daddy

"Daddy" is a song written and recorded by American nu metal band Korn for their self-titled debut album. It is the album's 12th and final track.

Concept

The band's singer, Jonathan Davis, has stated that the song is about his painful experience of being molested as a child and not being believed.^[1] However, he denied it was about physical or sexual abuse at the hands of his father, and the title and some concepts within the song stem from his parents not believing him. The song caused many to assume Rick Davis (Jonathan's father) had molested his son. It is a source of embarrassment for him, though his son has gone on the record in many interviews saying it was written about a family friend who sexually abused him. When a 12-year-old Jonathan tried to turn to his family, he said, they ignored him. Neither Jonathan or Rick will say who the person was, though both say it was a woman.^[2]

In an early Kerrang! magazine interview, Jonathan is asked about the song, responding:

-Jonathan Davis^[3]

Music and structure

The song eventually leads to Davis acting-out being stranded in a room, and shouting hostile things to whom it is not clarified which then leads to Davis weeping for a long period of time as the band continues on playing an instrumental track until eventually a door is heard shut. The rest of the band did not know that the song was about his childhood prior to recording.

After five minutes of silence at the end of the song, a discussion can be heard; a random audio clip that producer Ross Robinson found in an abandoned house. The argument revolves around a man named Michael and a woman named Geri conversing about the installation of a car part (apparently an exhaust manifold on a Dodge Dart). Michael can be heard yelling at Geri (profanity-laden) over the merits of the installation.

Live performance

The song is notable for, despite its popularity amongst fans, never being played live after the album version was recorded; an earlier version of the song was performed at each of their first three shows. Jonathan Davis says that the song is simply too personal for him to perform live.

"He's already emotionally drained when he leaves the stage after our set, so I couldn't imagine him leaving the stage after playing that song."^[4] – Munky

Occasionally, an instrumental excerpt of the song would be used as an introduction to "Shoots and Ladders" during early live performances.

In a recent interview, Davis discussed how a few years ago on Korn's "Back To Basics" tour the band allowed fans to vote on which songs would be in the band's setlist. Daddy topped the list, but he declined to play it.

"I don't play that song live because it's just magic,” Davis said. “If I play that song over and over every night, it'd lose its meaning. I don't want people to expect me to freak out like I did on that. That was what happened in that point in time, and that magic was captured, and I don't want to fuck with it."^[5]

Demo version

The demo version of the song, which is found on Neidermeyer's Mind, is shorter than the album version. While the album version is 9:32 in length, the demo version is 4:29 in length. The demo does not feature the a cappella intro; it starts immediately with Fieldy's bass riff. It also has a different chorus. After the instrumental bridge, there is an extra part to the song with Jonathan Davis singing: "Mommy! Why did Daddy touch me there?" which leads into "I didn't touch you there."

References