"Soldier's Daughter" as written by and Emerson Hart....
It's the way he looks at you
That says to me
This isn't over
From the outside looking in
You see there's nothing sacred here
Nothing sacred
You can bend
But you can't break
For the reasons out of our control
You try to make it roll
Like a dice away
But you say that you're all empowered here
This is obviously not clear enough
To meYou can bend
But you can't break
Hey little girl keep dancing
Hey little girl keep dancing alone
'Cause there's not enough time in your day
To keep you here
The soldier's daughter
Did your daddy
Did your daddy hurt you
Did he make you feel bad
Did he poison your views
With the water he was raised on
Oh you father's son says hang on
Hang on
Hey little girl
Keep dancing
Hay little girl
Keep dancing alone
'Cause there's not enough time in your life
To stay here
So over the hills he'd climb
Just to see her there in time
Just to watch the sun shine through her dress
The sweet soldier's daughter
The sweet soldier's daughter
That says to me
This isn't over
From the outside looking in
You see there's nothing sacred here
Nothing sacred
You can bend
But you can't break
For the reasons out of our control
You try to make it roll
Like a dice away
But you say that you're all empowered here
This is obviously not clear enough
To meYou can bend
But you can't break
Hey little girl keep dancing
Hey little girl keep dancing alone
'Cause there's not enough time in your day
To keep you here
The soldier's daughter
Did your daddy
Did your daddy hurt you
Did he make you feel bad
Did he poison your views
With the water he was raised on
Oh you father's son says hang on
Hang on
Hey little girl
Keep dancing
Hay little girl
Keep dancing alone
'Cause there's not enough time in your life
To stay here
So over the hills he'd climb
Just to see her there in time
Just to watch the sun shine through her dress
The sweet soldier's daughter
The sweet soldier's daughter
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But you can't break that he means you can take a break from trying to work at the relationship, but don't give up. Keep dancing, even if you have to be alone for a while.
And when he says- For the reasons out of our control
You try to make it roll, Like a dice away- i think hes saying that she keeps working at it but her father still isn't understanding and getting it through his head. i could be totally off... i mean sinces its soldiers daughter then maybe hes gone all the time so he cant pay enoguh attention to her. I really not sure if im close at all. But i love the song, its so powerful and meaningful.... :)
This is a being sung by a man to his younger sister. They've both grown up, moved out, gone on with their lives, and then one day he realizes that all the crap from when they were young is still there. The relationship between his sister and his dad is still not right. She keeps wanting something, affection maybe, or just for him to say 'I'm proud of who you've become', and he's not giving it. Maybe he's oblivious, maybe he's just cruel. I don't think either of them know.
I love a couple of the lines; "You can bend/But you can't break." I get this picture of a palm tree, standing alone, completely unshielded from the winds off the water. And yet it stays standing, stays rooted in the ground, because instead of fighting the wind it's trunk bends, so low sometimes that it touches the sand, but it always stands up again when the wind stops blowing.
I had a friend tell me it's all about sexual abuse, but I don't get that from this song at all. I think he thought so because of the 'sun shin[ing] though her dress' bit. To me that's just this beautiful image, carried by the brother, of a time when they were kids and they'd play in the fields and she'd pretend to be a ballerina, dancing around in her sundress. It's a plea to not lose that completely, even though it was that innocence that allowed her to be hurt in the first place.
See, now I'm getting all teary again. Maybe I need to stop drawing parallels between song lyrics and my life. Or maybe that's the mark of a good song.
As for the last part...
"So over the hills he'd climb
Just to see her there in time
Just to watch the sun shine through her dress"
Looks like after all is said and done, the daughter has written off her father, only after his realization that he made mistakes in the past and wishes to repent.
Just to see her there in time
Just to watch the sun shine through her dress"
Im sure this song is about a sexual abused girl in her chilhood
This is about a girl who is trying to find herself.
She has a bad relationship with her dad, but I don't think the song is dwelling on that. It seems to focus more on her life NOW!
"there's nothing sacred here" meaning, ON EARTH.
they are just saying, don't consume your head with hatred for someone who has done something wrong to you, instead, "keep dancing alone" because your life can still hold many great things/feelings before it's time to leave ...
"sweet soldiers daughter ... " is moving in a way that you have to be in the right mindset and in the right setting for it to REALLY touch your heart and sink into your brain. But the combination is overwhelming!
It's the way he looks at you
That says to me
This isn't over
From the outside looking in
You see there's nothing sacred here
those lines are haunting and to me eluded to some sort of sexual molestation or abuse might have gone on between the father and the daughter and it's really messed up the girl and obviously cause a very weird relationship to be formed between them that wasn't able to be repaired and this is being talked about and observed in the song by either a relative of the soldiers daughter or a close friend
"Did he poison your views
With the water he was raised on"
The father is an alcoholic.