Lyrics

It's funny that way

You can get used

To the tears and the pain

What a child will believe

You never loved me

You can't hurt me now

I got away from you

I never thought I would

You can't make me cry

You once had the power

I never felt so good about myself

Seems like yesterday

I lay down next to your boots and I prayed

For your anger to end

Oh Father I have sinned

You can't hurt me now

I got away from you

I never thought I would

You can't make me cry

You once had the power

I never felt so good about myself

Oh Father

You never wanted to live that way

You never wanted to hurt me

Why am I running away

Oh Father

You never wanted to live that way

You never wanted to hurt me

Why am I running away

Maybe someday

When I look back I'll be able to say

You didn't mean to be cruel

Somebody hurt you too

You can't hurt me now

I got away from you

I never thought I would

You can't make me cry

You once had the power

I never felt so good

You can't hurt me now

I got away from you

I never thought I would

You can't make me cry

You once had the power

I never felt so good about myself

Credits

Written by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

Album

Like A Prayer

Something To Remember

Single

After the joyful Cherish, Madonna released this serious, rather dramatic fourth single in October 1989. Madonna describes her difficult love-hate relationship with her father during her youth. Maybe this material was a bit too hard or sad for the Americans, who only allowed it to #20 in the charts. It wasn't very welcome in Japan (#12) or Australia (#51) either. Six years later, in December 1995 the song was released in Europe for the first time, as part of the Something To Remember collection. But even then, the UK didn't seem ready for this great ballad; it stalled at #16.

Video

David Fincher directed a very strong dramatic video that matched the song perfectly. Shot completely in black & white, the video shows images of Madonna as a little girl with her angry father yelling at her. It also shows the funeral of the girl's mother, explicitly referring to the death of Madonna's mother. As the girl is dancing on her mother's grave, in a beautiful snowy landscape, a grown-up Madonna watches her. The video was so explicit that MTV restricted it for being too disturbing.

Tour

During the church segment on the Blond Ambition Tour Madonna performed a medley of Live To Tell and Oh Father. It was one of her best vocal performances of the show. One of the dancers walked around with an urn of incence, then danced with her.