Lyrics for Daughters as interpreted by spickly

Daughters Lyrics
know a girl
she puts the color inside of my world
she's just like a maze
where all of the walls all continually change

I've done all i can
to stand on the steps with my heart in my hands
Now i started to think
maybe its got nothing to do with me.

so fathers be good to your daughters,
daughters will love like you do,
girls become lovers who turn into mothers
so mothers be good to your daughters too.

Oh

Oh you see that skin
its the same shes been standing in
since the day you two met
i bet i was on your mind
never ever any time

Oh yeah

so fathers be good to your daughters,
daughters will love like you do, yeah
girls become lovers who turn into mothers
so mothers be good to your daughters too.

boys you can break
find out how much they can take
boys will be strong and
boys soldier on
but boys would be gone
without warmth of a woman's good good heart

on behalf of every man
looking out for every girl
you are the god and the weight of her world
on behalf of ever man
who's looking out for every girl
you are the god and you are the weight of her world

so fathers be good to your daughters,
daughters will love like you do,
girls become lovers who turn into mothers
so mothers be good to your daughters too
so mothers be good to your daughters too
so mothers be good to your daughters too


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adambrodyishot
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
the version of this song with Brad Pasley is wonderful. his voice sounds lovely on this song.

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Jena_69
04-17-2005

Rated 0 
sadly the first time I heard this song was on TRL, like 5 months ago when it was on the countdown. I downloaded it yesterday on my computer and listened to it. like REALLY listened. and the line "Now i started to think
maybe its got nothing to do with me." really got to me. I realize how much a father really has to say in a young girls life. My dad walked out on my family about three years ago when I was 11. i've seen him now and then in-between but it hasn't been like before he left. doesn't matter..I never really loved him as I know he never really loved me back

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Mad_Gouki
04-30-2005

Rated 0 
i didnt realize it at first but after i started to actually read the lyrics i understood what they werea bout and it almost seemed that the music didnt match the mood of the lyrics. but it is definately about a fatherless girl, simply put. beautiful song

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aisha_08
04-30-2005

Rated 0 
this song starts out about a broken girl who pushes him away because she cant trust men. She obviously had a bad experience when it came to her father, and prolly her mother too.

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summer16
06-05-2005

Rated 0 
thoes r terrible lyrics, i mean the ones posted, i love the song, but the lyrics u wrote couldnt be furthur from the actual song.

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vadge
07-17-2005

Rated 0 
"so fathers be good to your daughters,
daughters will love like you do"

umm is john mayer trying to channel freud in this song?

"but boys would be gone
without warmth of a woman's good good heart"

what if they're gay? so much emphasis on traditional gender roles in this song.

"on behalf of every man
looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world"

yeah right!

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9Fearless
07-17-2005

Rated 0 
I really liked this song, though I HATE John Mayer with a passion, because I feel he's trying to imitate Dave Matthews. Dave has his own feel and no one should even try to take that from him. But this song is very good and I love it. the end.

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Menstruation
07-18-2005

Rated 0 
This song is misogynistic, not to mention boring. The implication that women are nothing but weak baby making machines sure is insulting, as is the thought that all women are heterosexual and want to have children. What's with that 'you are the god and you are the weight of her world' line, anyway? Creepy.

John Mayer is nothing but a misogynisic posterboy for the patriarchy.

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GOBUCKS
07-29-2005

Rated 0 
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this or not yet, and I don't feel like reading everones comment to find out. Some of the lyrics are wrong and here is the one stanza that is.

Ohhhh you see that skin,
it's the same she's been standing in.
Since the day she saw him walking away.
Now she's left cleaning up the mess he made.

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suntory
07-30-2005

Rated 0 
You act as if Mayer is attacking women in this song that was written to more to men than to women in itself...

I mean, mothers, fathers, be good to your daughters? Jesus fucking Christ, is that message so wrong?
Is it wrong to look out for your girls?
Do women not have good hearts?
Quit taking yourselves so seriously, step back, and accept the song for what it is, a few lines and chords.

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Poet For Pennies
08-20-2005

Rated 0 
I was watching an interview the other day when John Mayer said he wrote this song because he doesn't want dads screwing up his future girlfriends...

I was really weirded out by this because it's such a touching song.

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renthead4
09-16-2005

Rated 0 
I put a buncha of random songs on a mp3 cd to listen to while at work, i stock shoes. i stop short, shoe in my hand while listening to these lyrics. i usually don't like mayer, his voice bothers me, and he seems a little too cocky for my taste, i LOVE brad paisleys versions of his songs. anyways. this song just hit so close to home interpretting as i choose to. i don't understand how my father can just choose to not have anything to do with me and my sister. he lives not even 10 minutes away and stops in once every 8 months or so just to drop off money. if he doesn't just stick it in the mailbox that is. i have so many male-issues from not having a guy completely in my life til i was about 14 (getting a stepdad who is wonderful, and the dad i wish i could have had all my life). fathers, and mothers, can screw up kids so bad. remind me never to be a parent.

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Whisper Goodbyes
09-24-2005

Rated 0 
When I hear this song I think of what many other people have mentioned, about the mistreatment of daughters by their fathers, but this also feels like a plea to me. He's saying that though these issues effect daughters directly, if fathers mistreat their daughters then boys stand a good chance of breaking; not being able to fix anything much like how John felt about the girl who he wrote this song about. It's a very honest song and I enjoy the emotion he puts into it.

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Whisper Goodbyes
09-24-2005

Rated 0 
By the way, thank you, Suntory. Caring for girls is a whole lot different than trying to save them. He didn't once mention putting on a cape and saving all of those "helpless" girls. He's only sending the message that they shouldn't be unnecessarily broken and hurt. What's wrong with that? Quit with the feminist, anti-men, bullshit.

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justinbaily21
11-06-2005

Rated 0 
This song was inspired by a nationally syndacated call-in radio show 'Loveline,' which often deals with unresolved issues from childhood. John Mayer himself is a known fan of the show and once commented that the song was written to the men who had fallen for girls who would do nothing but break their hearts without knowing what they were doing because they were cursed to act out their abandoning past. It's a beautiful song.

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mockingsmile
12-17-2005

Rated 0 
Okay, let's go over why this song is sexist, since it seems to be unclear to a lot of people. First of all, "girls become lovers who turn into mothers," is kind of a big assumption, eh? I never realized that all those women who don't have kids or relationships are just figments of my imagination. Second, the "boys you can break" stanza is really obnoxious. Not only is he saying that it's okay to treat your sons harshly because they can take it, he's implying that girls aren't as "strong" and able to "soldier on." The basic idea of the song is sweet, but the lyrics are problematic.
(Not to mention, it might be nicer if it didn't start with him talking about how confusing his girlfriend is.)

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butthole pleasures
12-29-2005

Rated 0 
Daughters are hot, and hot is good. John Mayer wants to fuck daughters. And daughters want to fuck John Mayer. So this is good. So the moral is that John Mayer, Daughters, and fucking are all good things.

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rockermybaby
01-09-2006

Rated 0 
very special song...really
though i dont understand it

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erin_is_hot
01-12-2006

Rated 0 
haha even though this song isnt the greatest.. i LOVE IT i listen to it porbably like at least 3 times a day i know im a loser but w.e im prety sure this song is self explainable, but i was thinking maybe when he was younger his dad might have abused his sister(i dont know if he even has a sister) because why would you write a song about this... im not quite sure but yah

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evened
01-14-2006

Rated 0 
what i don't understand is how everyone is so quick to say that its sexist against women, saying that they are weak when the deeper you look, the more you see that he's saying without a woman's heart, man would be useless. without a father's love, a girl's heart can break. if a girl's heart breaks, the heart that made men confident and strong is broken, therefore the chain is broken.

its a circle, and the father and daughter both play parts. but the break in the chain link begins with the father not being there or not being a proper father.

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mockingsmile
01-15-2006

Rated 0 
Um, yeah, the song is saying women are weak when it says "boys you can break/find out how much they can take/boys will be strong and/boys soldier on" because it implies women can't withstand/do those things. Though I'd be hard pressed to say the song is more insulting to women than men--I know guys who have a "good good heart," and don't like the implication that only women can have that.

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cdinero
01-22-2006

Rated 0 
As far as comments referring to John saying boys can be broken and how that comes across sexist, i interpret it as having a few layers: I think first off, he’s saying, look, when a boy is screwed over by bad or irresponsible parents, a great woman can “break” him and his walls, meaning a great women can nurse him back to health, a good woman can overcome a boy’s bad upbringing. But with girls, it’s a little different - she can meet the best man in the world and it wont “break” down her walls to being emotionally healthy. So in a roundabout way it’s actually a compliment to the power of a woman, because in my interpretation, a great woman can break down the walls of the most emotionally screwed up boy/man. Plus, I see a second layer to his boy/girl comparison: keep in mind, he also seems to be saying boys too would be lost if there were more absentee mothers…but the fact that people are overlooking in his comparision is that absentee mothers are not nearly as pandemic as absentee dads. Plus, the effects of an absent dad are often different on boys than they are on girls. When dads run out on their boys, there is a 50/50 chance the boy will either have issues and grow up to be flawed, or converesly, like many fatherless boys i knew, grow up to be incredible men who were actually strenghtened by the fact that their dad wasnt around and they had to be "the man" from early on. it's also 50/50 that the man will either be absent like his dad was or he will very much value his own family (which is the case with will smith who grew up fatherless). With girls however, the effect of an absent dad on thier relaitonships is more predictable. Although girls too grow up fatherless and often turn out to be incredible in terms of career or other personal accomplishments, the truth is often times they have issues with men. and usually they dont have heatlhy relaitonships, period, whether romantic, friendship or otherwise. i know an incredibly accomplished woman who despite her father's abscence managed to become this impressive person, but the truth is she doenst have healthy realtionships wit men. Thirdly, as a general statement, I think we can all accept that men and women have different emotional constitutions, and there’s nothing sexist about accepting that, it’s just true – it doesn’t imply one is weaker than the other, it’s just our emotional compositions are different. And thus the way we handle our issues manifest themselves differently.

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mockingsmile
02-06-2006

Rated 0 
Your interpretation of "break" is a huge stretch. Sounds a lot more like putting boys through painful experiences rather than "breaking their barriers."

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harlequine
02-12-2006

Rated 0 
i overall like this song, if he wasn't singing it.
no offense to him or anyone who is a fan, but his voice is a bit sleazy.

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stereogirl
02-27-2006

Rated 0 
I don't typicaly like john mayer,not all of this stuff but i love this song.
i never cry at songs really,but i can relate to this one so much. i did indeed cry,the first time i heard it.
i know what its like to be so disconnected from relationships or struggle in them because the one male you should've been an example,wasn't.

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