To Daddy
"To Daddy" is a country song, written by Dolly Parton. It was performed by Emmylou Harris in the 1970s, included on her album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town and released as a single. Having reached number three on Billboard's Hot Country chart, Harris's version is the most familiar to most people.
Content
To Daddy is said to describe the pain Parton's mother experienced as she ignored her husband's occasional affairs and his lack of affection. It relates to how her mother, in having the family's best interest at heart and to be the best possible mother she could to her children, that she stood by her husband through difficult times. (Unlike Parton's parents, however, who remained together, the mother in the song ultimately leaves the family.)
In the song, related from the vantage point of a teenage girl, her mother seems to not care that her husband is neglectful and cold, concluding each verse with, "if she did, she never did say so to Daddy". In the final verse, however, the family members wake one morning to find a note in which their mother confesses that she stayed for as long as she had because her children needed her, but now that they are getting older and don't need her as much, she's left to search for the love and affection that she never received from her husband.
To Daddy
Mama never seemed to miss the finer things of life
If she did she never did say so to daddy
She never wanted to be more than mother and a wife
If she did she never did say so to daddy
The only thing that seemed to be important in her life
Was to make our house a home and make us happy
Mama never wanted any more than what she had
If she did she never did say so to daddy
He often left her all alone but she didn't mind the staying home
If she did she never did say so to daddy
And she never missed the flowers and the gifts he never gave her
If she did she never did say so to daddy
Being took for granted was a thing that she accepted
And she don't need those things to make her happy
She didn't seem to notice that he don't kiss and hold her
If she did she never did say so to daddy
One morning we awoke just to find a note
That mama carefully wrote and left to daddy
And as we began to read it our ears could not believe it
The words that she had written there to daddy
She said our kids are older now they don't need me very much
And I've gone in search for love I need so badly
I have needed you so long but I just can't keep holdin' on
She never meant to come back home if she did she never did say so to daddy
