The Traveling Wilburys - The Last Great Supergroup

The Traveling Wilburys phenomenon started in a rather casual manner!

Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison joined Bob Dylan at his home studio in Santa Monica, California, to record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison's "This Is Love", Harrison realised he had left his guitar at Tom Petty's house and, on going to Petty's house to collect it, Petty decided to join them in the studio and participate in the recording session.

The song they recorded, "Handle with Care" (named after a label on a box in Dylan's garage) was considered too good by the record company to released as a single filler and an entire album was requested.

Jointly written by all the members of the band, the resulting album was recorded in only ten days at Bob Dylan's house due to the start of Bob Dylan's tour.

The band's name "Traveling Wilburys", comes from a slang term invented by Jeff Lynne and George Harrison as a reference to recorded "flubs" that could be eliminated during the mixing stage (as in "We'll bury them in the mix"). Harrison suggested "The Trembling Wilburys" as the group's name, but they decided to use "Traveling" instead!

The band members took on pseudonyms of half-brothers - the supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.

Nelson Wilbury - George Harrison
Otis Wilbury - Jeff Lynne
Lefty Wilbury - Roy Orbison
Charlie T. Wilbury Jr. - Tom Petty
Lucky Wilbury - Bob Dylan

The album - Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was released in October 1988 to critical and commercial success but was somewhat overshadowed by the death of Roy Orbison a little over a month after the release.

The band had the unenviable task of finishing the video for "End of the Line" without the Big O's presence. In the scene where the verse is sung by Orbison, the viewer is shown Orbison's guitar in a rocking chair and then a photo of the late artist.

The singles, Handle With Care, Last Night, Heading For The Light and End Of The Line all made entries on the singles charts.

Despite persistent rumours in the press that Del Shannon would replace Orbison, nothing further of this materialised and Del's 1990 suicide put an end to the speculation. In the book Conversations With Tom Petty, Petty makes it clear that Del's joining of the band was never really likely and the speculation was unfounded.

In 1990, the band (without Orbison) released the charity single, Nobody's Child, aimed at drawing attention to the orphaned children of Romania and in October of that year, the second album titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 was released.

This time, the pseudonyms were:

Spike Wilbury - George Harrison
Clayton Wilbury - Jeff Lynne
Muddy Wilbury - Tom Petty
Boo Wilbury - Bob Dylan

The second album met with less success, but the singles She's My Baby and Inside Out did make a dent on the charts.

Rumours and suggestions of a reunion surfaced from time-to-time, but the band never managed to reunite and the death of the band's driving force (George Harrison) in 2001 effectively ended any chance of the Traveling Wilburys ever performing again.

So there it is - two albums, a handful of unofficial demo track and some collaborations between some of the band members is all that remains of the Traveling Wilburys. It may have been a short-lived project, but there's some great songs to be heard being played by some of the last 50 years' most talented and influential musicians.

From Traveling Wilburys article on Wikipedia

"Traveling Wilburys was a supergroup consisting of George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The band recorded two albums during the two years they were together.

Traveling Wilburys History

1988-1990
Starting at a meal between Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, the group got together at Bob Dylan's home studio in Malibu, California, to record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison's "This Is Love". Tom Petty's involvement came by chance as Harrison had left his guitar at Petty's house.
The band, however, decided that the song that resulted, "Handle with Care", was too good to be released as a "single filler".

The members enjoyed working together so much that they decided to create a full album together under various pseudonyms; all sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr. and half brothers. Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, written by all the members, was recorded over a ten-day period-as Dylan was scheduled to leave on a tour-in May 1988 and released on October 18. It was ranked #70 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Albums of the 80's and nominated for Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1990.

The death of Roy Orbison on December 6, 1988 prevented further full collaborations, but the band did continue. In tribute to Orbison, during the video for "End of the Line" at a point when Orbison sings, his photo is shown followed by a shot of his guitar in a rocking chair.

The Traveling Wilburys contributed the title track, "Nobody's Child", to the Romanian Angel Appeal benefit album "Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal", released on July 24, 1990. A second Wilbury's album, the intentionally misnumbered Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 was released on October 30, 1990, but met less success than the first one. In the booklet contained in the 2007 box set, the album name is credited to 'George being George'.

2007
In the late 90s and early 2000s, the two Traveling Wilburys albums had limited availability and were out of print in most territories. Harrison, as primary holder of the rights, did not reissue them prior to his 2001 death. In June 2007, the two albums were reissued as The Traveling Wilburys Collection, a box set including both albums on CD (with bonus tracks) and a DVD featuring a twenty-four minute band documentary and a collection of music videos.

The box set was released in three editions; the standard edition, with both CDs and DVD in a double Digipak package and a 16-page booklet; a "deluxe" boxed edition with the CDs and DVD and an extensive 40-page booklet, artist postcards, and photographs; or a "deluxe" boxed edition on vinyl. This version omits the DVD, but adds a 12" with rare versions of the songs. Additionally, the iTunes Store carries a digital version which features both albums, the documentary, and videos.

The release surprised many when it debuted at #1 in the UK Album Charts. It also debuted at #1 on the United World Chart, and reached the same on the Australian album charts, Amazon's pre-order and sales lists, and iTunes. On the US Billboard 200 it reached #9. The collection sold 500,000 copies worldwide during the first three weeks and remained in the UK top 5 for seven weeks after its release..."

You can read the whole article at Traveling Wilburys article on Wikipedia

George Harrison was born on 24 February 1943 in Liverpool and gained fame as a member of probably the most famous rock and roll band of all time, The Beatles.

He met Paul McCartney in the mid 1950s and played gutar in the band McCartney was in alongside John Lennon. The band, The Quarrymen eventually became The Beatles and the rest, as they say, is history.



George Harrison

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Famed for his interest in experimental music, George took up playing the sitar in the mid 1960s and met Ravi Shankar (father of Norah Jones) and the two became close friends.

Even though most of The Beatles' songs were penned by Lennon and McCartney, George contributed several songs to the band's repertoire that have become classics in their own right - "Taxman", "Here Comes the Sun", "Something", and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" were all penned by Harrison and the last was influenced by the music of his friend Roy Orbison.

After the break-up of The Beatles in 1970, Harrison embarked on a successful solo career and released a number of albums and singles that were both critical and commercial successes, most notably "My Sweet Lord", "All Those Years Ago" and "Got My Mind Set On You" which was co-produced with Jeff Lynne.

During the 1980s, as well as being in The Traveling Wilburys, Harrison also provided financial backing for the Monty Python film Life of Brian and his film company, HandMade Films, also produced the films Mona Lisa, Time Bandits, Shanghai Surprise and Withnail and I.



George Harrison

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During the 1990s, Harrison battled with cancer and survived an attempt on his life when a crazed fan stabbed him at his home in Henley-on-Thames, England.

George Harrison died in Los Angeles, California on 29 November 2001 aged 58 from a brain tumour.

His final album, Brainwashed was completed by his son, Dhani Harrison, with Jeff Lynne and was released in November 2002.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on 24 May 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota , Bob Dylan is one of the most influential and important figures in the history of popular music.



Bob Dylan

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Starting his career in 1962 amidst the youth movement of the time, Dylan has mixed country, folk, rock and blues in a lengthy career spanning five decades. His early work was largely based around political and social themes, much against the conventions of the time but songs such as Blowin' In The Wind and A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall won both critical and commercial acclaim.

Around this time, Bob's songs were gaining further publicity through cover versions by artists such as The Byrds, Sonny and Cher, The Hollies, Peter, Paul and Mary, Manfred Mann, Judy Collins and The Turtles and, indeed, Dylans songs are frequently better known through cover versions than Bob's original recordings.

Throughout the 1960s Bob released several albums that still rank as some of the most significant albums of all time. Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde On Blonde (1966) all received great reviews and still appear in many lists of "must have" albums.

In 1966, Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident that nearly claimed his life when he broke his neck. An extended period of recovery and convalescence kept him out of the studio for a while, but his first album after the crash contained the song All Along The Watchtower which was a hit when recorded by Jimi Hendrix.

Through the 1970s, Bob released more albums including New Morning (1970), Blood On The Tracks (1975) and Slow Train Coming (1979) and the single Knockin' On Heaven's Door which was a worldwide hit.



Bob Dylan

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Since the 1980s, he has toured extensively in what is known as the "Never Ending Tour" and his songs have found new audiences and more acclaim from the music industry.

In 2006 he released his first album in five years, Modern Times which has since gone platinum.

Thomas Earl Petty was born on 20 October 1950 in Gainesville, Florida.

After spending time in local bands, The Sundowners and The Epics, Tom formed and Mudcrutch with Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. Eventually settling on Petty as the frontman, Mudcrutch renamed themselves Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers and relocated to California.

In 1976, their self-titled debut album catapulted them onto the US music scene and a string of commercially and critically successful albums has followed.



Tom Petty

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You're Gonna Get It (1978), Damn The Torpedoes (1979), Hard Promises (1981), Long After Dark (1982), Southern Accents (1985) and Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987) all showcased Tom's distinctive vocals and inventive songwriting. Single hits such as The Waiting, You Got Lucky, Don't Come Around Here No More and Jammin' Me saw Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' fanbase grow and a significant amount of radio play.

In 1989, between the release of the two Traveling Wilburys albums, Petty released the Jeff Lynne produced album "Full Moon Fever" which spawned the massive hits Runnin' Down A Dream, I Won't Back Down and Free Fallin'.

Tom reunited with The Heartbreakers for 1991's Into The Great Wide Open which contained the hit singles Out In The Cold and Learning To Fly.

1993's Greatest Hits album contained yet another big hit in "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and Tom's second solo album, Wildflowers (1994) saw yet more smash hits with You Don't Know How It Feels and You Wreck Me.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Tom has produced more albums and in 2006, his most recent solo album, Highway Companion was released to rave reviews.

Roy Orbison was born on 23 April 1936 in Vernon, Texas.

Roy was responsible for a string of hits in the 1960s, including "Crying," "Only the Lonely" and "Pretty Woman" and was famous for his unique and distinctive vocal style.

In 1966 his wife was killed in a motorcycle accident and his career went into a seemingly irreversible decline and this was compounded when, two years later, two of his sons were tragically killed in a fire.

In the 1970s, Roy was working mainly on country music. Despite being a firm favourite with audiences in his native USA and overseas, Roy was unable to regain his former stature but cover versions of some of his songs kept his name in people's minds.

In 1986, In Dreams was featured in the film Blue Velvet and its rerelease saw a revival of The Big O's career.

His 1987 duet with k.d.lang of Crying saw the pair win a Grammy and his work with the Traveling Wilburys saw more accolades for Roy.

In December 1988, Roy died of a heart attack, leaving his final album unfinished. Jeff Lynne completed work on the album and Mystery girl became a posthumous hit for Roy, eventually becoming his biggest-selling record.

Jeff Lynne was born on 30 December 1947 in Birmingham, England.

After performing in local groups, Jeff joined his friend Roy Wood in The Move in 1970 and he contributed songs to the band's last two albums. Along with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, Jeff formed The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).

ELO released a string of successful albums and singles throughout the 1970s and 1980s including A New World Record (1976), Out Of The Blue (1977) and Discovery (1979). Hit singles such as Roll Over Beethoven (1973), Livin' Thing (1976), Mr Blue Sky (1978), Don't Bring Me Down (1979) and Hold On Tight (1981) helped cement Lynne's place in the Rock and Roll establishment as not only a great songwriter, but also a great producer and he was much sought-after as a producer of other artistes' work.

Following the break-up of ELO in 1986, Jeff joined the Traveling Wilburys and also focused on production work.

Jeff produced George Harrison's Cloud Nine album, as well as Full Moon Fever and Into The Great Wide Open for Tom Petty and Mystery Girl for Roy Orbison

In 1994, Jeff worked with the three surviving Beatles on the Anthology album series.

In 2001, Jeff and George Harrison started work on what would turn out to be Harrison's final album, Brainwashed and, following Harrison's death that Novembe, he returned to the studio in 2002 to help finish the uncompleted album.

In 2006, Lynne reunited with Tom Petty as producer and bassist of Petty's third solo album, Highway Companion.

* photo of Jeff Lynne used Creative Commons from Wikimedia Commons

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