‘Daughter’: The Pearl Jam song about the tragedy of dyslexia
From day one, Pearl Jam never shied away from putting morose subject matter into their songs. Throughout their time playing on the Seattle club scene, it wasn’t out of the question for Eddie Vedder to quote the darkness in his heart rather than the standard rock and roll lyric sheet. While most of the Seattle scene retreated inward to deal with their demons, Vedder was just as equipped to sing about problems in the greater world.
Compared to the rest of the bands on the scene, though, Vedder had a slim chance of being considered one of the founding fathers of grunge. Operating out of San Diego originally, Vedder got the opportunity to come up to Seattle after hearing a tape from Stone Gossard, workshopping ideas after the dissolution of Mother Love Bone.
Expecting to hear another tribute to fallen frontman Andy Wood, Gossard was taken aback by Vedder’s croon, having a booming lower register that no one in Seattle could emulate. Drafting him into the new band christened Mookie Blaylock, Vedder’s first attempts at lyrics tended to focus on his own tortured mind, talking about his own frustrations with his home life like on ‘Alive’ and ‘Black’.
As evidenced by the song ‘Jeremy’, Vedder wanted to move in a different direction, telling the true story of a troubled teen who killed himself in front of his classmates. While the song would become one of the darkest songs in the grunge canon, that didn’t stop it from tearing up the charts, thanks to Vedder’s incredible vocal wail.
Even though most of the band’s subsequent album, Vs, dealt with their dealings with fame, they didn’t forget to write about the struggles of those with mental health. Continuing on the theme of mental health from the previous album’s ‘Why Go’, ‘Daughter’ is one of the most disheartening songs that Vedder would ever write.
Centred around the story of a girl who struggles with dyslexia, Vedder gives a subtle glimpse into her home life as her parents absent-mindedly try to make her better, chalking up most of her outbursts to her behaving poorly. Since she never gets the chance to explain what’s wrong with her, the protagonist ends up going through life thinking that she’s different from the rest of the world, practically disowning herself from her family out of shame.
Vedder would go on to explain the end of the song, where the girl goes through abuse at the hands of her family as well, saying, “The song ends with this idea of the shades going down so that the neighbours can’t see what happens next. What hurts about shit like that is that it ends up defining people’s lives. They have to live with that abuse for the rest of their lives. Good, creative people are just fucking destroyed”.
While the song is an uneasy listen at times, its message rings true today, with people still struggling with their demons. Just like Kurt Cobain had been doing on songs like ‘Polly’, Pearl Jam was willing to take their audience through dark, emotional places. It would never be easy, but there’s a good chance that songs like this gave many people comfort that there’s someone out there who cares.
