Song: "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers

Event: Misheard lyrics

One of the coolest things about art is its inherent subjectivity.  What something means to you may mean something completely different to me.  That possibility for myriad interpretations opens up any works - allowing it to be as emotionally resonating or coldly apathetic as the audience which witnesses it.  And what makes such interpretation even more malleable is when the audience member is either misinformed or simply perceives something incorrectly.  The piece of art - though that may be a lofty title to attach to it - that most reminds me of the transitory identity of art is The Wallflowers' song, "One Headlight."

To start - I'm not a Wallflowers fan; I don't own any of their music, I don't know any songs outside of this one and their cover of Bowie's "Heroes."  I know that the lead singer is Bob Dylan's son and that they haven't really been around for the past decade or so.  And "One Headlight" doesn't get as much radio play as it once did.  But whenever I do happen upon it on the radio, usually on some "Best of the 80s, 90s and Today" station, I stop scanning the stations, listen to the song with a smile, recalling my incorrect reading of the song.

The song is already a darkish song about impermanence, death and struggle of life.  With vague, unrefined imagery, Wallflowers paint the picture of something passing from existence.  Jakob Dylan has said the song is about:

"the death of ideas" and that the many metaphors and images in the lyrics were not meant to be taken literally. Dylan explains that he and the band had very little support when they were putting together the record, hence the shout-out "c'mon try a little." The last two lines of the chorus "we can drive it home / with one headlight" are a reference to how the band were able to get through with their ideas despite being hindered (i.e. with one headlight) by the lack of support.

The song is already rather dark, with its discussion of funerals and a narrator losing his "only friend."  Now add into this a misheard lyric, and things take a drastic and violent turn.  The line I always misheard was "Me and Cinderella/Put it All Together."  I thought the line was "The Incinerator/Put it All Together."  I thought the song was meant to be a dark confession of a man who murdered his "best friend" and covered it up by burning the woman alive.  It wasn't until talking about the song with one of my friends did I realize my mistake.  So while the song is dark (well, melancholic in that too sincere freshman strumming his acoustic guitar kind of way), in my mind it was a brutal retelling of how things have gone terribly awry.

"One Headlight" comes on these days and I think of all the different songs people misinterpret.  And how, if something is misheard or if the audience member is mistaken, the piece of art can take on a whole different life of its own.  My brain came up with a whole new scenario, complete with a "more profound" reading of the lyrics - most of it not based on anything.  But that's what we do - when we perceive something, we interpret it as we understand it, and make it fit whatever narrative we've already crudely fashioned.

For what it's worth, I still prefer my version of the song.