Songfacts®:

• "Carousel" originated during the first jam session between guitarist Tom DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus in August 1992. It was first recorded for the band's third and final demo Buddha, in 1994, and was commercially released the following year on the group's first studio album, Cheshire Cat.
• Lyrically this finds a lonely Tom DeLonge looking back at his school days fondly. His reminiscing of those carefree days send his emotions round like a "carousel."
• The song has been a staple of the band's live performances since its inception. It was later included as the only non-single on the band's 2005 Greatest Hits collection.
• This was the song that made the band realize they were onto something. Hoppus recalled in a Reddit AMA: "We wrote it the very first time I met Tom. I showed him a bassline I'd been working on, and it fit perfectly with a guitar part he'd been working on. We'd only known each other for less than an hour and the song was fairly formed even then. It was weird!"
• Did you know:
  
  The earliest known record of a carousel device is a Byzantine etching from 500 AD which portrays riders swinging in baskets tied to a center pole.
  
  In the early nineteenth century some advertisements claimed that riding the carousel was good for the circulation of blood.
  
  Merry-go-rounds usually turn clockwise. Carousels usually turn counter-clockwise. (Source The Encyclopedia of Trivia.)
• Other artists that have used the carousel in songs as a metaphor for the ups and downs of an emotional journey (usually to do with a relationship) include Jacques Brel, Lifehouse, The Hollies and Vanessa Carlton.