One Headlight – The Wallflowers

Today’s post is one of my favorite songs of the 1990s, ‘One Headlight“, penned by Jakob Dylan (son of Bob) for his group The Wallflowers. I like a lot of his Pop’s songs and there’s no denying Bob’s song writing ability and importance to music and culture in this country as a whole but I think I’d rather hear Jakob sing his dad’s lyrics, I’ve never been a big fan of Bob’s voice but I will admit it works well for a lot of his music. Jakob also produced and featured in a pretty cool music documentary called Echo in the Canyon about the music coming out of Laurel Canyon in the 60s.

“One Headlight” as a song is really easy to listen to and has a hopeful feel to the music. It’s got a bit of twang to it and almost country feel. Lyrically, it’s a bit of a bummer in terms of the verses, mostly a sort of sad or negative feel to them, possibly about losing someone in the literal sense or maybe metaphorically. The chorus, however, seems to be much more hopeful, also like a fierce determination to make it work or power through. The chorus to this song is one of my favorites ever written –

Come on, try a little
Nothing is forever
There’s got to be something better than
In the middle
But me and Cinderella
We’ll put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight

A staple of any “90s hits” playlist for good reason, ‘One Headlight” is a song that I never get tired of hearing.

Jack Irons, formally of Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played drums for the Wallflowers for a bit, and Rami Jafee of the Foo Fighters was a long time member as well.

Link to song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4AFXn7b9Ys

Link to live (Current Foo Fighter Rami Jafee on keys) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyFpBvjew1M