| Pearl Jam – Daughter Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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@[Namaste:1323] Yikes, how long ago did I post this? It has been a while. Yes, you are likely correct the song does seem to be about something along the lines of a PDD/NOS young lady. The dyslexia and abuse was brought up by me simply because Pearl Jam songs are often very en-cryptic or have multiple meanings. I of course thought of ADHD right away since I have that myself. Been dealing with knowledge of that since 1962! DOB 1954. This days my ADHD bothers my wife and friends more than me. You'd think after nearly 32 years of marriage she would be used to me. Your melt down problems with your daughter remind me a bit of some issues a friend has had with her 15 year old Bipolar son; bouts of depression leading to hospitalization. And a nearly thirty year old son with ADHD & Tourettes. She had to throw him down and sit on him at times. He is slowly becoming a responsible adult and father. Yikes, he was worse than I was! I sincerely hope you can provide what ever help your daughter needs so she can Rise Above too. I'd love to chat more with you but I am hesitant to drop a real email address here. If you are on FaceBook perhaps you can find me there. Unfortunately I have a very common name. With some work perhaps you can locate the "correct" Michael D. Williams. From my posting you know a few of the bands I like. I live in California. My wife has a rare name though so that might help. Char Ham. She uses that very short version of her name on FB. That should be easy to find. We have dogs. That might help locate my page too. Do you have any other ideas how we might make contact? Assuming you want to. Yours, Mike |
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| Pearl Jam – Daughter Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I fully agree that this song is about Child abuse, specifically of a girl with a learning disability. But I think I have a slightly different spin on it. The thing is as we all know Eddie Vedder and the other members of Pearl Jam tend to write ambiguous lyrics that can have many possible meanings. One can interpret many of the words for multiple metaphors. So different interpretations are probably correct. This is very different from say Ray Davies of the Kinks story telling song style. Continuing, the disability most commonly sited is dyslexia. And that is a good and obvious choice. But it is not the first one that I thought of. Note “Mother reads aloud child tries to understand it”. Dyslexia is the inability to read or a difficulty with reading, not an inability to understand being read to. In fact from being a teacher myself at one time I know that reading to a dyslexic child is often the only way they can understand text or printed material (until they get special help to develop reading skills). Therefore I propose a different disorder, namely ADD. “Young girl, violins(ce), center of her own attention…”, “The shades go down it's in her head…”, “Painted room, can't deny, somethin's wrong…”. I know from having ADHD myself that we easily get distracted by nearly everything in our environment, sounds, sights, and often get lost in our own thoughts as novel things around us remind us of other things or ideas and we lose track of what we originally were doing. ADD/ADHD often coexist with Dyslexia. Noticing novelty or differences in things can be good, and why many scientists have had ADD/ADHD and Dyslexia. Noting the same lyric lines, especially “…center of her own attention…”, and “The shades go down it's in her head…” and “The picture kept will remind me…”, one could think of yet a more serious condition such as Autism. Autistic children tend to fixate or obsess on things — they usually seem as if in their own world. And because Autistic children are often difficult to raise or even interact with as they have delayed language skills among other symptoms, they are sadly often abused. Oddly a form of Autism called Asperger's syndrome is a type of pervasive development disorder (PDD). PDDs are a group of conditions that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the ability to socialize with others, to communicate, and to use imagination — they tend to be literal. Although Asperger's syndrome is similar in some ways to autism -- another, more severe type of PDD -- there are some important differences. Children with Asperger's syndrome typically function better than do those with autism. In addition, children with Asperger's syndrome generally have normal intelligence and near-normal language development, although they may develop problems communicating as they get older. Some high functioning people with Asperger’s are savants at a particular single skill such as music or math. Many people feel that Microsoft’s Bill Gates has Asperger’s. Sorry if this seems like a discussion of child development and psychiatry, but Pearl Jams does seem to be concerned with children and child abuse a lot. Note the early songs Daughter, Alive, Jeremy. From what I’ve read Eddie did come from an abusive home. Interestingly child abuse and youth anger seem to be common topics in Alternative Rock songs by other bands too. Note The Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and even the New Wave band R.E.M. But only Pearl Jam knows what this song truly is about. Perhaps someday they will put out a book explaining all their songs. Actually, R.E.M. has such a book about themselves. |
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| The Smashing Pumpkins – Annie-Dog Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| And as you state, Cocaine is not (an) Amphetamine (Dexadrine) - today used to treat ADD/ADHD only. The similar Meth-amphetamine is Speed. Oh, and the line "speed kills" is in the Canned Heat song. | |
| The Smashing Pumpkins – Annie-Dog Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Yes, darrenr, you are correct, there is a song "Amphetamine Annie" from 1968 by Canned Heat. It was an anti-drug song yet eventually three members of the band died from drug or alcohol abuse. They did not take their own advice! On my first listen to Adore I wondered if Billy Corgan knew of that old song. But what the heck does "velvet spleen" mean? Yes, I was born in 1954. |
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