As mentioned in the interlude for
Cloud Nine, the Traveling Wilburys were born out of the sessions for that record. While recording, George and Jeff Lynne often talked about how they’d love to put together a full band together. George dreamt of adding Bob Dylan, with whom he’d been close for years, drawing even closer after Dylan contributed songs to All Things Must Pass and performed at the Concert for Bangladesh. Lynne named Roy Orbison, for whom he was then producing an album, as his dream participant, and George had known and been a fan of Orbison’s since the Beatles opened for him on tour in 1963. Both Lynne and George were close to Tom Petty, with George having frequent ukulele jam sessions at Petty’s house, and Lynne in the midst of producing Petty’s first solo album. George even mentioned his dream of a band of “me and some of my mates” called the Traveling Wilburys in an interview in February 1988, but the band’s formation ended up happening largely by accident.
With very little notice, Warner Brothers had informed George in April 1988 that he needed a non-album b-side for his “This Is Love” single out of Cloud Nine. While having dinner with Lynne and Orbison, George asked Lynne to help with the recording the next day, and Orbison decided to come along for it. But they needed a place to record on short notice, so George arranged with Dylan to use his garage studio in Malibu. On the way to record, George stopped by Tom Petty’s house to pick up a guitar, and Petty decided to come over for the recording, too.
The five of them gathered with George’s half-finished song. George wrote a little vocal part in it for Orbison, because
IF YOU HAVE ROY ORBISON IN YOUR RECORDING STUDIO YOU DAMN WELL WRITE A VOCAL PART FOR HIM. All of the group participated in finishing the song, then recorded it the same night, all of this accomplished in about five hours.
When he brought it to Warner Brothers, they predictably said it was too good to be a mere b-side. In fact, they wondered, could they get a whole album of this? Dylan was due back on his Never-Ending Tour in June, so the band gathered in early May and dedicated ten days to putting the album together. They would sit around with their acoustic guitars, each member of the group throwing out musical ideas from which they’d lay down an initial track. Then at dinner, they’d sit at a communal table and pass the lyrics around and work on those during the meal. They’d draw straws to see who would sing the initial version, and then George would generally decide whose vocal fit which parts the best. By the end of ten days, they had all of the songs written, with the basic parts and rough vocals recorded. During the summer, George and Lynne then worked on the refining of the recordings, adding Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Horn on sax, and having Petty and Orbison come over for re-recordings where necessary.
This was a particularly joyous time for George, and indeed for all of the Wilburys. George’s first and most important rule in putting the band together was that he would only admit as members people that he liked to hang out with. By all accounts, the sessions were relaxed and free of ego, and the group laughed as much as recorded and shared a similar sense of humor (and a love for Monty Python). While certain songs came from ideas from one or another Wilbury, the writing was truly collaborative, the vocal parts were equally shared, and each member was participating from a pure love of making music with people whom they respected and considered friends. Preserving those friendships was most important to each of them; they were beyond a point where they needed to prove anything.
Despite this “community of equals,” it was clear that George was the driving force and ultimately in charge, and he set the tone for the sessions. He had put the band together and organized all the sessions, he did by far the most promotion for the album, and he and Lynne co-produced the album together. George is the one who had, two months before that first recording session occurred, mentioned “The Traveling Wilburys,” the name coming from the Cloud Nine sessions during which, upon numerous issues with faulty equipment, George had repeatedly joked to Lynne, “We’ll bury ‘em in the mix.” He and Lynne started using the word “Wilbury” to refer to any mishaps in the recordings. George had then suggested “The Trembling Wilburys” for their dream band, which Lynne adapted to “Traveling Wilburys.”
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was released in October 1988 to huge critical acclaim and commercial success. It went platinum quickly and eventually sold over five million copies, and it won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. In the liner notes, each of the band members adopted a fictitious Wilbury first name, and Michael Palin (under a fake name) put together a whole history of how this group of half-brothers had traveled the land for many years. That part was kinda dumb to me, but hey, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and this “half-brother” notion had enhanced their camaraderie.
About six weeks after the release, however, tragedy struck when Orbison died suddenly of a heart attack at age 52. All of the Wilburys were shocked, but Lynne remembers being devastated for years. The
video for their second single from the album, “End of the Line,” was shot to show the surviving Wilburys singing to a chair holding Orbison’s guitar. Be forewarned if you watch this now: it is not an easy viewing given that three of the Wilburys have now passed.
The other four Wilburys gathered two years later to record a second album, which George the little scamp insisted be called Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. They had considered adding a new member to the group to fill Orbison’s spot – both Del Shannon and Roger McGuinn had been mentioned – but in the end remained a quartet. This second album features more vocals from Dylan and Petty, with George taking a backseat on vocals but featuring more prominently on lead guitar. The songs for the album were more fully developed rather than being put together in the kitchen sitting around a table. The songs sound good, but to me, this album is missing something. I suspect that it’s not just Orbison’s unmatched vocal, but some of the magic that he naturally brought. While there was mutual respect among all the Wilburys, Orbison was the one they all idolized the most, and I think the glee that they all evidenced in the first record was down a notch in the second one. This album still did well, going platinum, but was not the enormous success of the first.
George over the course of the rest of his life would occasionally talk about recording another album, or going on tour as the Wilburys. Lynne remembers that George would say, “We’re going to get an aircraft carrier and follow the sunshine” for their Wilbury tour. Of course, it never happened, but it shows just how much pleasure this endeavor continued to give George, as he stated that from this time on he always considered himself “a Wilbury.”
that song, and you make a great argument for how it "fits" better.
