A video clip of Pearl Jam members Eddie Vedder and Stone Gossard writing ‘Daughter’ has resurfaced on social media. One fan noted how the lyrics are different in the clip than the lyrics in the released song.
Pearl Jam ‘Daughter’ song’s lyrics are different
A fan highlighted that it was originally called Brother (not the same as Brother from Ten). They played it at Bridge School 1992. The first lines say “back at school, there’s nothing wrong”
Pearl Jam recently released their first new music since 2020 with ‘Dark Matter.’ Earlier this year, during the band’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show Eddie Vedder explained the song ‘Daughter’ to Stern.
One could think that Eddie Vedder and his bandmates would be eager to play their new music on Howard’s show. However, Eddie instead asked Stern what he wanted to hear. Thinking about it for a moment, Howard Stern requested ‘Daughter’ after both parties had agreed that they’d never done requests like this before, as the host or guest.
Before diving in on the song, Eddie Vedder talked about the origin of the song and how they started writing it in a bathroom and later on a tour bus. Vedder also talked about how the song was borne out of another Pearl Jam song ‘W.M.A.’ and explained the parallels there.
Vedder wanted to move in a different direction with the song as he narrated 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 history, that didn’t stop it from tearing up the charts. 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.
