simply ‘All the Small Things’. In their time, the band has covered bases such as emo, goth and new wave, and for that reason, have remained a mainstay of popular culture for nearly 30 years. Yet, despite the extensive list of classics they have to their name, one song leaves frontman and guitarist Tom DeLonge feeling a touch of regret.
‘Carousel’, one of the band’s earliest efforts, is the opener of their 1995 debut album, Chesire Cat. Notably, the punchy skate-punk number originated in the first jam session between the group’s founding members, DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus, in 1992 and was the earliest that the pair wrote together. “Instantly, I felt like we had the same musical style; he just had it on a different instrument than me,” DeLonge later said
‘Carousel’ was later recorded for the trio’s third demo, 1994’s Buddha. It was then re-recorded for Cheshire Cat, which arrived the following year. Interestingly, the song was never released as a single but remains a highlight of the group’s early discography. DeLonge would speak positively about the song before he first quit the band in 2005, but since then, his older self has expressed regret at elements of it, particularly the lyrics.
DeLonge told The Express in 2022: “It’s a love-hate thing. To me, it was a philosophical kind of question: How did we have one of our first songs – if not our first – how do you feel not a part of it? I always feel I wish I wrote better lyrics, yet at the time, it was so different for pop-punk. It was, like, so fast.”
It’s not hard to tell that ‘Carousel’ is the first Blink-182 song DeLonge and Hoppus wrote, with the lyrics certainly reflecting their youth. The first verse is as follows and has a simple AABB rhyme scheme: “I talk to you every now and then / I never felt so alone again / I stop to think at a wishing well / My thoughts send me on a carousel / Here I am standing on my own / Not a motion from the telephone / I know not a reason why / Solitude’s a reason to die.”
Despite regretting his lyrics in ‘Carousel’, DeLonge said things had changed for him regarding the track, adding: “How we play it now so many different years and so many people like it or whatever.” He then maintained that he feels “very connected” to later material from the band, such as 1999’s Enema of the State and 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.
He said: “Specifically before the [2003’s self-titled] smiley face album, I feel very connected to it in the full punk-rock kid way. Those feel the most like me for some reason. Even though my favourite stuff to play and the stuff I like the most is our latest stuff from smiley face on to Neighborhoods and whatever, the most of my DNA is in those songs, if that makes sense. The rest of the songs are me just trying to be something I’m not.”
Listen to ‘Carousel’ below.
