John Mayer - Daughters

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
She's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change

And I've done all I can
To stand on the steps with my heart in my hand
Now I'm starting to see
Maybe it's got nothing to do with me

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters, too

Oh, you see that skin
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left cleaning up the mess he made



I will confess. Beside my collection of Dr. Dre, MC Eight, The Roots, Louis Armstrong, Guns N Roses, and Metallica - lies a few CDs that seem out of place initially. Both of them great. Both of them very very touching.

Since only two people (who love the 80s music and generally dont' listen to hardcore genres) regularly comment (and thus I assume read) my blog, I figure that I'm safe with this admission.

I dig John Mayer.

There, I said it. I can't even tell you the number of times I have to defend my ownership of these great, great albums. Its like defending how your mom looks. You just know she looks right, you just don't know why - nor would you ever really want to go into detail about it. If you do, you're just sick or a mama's boy - both not really something you want to be.

Thus, I'm going to stay out of the details of John Mayers music, except for one song.

The lyrics above are from John Mayer's song (an unexpected hit by the way), "Daughters." The topic and name of the song would seem to lend itself to an 80's style cheesiness, which was exemplified by such classics as "Take on me" and any Tiffany or Debbie Gibson song. But the truth is, the song doesn't stray into cliche. He takes a topic which seems to mystify everyman - why women are the way they are - and gives a solution. He sets up the dilemma - he loves this woman - but he can't quite figure out the reason for her quirks (I'm being nice). He offers the explanation - this woman was shaped by her father and it was his mistakes and his missteps that have shaped her and the difficulties that consequently arrive. His solution is left open - he doesn't say where this relationship will go, which is brilliant.

At least thats my take on it.

And if you think about it a little further, he's right. I've yet to meet a woman who's personalities haven't been in one way or another shaped by her father. Of course, you can say this about sons and fathers as well. But the difficulties in a woman's personality (and I'm not singling out women - men have more difficulties) seem to me to somehow be related to her father - in a six degrees of seperation sort of way. Think about the women you know - and think about her father treated her - and you figure out how it works out the way it does. Just my thoughts anyways.

I'm being ambiguous on purpose - but I only got 3 hours of sleep - that's my excuse.