The Traveling Wilburys are not only one of my favourite groups because they made some very good music but also because the group consisted of some of my favourite artists. I started listening to the Wilburys when I was about 15 when my nanna got me a harmonica because I love the sound it makes and I was into Bob Dylan. The harmonica is one of the instruments I can actually play and I still have the harmonica my nanna gave me to this day and still play it occasionally.
The Wilburys were made up of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison and the collaboration in my eyes is one of the best there has or will ever be. All the members of the Wilburys have excelled in their own solo careers, which I’ll get into in future posts.
During the time the Wilburys were together (which was only a short time) they only made 2 studio albums which were Traveling Wilburys Vol.1 and Vol.3. Vol.2 and Vol.4 were also released but were compilation albums. Vol.2 contained demo’s and extended versions of songs songs from Vol.1 and Vol.4 was outtakes from Vol.3. There was also a new compilation album released in 2007 titled The Traveling Wilburys Collection.
The Wilburys kinda formed by accident when Roy, George and Jeff met at Bob Dylan’s studio to help record a B-Side for the release of George Harrison’s track This Is Love. The reason Tom Petty was involved at all was because George had left his guitar at Tom’s House.
The Wilbury “family” consisted of Lucky Wilbury (Bob Dylan), Nelson Wilbury (George Harrison), Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison), Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) and Charlie T. Jr. (Tom Petty). They enjoyed working together so much that they decided to make an album together (Vol.1) which was in 1988 and was recorded in only 10 days, just before Bob Dylan was due to tour.
When Roy Orbison died in 1988 this prevented an obvious Wilbury reunion and when Vol.3 was released the Wilburys took new names in honor of Roy, meaning that they can never be the original family again. The new “family” names were: Boo Wilbury (Bob Dylan), Spike Wilbury (George Harrison), Clayton Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) and Muddy Wilbury (Tom Petty).
Some of the Wilburys most popular songs are Handle With Care, The Wilbury Twist, Nobody’s Child, End Of The Line and Dirty World.
My Top 10 Traveling Wilburys Songs are:
01. Tweeter And The Monkey Man
02. Runaway
03. New Blue Moon
04. Wilbury Twist
05. Nobody’s Child
06. Maxine
07. Dirty World
08. Heading For The Light
09. Last Night
10. End Of The Line