"Daughter" | |||||||||||||||||
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Single by Pearl Jam | |||||||||||||||||
from the album Vs. | |||||||||||||||||
B-side | "Blood" (live) / "Yellow Ledbetter" (live) | ||||||||||||||||
Released | November 2, 1993 | ||||||||||||||||
Format | CD single, Cassette, vinyl | ||||||||||||||||
Recorded | March–May 1993 at The Site, Nicasio, California | ||||||||||||||||
Genre | Alternative rock | ||||||||||||||||
Length | 3:55 | ||||||||||||||||
Label | Epic | ||||||||||||||||
Writer(s) | Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard | ||||||||||||||||
Producer(s) | Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam | ||||||||||||||||
Pearl Jam singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||
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"Daughter" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released in 1993 as the second single from the band's second studio album, Vs. (1993). Although credited to all members of Pearl Jam, it features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music primarily written by guitarist Stone Gossard. The song topped both the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock Billboard charts. The song spent a total of eight weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock chart. "Daughter" eventually peaked at number 28 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart, becoming the band's first Top 40 single. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
Guitarist Stone Gossard used a Guild wide-body acoustic guitar to write the music for "Daughter". Bassist Jeff Ament plays upright bass on the song. Guitarist Mike McCready said, "That's one of the few solos I really had to sit down and work out." Drummer Dave Abbruzzese on his drumming on "Daughter":
When we were originally working on "Daughter", I did a lot more stuff on the toms. But when we went in to record it, Brendan [O'Brien] suggested trying something different, to just use the kick and snare. That was a trip, because we'd already been playing that song for half a year, and I was kind of used to what I was doing. At first I was like, "Well...okay..." so I set up a 26" kick, a snare, and an 18" floor tom, and we just used the room mic's and went for it. It actually brought out a whole new dimension of the song for me, and it felt really fresh to me to play it like that. Live, I kind of mix the two approaches together.
Eddie Vedder said about the song "Daughter":
"The child in that song obviously has a learning difficulty. And it's only in the last few years that they've actually been able to diagnose these learning disabilities that before were looked at as misbehavior, as just outright rebelliousness. But no one knew what it was. And these kids, because they seemed unable or reluctant to learn, they'd end up getting the shit beaten outta them. The song ends, you know, with this idea of the shades going down—so that the neighbors 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."