Is this Autism? Daughter by Pearl Jam

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cosmiccat
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31 Oct 2009, 10:14 am

Sure sounds like Autism or Asperger's Syndrome to me. I identify heavily with the lyrics of this song. I feel like it could have been written about me when I was a kid. What do you think?

These lyrics were come from Pearl Jam's Website:

Artist: Pearl Jam
Composer: Vedder/McCready/Gossard/Ament/Abbruzzese

Daughter

Alone...listless...breakfast table in an otherwise empty room
Young girl...violins(ence)...center of her own attention
Mother reads aloud, child tries to understand it
Tries to make her proud
The shades go down, it's in her head
Painted room...can't deny there's something wrong...
Don't call me daughter, not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me daughter, not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me...

She holds the hand that holds her down
She will...rise above...

Don't call me daughter, not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me daughter, not fit to be
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me...
Don't call me daughter, not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me daughter, not fit to be
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me...

The shades go down
The shades go down
The shades go, go, go...


Vocalist Eddie Vedder about "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 misbehaviour, 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 s**t beaten outta them. The song ends, you know, with this idea of the shades going down—so that the neighbours can't see what happens next. What hurts about s**t like that is that it ends up defining peoples' lives. They have to live with that abuse for the rest of their lives. Good, creative people are just f*****g destroyed."



Kaysea
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31 Oct 2009, 11:34 am

I have often wondered this myself. Also, my roommate recently told me that she saw an interview with Vedder in which he strongly implied that he had AS. Regardless, I always liked this tune.



cosmiccat
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31 Oct 2009, 12:51 pm

Kaysea wrote:
I have often wondered this myself. Also, my roommate recently told me that she saw an interview with Vedder in which he strongly implied that he had AS. Regardless, I always liked this tune.


I would love to read that interview. Maybe I can find it on the net. Also, Pearl Jam dedicated their performance of this song to Kurt Cobain on SNL. I thought that was curious and it made me wonder if Francis Bean is on the spectrum. It gets curiouser and curiouser. :D



ILoveMusic
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31 Oct 2009, 8:31 pm

Believe it or not, Eddie Vedder happened to go to the same high school that I went to back in the day.

It would be very surprising if he was on the spectrum - from what I can recall I remember him as being the complete opposite of the "stereotypical aspie". He seemed popular, very well-liked and charismatic (even back then). Nothing that I can remember strikes me as him possibly being an aspie.

Either way, "Daughter" sure is an interesting song, though.



Sati
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01 Nov 2009, 2:33 am

Huh, I never had any idea what that song was about, it always confused me :?