Originally Posted by Josef K

It's so condescending, so patronizing. The first couple lines establish pretty clearly that it's about a romantic partner who's breaking up with him - would you really tell your daughter whom you love that "I've lost everything to you" and say she's broken your heart? - and then the rest of the song treats her, yeah, basically like a child. I mean, please. It's about how people are really mean and this poor, pure, innocent woman just doesn't get it, and Cat Stevens is just trying to protect her from the nasty old world. Like, "Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there / Just remember there's a lot, I'd beware," is such an asinine thing to say - she's an adult and can use her own judgment. Clearly she doesn't want to do whatever you say, because she's breaking up with you.

Pet_Sounds's reading of the song - it being targeted at his daughter - is wrong IMO, but in a way it's spot-on because it completely shows what's wrong with it. Like I said, he has this image of her as a child who's unable to take care of herself. That's kind of awful.

Still a really good album though.