Rolling Stone Issue 855

Rolling Stone Issue 855 >> December 7, 2000

#58

The Wallflowers
"One Headlight"
Album Bringing Down the Horse
Released May 1996 Peak Chart
position Not released as single Songwriter
Jakob Dylan Producer T-Bone Burnett

"What I was really trying to do was write an Al Green song," says Jakob Dylan of "One Headlight," the Wallflowers' 1996 breakthrough tune, which went on to win a Grammy for Best Rock Song. "Not only does that music thrill me, it seems that of all the styles that have come back, nobody was bring that R&B thing back in, that real think organ-based sound."

Dylan says the song was written in a flurry of activity that also yielded "Three Marlenas" and "The Difference" just days before the band went into the studio to record its second album, Bringing Down the Horse. It was inspired by the frustrating months he'd spent trying to get another record deal. "After the first record was commercially unsuccessful, we went through this period where nobody was coming to the shows," Dylan says. "The group was having a hard time, and I was trying to be hopeful. For me, the message [of "One Headlight"] was, 'Even damaged, you can make it through.'" He adds that people misunderstood the lyrics -"The girl doesn't die in it; we heard that a lot. Some took it literally, and all we were really saying was that everybody deserves one or two chances, especially the chance to redeem themselves."