B-side Islands Recorded September 1988 | Format 7" vinyl
CS Genre Rock | |
Released 9 January 1989 (1989-01-09) Studio Ocean Way Recording, Los Angeles | ||
"Tucker's Daughter" is the debut single by Australian rock singer and guitarist, Ian Moss. It was released in January 1989 almost five years after his group, Cold Chisel, had disbanded for the first time. It is co-written by Moss and Don Walker (also from Cold Chisel).
It reached No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report on 20 March 1989 and No. 2 on the ARIA Singles Chart. It peaked at number six on the New Zealand Singles Chart.
"Tucker's Daughter" was the lead track on Moss's debut album, Matchbook, released seven months later, which peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1990 Moss won Breakthrough Artist – Single and Song of the Year for "Tucker's Daughter", which was also nominated for Single of the Year. He won three additional awards for Matchbook: Album of the Year, Best Male Artist and Breakthrough Artist – Album.
The lyrics of "Tucker's Daughter" tell the story of a farm labourer who finds himself the attention of his employer's daughter, but he does not return her affections.
Walker described in 2005 how Moss had sent him pieces of music including certain phrases that he wanted included in places within the song, "Ian sent 'Tucker's Daughter' on a cassette [by] express airmail from Los Angeles where he was, and he had the melody but the only lyric he had was, 'Hey there, motherfucker.' Right through the rest of the song. I couldn't use that, but I recognised that it had a certain percussive force".
In September 2007 Moss told a reporter at The Herald Sun newspaper that he was dissatisfied with his entry at Wikipedia: "About 95 per cent of the stories I read say Don Walker wrote it, but I wrote it too. I wrote the music and the punch line. 'Build me up, tear me down'. I'm not sure how to edit Wikipedia, but I will get on to that and change it."
Music video
The start of the video depicts Tucker's daughter, a young woman, walking through a field. Several scenes feature Ian Moss singing and playing his guitar inside a barn. Although Moss does not react to the woman's affection in the lyrics; three black and white scenes during the video depict the two having a romantic encounter.