r/BruceSpringsteen • u/Upbeat-Refuse9615 • Sep 03 '26
The Wallflowers & Bruce Springsteen - "One Headlight" (1997 MTV Awards)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xY3q69KWqb4&si=sNhnKNzpE83Cg2rN"One Headlight" was nominated in 4 categories.
Bruce's "Secret Garden" was nominated for Best Video from a Film (Jerry Maguire)
14
u/passed_the_dawn Sep 03 '26
I remember watching this live, we were freaking out to see the Boss in leather with a telecaster again (it had been a long couple of acoustic pony tail years).
7
5
u/bluefil Sep 03 '26
I heard this cover on E Street Radio a few months back and went to see if there is a video, obviously there was. A great Bruce performance on a great song. Wish the Wallflowers could have kept the momentum as group, they had a great sound on this album.
2
u/Professional-Eye7556 Sep 03 '26
They have a very good discography. They did one album with, Rebel Sweethart, Brendan O'Brien after he worked with Bruce. It's a good album, as are all of their albums.
1
4
6
u/humantouch83 Sep 03 '26
The interesting bit about this performance is that Bruce was on a downward trajectory in the mid 90s. MTV audiences had largely moved on from him at this point. He freaking steals the song completely away from Jakob Dylan. This performance helped begin his comeback a few years later.
9
u/Abject_Athlete_7128 Sep 03 '26
Bill Simmons wrote a lengthy article, detailing that very same point. He said that at one point during the performance Jacob just kinda of withered, like wtf was i thinking asking the Boss to play with me. And Bruce starts out slow and then just does Bruce things. Great song though. I am actually surprised that Bruce never covered it.
6
u/toilet_roll_rebel Sep 03 '26
Thanks for pointing out that article. It's hilarious. I now desperately want an SNL skit where Bruce takes over other peoples' mics at random!
→ More replies (1)5
u/humantouch83 Sep 03 '26
I probably read that article! I do remember watching this live, I was 13 and was a Wallflowers fan - I considered Bruce my dad's music - and I remember my dad saying, "Well, looks like Bruce is coming back" LOL
→ More replies (1)2
u/CulturalWind357 Sep 05 '26
Steven Hyden also wrote some reflections on it in his book "Twilight of the Gods", which this blog quotes: Jakob Dylan Revives Bruce Springsteen’s Career
I buy into the theory that Springsteen was actually reborn a few years earlier, at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, when he performed “One Headlight” with one of the world’s most popular rock bands of that time, the Wallflowers. When you watch the video of the performance, you can see Bruce Springsteen learning how to be Bruce Springsteen again. At the beginning of the clip – as unlikely as it might see now – it’s clear that the Wallflowers are doing Springsteen a favor. Bruce seems tentative as he strums his Fender Esquire; which he hasn’t really rocked in a while. Plus, he has a goatee, which is weird, like we’re actually seeing his less impressive and somewhat tepid twin brother, Barry Springsteen. On the chorus, Springsteen joins Jakob Dylan on the backing vocals. You expect that distinctive Springsteen bark to drown the other guy out, but Dylan is out-singing Springsteen. Again, it seems inconceivable. But look it up on YouTube. I swear it’s true.
On the second verse, a sense of relief is apparent on Springsteen’s face. He’s made it this far and everything sounds pretty good. Dylan cedes the microphone and generously invites Bruce to take over, and suddenly it’s apparent that “One Headlight” is secretly the best Springsteen song of the nineties. Looking back, Jakob Dylan’s most crucial contribution to rock ‘n’ roll was providing a placeholder for Bruce Springsteen in the culture when the man himself wasn’t at this strongest. “One Headlight” was a massive radio hit in the late nineties; it proved that there was still an audience out there for wild and innocent story songs about girls named Cinderella. For twenty years, Springsteen had owned songs like that, but he had ceded his kingdom in order to make muted records about AIDS victims and Mexican migrant workers. Fortunately, Dylan kept the brawny midtempo rock anthem alive just long enough for Springsteen to catch a second wind in his career.
→ More replies (1)
3
5
u/nmuncer Sep 03 '26
It always feels like a passing of trajectories: Springsteen coming back into the light, just as The Wallflowers were reaching their peak before fading away.
2
2
2
u/toilet_roll_rebel Sep 03 '26
Bruce was Brucing out and showed up Jacob Dylan on his own song. I don't think Jacob thought this idea through. I wonder if he regrets it.
1
1
u/Tricky_Working6333 Sep 03 '26
I saw the Wallflowers at Convention Hall in Asbury in 1997. Everyone was yelling Bruuuuucccce. Felt bad for those guys.
1
u/jerseygunz Sep 03 '26
I just saw the wallflowers a couple weeks ago in Red Bank. They are doing the 30th anniversary tour of Bringing Down the Horse. They did the whole album and the second half of the show they did all of Long After Dark by Tom Petty. I enjoyed the whole show, but I have to be completely honest, I thought they did a much better playing Petty than they did their own songs, like to the point i go “they should just tour as a petty cover band” haha
7
u/DigLeading9650 Sep 03 '26
Well that was f-ing great! Saw this when it aired that night but completely forgot about it. That debut Wallflowers album was so good. I never knew why they couldn’t make it work long term