I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
But, she's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I've done all I can
To stand on her 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

So 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

Boys, you can break
You'll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without warmth from
A woman's good, good heart

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the God and the weight of her world

So 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
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too


Lyrics submitted by spickly

Daughters Lyrics as written by John Clayton Mayer

Lyrics © REACH MUSIC PUBLISHING

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Daughters song meanings
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166 Comments

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  • +17
    Song Meaning

    It's about realizing that a lot of how women are around men can be based on upbringing and past experiences with men. Its not JUST about the current guy that is in the picture. We all have baggage and John realizes in the song that he may not be the reason why the girl is pushing or acting strange. There are a lot of reasons why people are the way they are and he gets that mistreatment or past pain could be the reason why the girl is so odd. He's trying to get others to see how important it is to have good relationships within families from the get go.

    I just like this song cause I can relate entirely. We are all influenced by our family and what we've grown up with so its important to be a good influence to those around you as well as to understand why others may be a certain way. Learn to broaden your view about people.

    thyi319on July 09, 2012   Link
  • +5
    General Comment

    Okay, Im a guy,

    I just made an account to write about this song. This song is great, its my life. In the beginning, Mayer talks about how a girl he likes is just like a maze, walls all continually change. Mayer is talking about girls without dads.

    Dads are not given enough credit. They care SO much about their daughters, they drive them everywhere, buy them huge birthday gifts, buy them cars, and then their daughters leave the house without ever saying enough thanks. But dads are so important. John Mayer says in the song: "You are the God and the weight of her world"

    This line explains that girls without dads, or with dads that dont put all the effort that most dads do, don't grow up ever to be the same. This relates back to the girl Mayer talks about in the beginning, who didn't have a good dad.

    In the end, he talks about how daughters turn into mothers. Those mothers have to be good to their sons, because those sons become fathers. And the cycle repeats....

    johnmayerismylifeon October 10, 2011   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    This is like the biography of every fatherless girl. I wish I could sit down every parent of girls and play this song.

    TheSneakyWaffleon September 17, 2004   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    I can relate to the guy's point of view about trying so damn hard to repair whatever is wrong, but coming up empty handed, because there's something inside her that is immobile and fixed that he might never be able to overcome....

    There are ultimately two kinds of girls that are 'created' when there's an absence of a father: there's the kind of girl that yearns/needs that male attention and she'll get it any way she can, and there's the other kind of girls that are so used to the absense of a male in her life, that she pushes all of them away and puts a guard up. John Mayer described the latter to a T...

    alissandra33on November 04, 2004   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    I personally relate very much to the first verse of the song,

    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 I've done all i can to stand on the steps with my heart in my hands Now i started to think maybe its got nothing to do with me.

    Currently I am heart broken over a girl that not necessarily has father issues but she has had her heart broken by so many men in her past that she does not trust any man to enter her life. As much as I try to tear down those walls and show her that I'm not running any where she keeps putting up more mazes that blocks me away. We usually talk daily and for long periods of time to the wee hours of the morning but over the past 2 weeks she had disappeared without any notice, I see she still goes online but she stopped responding to me. I am heart broken now because we were supposed to go out on Valenttines day together but now I don't even know. I know there is a lot of talk about how John Mayer is a sexist for this song, but for me he brought a lot of clarity in to my life that my feelings for her are an neverending battle. As much as I put my own feelings out there with the fear of getting hurt and standing on those steps with my heart on the line...I realize that its not because of me but that she needs time to adapt to her hurt past before she lets any man in her life...until then I just have to leave her life.

    Hadgron February 08, 2010   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    For anyone saying this song is sexist... quit being so narrow minded. That's obviously not how John intended it to be. He just wanted to write a beautiful song and he did.

    Landy360on March 07, 2014   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation

    This song means this to me, It is about a guy or girl: No general sex. Being in love with their significant other and trying to understand his/her(s) problems but realizing that it may not be something he/she can fix. It might just be something that happened in the past and only he/she can figure that out.

    soulful1on October 02, 2011   Link
  • +3
    My Opinion

    John Mayer thinks daughters need more care than sons.

    John Mayer, go fuck yourself.

    Greyshadeson August 07, 2012   Link
  • +3
    Song Meaning

    After reading all of these comments I was really depressed because I realized "wow I shouldn't sing this anymore it's so sexist," but then I reread the lyrics and it's not at all! John Mayor is a dick at times but this song is not an example of that. It's about how a father should take care of his daughter. If you don't love your daughters like you should, it could affect their love life in the future. Parents are essentially the god-like figures in a child world, hence the reference. What they do affects them forever.

    Some people are just looking for something to be angry about.

    juveniliaon February 08, 2016   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    I'm obviously in the minority here, but this song, quite frankly, makes me want to puke. "Oh, please, be careful with the poor fragile girls; they can't take being hurt the way boys can! And we men need them to be in good shape so they'll be willing to fuck us when they grow up!"

    Mysogynistic bullshit, all of it. (And I say that as a woman who's been pretty well fucked up by my father, fwiw.)

    gravity_defianton December 19, 2004   Link

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