Singalong! One Headlight by The Wallflowers

My main memory with this song is that it rose to popularity right around the time that my youth group (as in, church group for youths) was really into an anti-secular-music phase (secular being non-Christian). People were going on "fasts" from secular music, or at the very least searching for any potentially nefarious interpretation of the lyrics to make sure we weren't being indoctrinated into a sex and drugs lifestyle. (The strange thing about doing that is that you wind up seeing innuendos everywhere, and basically become like a dirty-minded kid giggling at a mention of butts, except instead of giggling you react in exaggerated horror.)

So when it comes to this song, which seems to me to be a sad song about a girl who killed herself (or, according to people on the internet, is a metaphor for life), my youth leader surmised, "I wonder if it's about sex? Like, drive it home?" We all nodded that yes, she has probably decoded it, and then went on to feel guilty for listening to it.

ONE HEADLIGHT

by The Wallflowers

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 comin' 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

Sayin' all there's good and nothingness is dead

We'll run until she's out of breath

She ran until there's nothin' left

She hit the end, it's just her window ledge

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

Well this place is old

It feels just like a beat up truck

I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn

Well it smells of cheap wine, cigarettes

This place is always such a mess

Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn

I'm so 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 dyin' dreams

I think of death, it must be killin' me

Hey, hey 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

Source: Giphy

Also.... did you know there is a show called The Wallflowers? They tag line is that they are more likely to find a plane crash than love in their mid-thirties. YIKES?

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