Daddy or Father...?

Pixel

Tenzing N. wrote:

Just as you shift from calling someone "daddy" to "father"as you grow older Ed is maybe doing the same shift. Presumably the person who is the subject has grown up. Maybe Ed has grown up in how he deals with this story be it fact or fiction.

Just my thoughts

awesome comment.. didnt think of it this way


*also noticed it, havent been to any pj shows since 2009 @ berlin so i didnt know he continues with it..

Hugh Freaking Dillon

well, I finally guessed something right around here.

satansbed wrote:

i think ive read somewhere that since hes become a parent and his kids call him daddy he felt father more accurately conveyed the relationship between him and his father, as father is a much less personal word and they weren't that close

mrvedderson

StillHere wrote:

maybe as he's grown and had children of his own, and knows what a "daddy" really is....
maybe he's decided he didn't have a daddy....only a father?
just me thinking

thats the way i see it.

Feiraco

In the first verse of Alive on the studio album and some earlier bootlegs I have (Chicago 95, Rotterdam 96, Seattle 96 etc:) Ed clearly sings ...

I wonder what that bootleg is, because PJ did not play in Rotterdam in 1996. They only played Amsterdam in 1996.

StillHere

morello wrote:

Yeah, I've noticed the change. I think it's just to do with Ed getting older, feels wrong to be singing about 'Daddy' when you're in your mid-40s type thing.

Well I'm a little bit older than Ed, not much, a little bit...and I don't call my Father (see?) Daddy anymore..of course, he's passed, but since I was an adult when referring to him I called him My Father, but when addressing him I called him Pop...

having said that....IF I had been singing a song about him, in THE SONG< I would NOT change the word to Father....

It's something that was written a long, long, time ago....a sad song to him at the time, but no longer, as he's recently been saying, you know...his story about lifting the curse..(ALIVE i'm talking about now, not jeremy).....so if the curse has been lifted, and Ed now no longer feels that the song is so sad, but more a celebration of getting through all that, past that life, and into a much better one....I'M STILL ALIVE ...is a statement of freedom rather than one of regret, so I don't understand the change to father in that text....

UNLESS...UNLESS....maybe Father is the word his Mom actually used? Maybe they've discussed it, and it was the word Father that she actually used, and the word daddy was used in the song then because it just sounded better? THEN it would make sense that he changed it to Father...

HOWEVER, I really loved the use of "Daddy" and I kind of wish he'd never changed it....

Of course, it's Ed's song, its Ed's life, its Ed's story, whatever reason he has for changing it, it's his business.....and of course its his choice

DONE RAMBLING...in reality, I still believe it's what I said in my earlier post, that Ed is older, has kids of his own, knows what a real Daddy is, and feels that he never had a real daddy, only a father, and so that's how he's decided to refer to him now.

It does lend an entirely different tone to the song, in my opinion...and I hope that once in a while we get to hear the original live.

StillHere

I talk too much, I know :roll:

tremors

StillHere wrote:

I talk too much, I know :roll:

no, I appreciated your post. thanks

jeremy5poke

Hi - may be missing the point slightly, but in the earliest live version of Alive I ever heard (which I think was an early unofficial bootleg) Daddy wasn't a Fool - Daddy was quite clearly a W@nker!! Just wondered if anyone else had heard this version - I guess he replaces fool with expletive quite a lot when singing it live, but I think this is unusual as it is a very British put-down (bearing in mind this was over 15 years ago).

I think the people who have said that now Eddie is a dad himself his perception of past events alters somewhat is the most likely reason for lyrical changes. You may want to follow in your Father's footsteps as a man, but you want your little boy or girl to love their Daddy. If you choose not to raise your kids as your parents did, you don't want to make your Fathers mistakes, but if you wish to follow them you play the games that your Daddy played with you.

Eddie clearly will not see "Daddy" (sung so many times with venom) as a hateful word any more, and so probably just can't use the word in the same context. It's like using the C word a lot when you're a kid and then growing up and realising it's disrespectful to women, so editing your use of it somewhat - I know it's not exactly the same, but it's the best I could do at short notice!!

Thanks for reading my first 10c post - it's only taken me 10 months!

Bigairbrucey

Feiraco wrote:

In the first verse of Alive on the studio album and some earlier bootlegs I have (Chicago 95, Rotterdam 96, Seattle 96 etc:) Ed clearly sings ...

I wonder what that bootleg is, because PJ did not play in Rotterdam in 1996. They only played Amsterdam in 1996.

you're right...my mistake. I'ts strange I can wonder about a minor lyric change in a song but can't get the right city in Holland

StillHere

jeremy5poke wrote:

Hi - may be missing the point slightly, but in the earliest live version of Alive I ever heard (which I think was an early unofficial bootleg) Daddy wasn't a Fool - Daddy was quite clearly a W@nker!! Just wondered if anyone else had heard this version - I guess he replaces fool with expletive quite a lot when singing it live, but I think this is unusual as it is a very British put-down (bearing in mind this was over 15 years ago).

I think the people who have said that now Eddie is a dad himself his perception of past events alters somewhat is the most likely reason for lyrical changes. You may want to follow in your Father's footsteps as a man, but you want your little boy or girl to love their Daddy. If you choose not to raise your kids as your parents did, you don't want to make your Fathers mistakes, but if you wish to follow them you play the games that your Daddy played with you.

Eddie clearly will not see "Daddy" (sung so many times with venom) as a hateful word any more, and so probably just can't use the word in the same context. It's like using the C word a lot when you're a kid and then growing up and realising it's disrespectful to women, so editing your use of it somewhat - I know it's not exactly the same, but it's the best I could do at short notice!!

Thanks for reading my first 10c post - it's only taken me 10 months!

welcome to your first post!

enjoyed it.

well....i personally had to think i might have missed something when the poster said "your daddy was nothin' but a...'fool'" cuz i surely never heard it that way. I'm glad I'm not alone....i think he either usually there is no word there or he adds some sort of expletive like you said...

The Original Lyrics:

Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin' but a...
While you were sittin' home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin', sorry you didn't see him,
but I'm glad we talked...

Feiraco

you're right...my mistake. I'ts strange I can wonder about a minor lyric change in a song but can't get the right city in Holland

No problem! Those "damned" cities....

tremors

I noticed a 'daddy' on the Belfast boot!! Is Ed psychic....?

I would love to hear the 'wanker' version! That made me laugh

RKCNDY

Just watched the Storytellers (2006) where Ed talks about 'Alive' and why he wrote the song, the meaning, blahblahblah. Sorry, but when he sang it, I heard "What you thought was your Daddy...was nothin'..." no 'but a...' or 'but a fool'.
In the show, he talks about how the band is constantly changing songs and based on audience reaction, the songs themselves change him, (he said that 'now the curse has been lifted' when talking about 'Alive'). Changing words to his feelings at the time would all be subjective.

(BTW-my Dad will call me and call himself Daddy...)

StillHere

tremors wrote:

I noticed a 'daddy' on the Belfast boot!! Is Ed psychic....?

I would love to hear the 'wanker' version! That made me laugh

would not doubt that one tiny bit

tremors

StillHere wrote:

tremors wrote:

I noticed a 'daddy' on the Belfast boot!! Is Ed psychic....?

I would love to hear the 'wanker' version! That made me laugh

would not doubt that one tiny bit

what that ed is psychic, or that I am so juvenile I would find ed saying 'wanker' amusing?

StillHere

tremors wrote:

StillHere wrote:

tremors wrote:

I noticed a 'daddy' on the Belfast boot!! Is Ed psychic....?

I would love to hear the 'wanker' version! That made me laugh

would not doubt that one tiny bit

what that ed is psychic, or that I am so juvenile I would find ed saying 'wanker' amusing?

the psychic part

ior

ya the other too lol!!!

tremors

StillHere wrote:

tremors wrote:

StillHere wrote:

would not doubt that one tiny bit

what that ed is psychic, or that I am so juvenile I would find ed saying 'wanker' amusing?

the psychic part

ior

ya the other too lol!!!

Sounds about right! I'm nothing but a psychic little wanker myself, actually!