I found different versions of this song, some addresses to a "he" (he left you). I particularly liked the version with "he" because I read that Janis suffered love pains. More than that, she wanted to express herself as she felt like, but at the same time she missed love and looked for appreciation - if not from her parents, at least from the world. The world can not replace intimate love, so the words "daddy" and "mama" appearing in this song make me think that in this song, what she expresses is the tenderness of a love, rare to be honest, of a mum and a dad who welcome their "baby" home, no matter what happened, showing understanding for what the baby suffered, this is the kind of perfect love a human being deeply needs (see "the prodigal son" in the Gospel) and that I hope Janis has found over there.
![Cover art for Cry Baby [Live][#][*] lyrics by Janis Joplin](https://images.songmeanings.com/9af6492f-7163-4f83-a9e9-95c7bed1144c.webp)
I found different versions of this song, some addresses to a "he" (he left you). I particularly liked the version with "he" because I read that Janis suffered love pains. More than that, she wanted to express herself as she felt like, but at the same time she missed love and looked for appreciation - if not from her parents, at least from the world. The world can not replace intimate love, so the words "daddy" and "mama" appearing in this song make me think that in this song, what she expresses is the tenderness of a love, rare to be honest, of a mum and a dad who welcome their "baby" home, no matter what happened, showing understanding for what the baby suffered, this is the kind of perfect love a human being deeply needs (see "the prodigal son" in the Gospel) and that I hope Janis has found over there.