We’re making a lot of progress on this series and so far, it’s been a blast. I hope that you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have to this point and maybe found new songs to add to your playlist.
For October 12th of Alt Rock Autumn, I’m going with a song that gives road trip vibes driving in the early morning or late night on your own. It’s the ultimate drive song that has a mix of Alt Rock and a slight country feel.
We’re rocking with the lead off song from the Wallflowers 1996 album Bring Down the Horse, and that would be One Headlight.
The five minute and thirteen second jam was written by the bands lead vocalist, Jakob Dylan who is the son of music legend Bob Dylan.
A fact that I find very interesting about the Wallflowers is that there is only one member from the original band that started in 1989 and it’s Dylan. Fifteen other artists have been a part of the roots rock band, but none have been in it as long as Dylan who started the band and is still in it.
One Headlight was a chart rocker. It hit number one in Canada and tore up the U.S. Charts. It reached number two on the U.S. Radio Songs chart and was number one on the U.S. Adult Alternative, U.S. Alternative Airplay, U.S. Adult Top 40, and U.S. Mainstream Rock charts.
It finished 1997 as the number three song in all of Canada as well.
The Wallflowers and One Headlight also had a day at the 1998 Grammys when it took home the award for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Group or Duo with Vocals.
I bet you thought I was finished with accolades, but we’re not. The group performed One Headlight at the 1997 MTV VMAs with Bruce Springsteen, which seems fitting.
Springsteen and Jakob Dylan have a similar voice, gravely with a slight southern twang that sounds awesome over guitar.
What I love so much about One Headlight is the ominous guitar that leads it off paired with a steady drum beat. At the time, Jay Joyce played guitar for the band and absorbing killed it.
During the verses, the guitar and whole beat of the song feels mellow, but you know it’s leading up to something big. When the chorus hits, the guitar gets louder and heavier along with the drums. Then when the chorus concludes, the instruments come back down to the mellow pace.
There’s also a pretty sweet guitar riff around three and a half minutes into the song that brings the ominous feel back and kind of ties the song back together.
When speaking of the song, Dylan says that One Headlight is about “the death of ideas”. I really don’t see it, or hear it. I think of One Headlight as more being lonely.
One example of this is in the first verse “That's when they said I lost my only friend, Well they said she died easy of a broke heart disease”. Or even in the chorus when Dylan sings “Nothing is forever, Got to be something better than in the middle”.
At least that’s my interpretation.
I guess the reason I attribute it to being lonely is because it feels like the perfect song to sing along to when you’re driving alone or just having on as background noise. Even if you’re not “lonely”, it just fits.