Photo by ELLIOTT LANDY
The curse of being a scion of greatness is that you will never outrun the titanic shadow of your father’s legacy. Case in point Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers. Back in the ‘90s, I remember thinking I was too cool for The Wallflowers. But either I was never too cool for The Wallflowers or I have, in my dotage, become just uncool enough to love them, or more specifically, their one big hit “One Headlight.” It is a perfect engine of Big Radio’s endorphin-triggers: the deathless thock of the snare, the galloping rhythm guitar dancing the light fandango with that spare, prismatic blues lead and then the Hammond B-3 comes in and you can almost see the ghosts of Highway 61 Revisited ascending skyward out of the Leslie cabinet, and then Jakob Dylan comes in with that bedhead vocal, his immaculate cobalt-blue eyes crying in the rain, watching his only friend’s funeral from behind the cemetery trees, they say she died easily of a brokenheart disease, and then ashes to ashes, dust to dust, he steps on the gas pedal and drives the whole thing home with one headlight. This is what perfection sounds like. “One Headlight” is the Platonic ideal of mid-90s Modern Rock radio. Truth is, I was never too cool for this song.
Nobody was. Not even you.
I have no earthly idea what The Wallflowers have been up to since 1996, and frankly I don’t want to know. But I do know this, we have a pair of tickets to see them at the Keswick on Sunday to give away to the thirteenth lucky Phawker reader to email us at Phawker66@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following Wallflowers trivia question: Everyone knows Jakob Dylan’s father is Bob Dylan but know the real name of his mother (Sarah Dylan is not her real name). What is it? Put the words ONE HEADLIGHT in the subject line and include your full name as it appears on your ID and a mobile number for confirmation. To qualify to win you must be signed up for our mailing list, you can do so right below the masthead. Trust me you want to do this, you will get the early word on site exclusives, breaking news, must-read posts and cool ticket giveaways. Good luck and godspeed!