One Headlight | So long ago, I don't remember when That's when they say I lost my only friend Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease As I listened through the cemetery trees I seen the sun coming up at the funeral at dawn The long broken arm of human law Now it always seemed such a waste She always had a pretty face So I wondered how she hung around this place Hey, come on try a little Nothing is forever There's got to be something better than In the middle But me and Cinderella We put it all together We can drive it home With one headlight She said it's cold It feels like Independence Day And I can't break away from this parade But there's got to be an opening Somewhere here in front of me Through this maze of ugliness and greed And I seen the sun up ahead At the county line bridge Saying all is good and nothingness is dead We'll run until she's out of breath She ran until there's nothing left She hit the end-it's just her window ledge (chorus) Well this place is old It feels just like a beat up truck I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn With smells of cheap old wine and cigarettes This place is always such a mess Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn I sit alone and I feel just like somebody else Man I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same But somewhere here in between the city walls of dying dreams I think her death it must be killing me (chorus)

 
notes |
words and music by Jakob Dylan
appears on Bringing Down the Horse

-excerpt from Rolling Stone Issue 855 12.7.00 "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."

-"It's hard to focus on it. I mean, it must be even harder for Jake to focus on it 'cause he wrote the lyric and chords. The response to it is unbelievable. To me it seems like '6th Avenue' would be more of this crazy crossover super thing than 'One Headlight.' We were going for a weird thing-there's not one cymbal hit on that whole song. I mean, that usually makes a rock song a big hit. We did weird things in the studio on that song. And then my organ sound was that full Al Green-type thing, you know that Motown sound, and even the drums did some kind of beat like that, so to me it's, like, somewhere subconsciously, it is that Motown/Jackson 5-type song, but the way T Bone produced it, it's pretty unbelievable that it had such a big impact on a lot of people. Somehow the recipe on that song is actually perfect. It puts a different perspective on what really hits with people."- Rami's take on "One Headlight."

-"It's an interesting perspective for me because, you know, I wrote that song just like I write any other song. You have little barriers that you're always trying to get through, and when I finished writing 'One Headlight' I do remember thinking that I'd gotten somewhere where I wanted to be. [...] I really think I went as far as my abilities would let me with 'One Headlight.' I don't know. It's always been one of my favorite songs." -Jakob 

-It's just about perseverance, and you know I've always tried to believe-like I assume a lot of people do-that the way I treat other people would maybe be the way that I get treated. And people like opportunity, people like to be given a chance, and I think when I wrote that song I probably wasn't really feeling, for whatever reason, like I was being given a chance. I think at that point I just felt like I couldn't get anybody to listen."- Jakob