Traveling Wilburys, Volume 1 & 3

One of the most amazing supergroups

A term supergroup refers to the bands composed of musicians who had already achieved recognition and fame in other bands or as individual artists. And even though such projects tend to be short lived and rarely offer ground-shaking results the history of rock music knows some outstanding names that became indeed significant rock acts precisely as separate bands. Cream, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Asia… - the list may be continued but it will never be full without such outstanding project as The Traveling Wilburys. It is quite significant that The Traveling Wilburys never really tried to impress anybody and this is probably why they became one of the most interesting supergroups. It all started in the spring of 1988 when Warner Brothers Records decided to release George Harrison's song This Is Love as a single. And it actually could be the end of the story if it were not for label's opinion that the disc will be more commercially successful if a b-side will accompany the main song. At that moment Harrison was in Los Angeles so without thinking twice he got in touch with his friend, producer and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra Jeff Lynne who was busy with a new album of Roy Orbison at the time. Orbison of course was right next to him and he didn't mind helping Harrison either. Harrison went to pick up his guitar, which he left at Tom Petty's house, and invited Petty to go for a ride and join their trio. The only unoccupied studio they could get in belonged to Bob Dylan therefore the whole company went to his place and of course he couldn’t help joining this newly born band too. So this is how the lineup of the most amazing supergroup was formed.

"We'll bury' them in the mix"

The song was ready after two days of studio jamming and Harrison went to Warner Brothers' office. It took only a single listening for label management to realize that the song was too good to be wasted as a b-side and they suggested Harrison persuading other musicians to record a full album. It wasn't hard to do; all of them really enjoyed playing together so they got down to songwriting and recording pretty soon. The name of the band was also invented accidentally. Wilbury was a facetious word coined by Harrison and Lynne as a reference to recorded flubs, which they were going to eliminate during the mixing stage ("We'll bury' them in the mix"). In the end Lynne suggested The Traveling Wilburys as a band's name and everybody agreed. So as far as you can see everything was going nice and easy – no contradictions and disputes. The band released two albums and both of them turned out to be more than just worthy records. And what else could you expect from the collaborations of musicians who invented rock music? Perhaps the result could be worse if all of them would pursue their own interests. But in this very case nobody even thought about dominating the band, no ego-clashing or other band breaking things. The idea that brought this people together was to help their friend and to have a good time playing together.

Rock music treasures

The albums of The Traveling Wilburys may be considered as hidden treasures of rock music. Both of them are enormously valuable as perfect examples of classic rock and as historic documents. It is especially so because these records were really hard to find in 90's and in the new century, the albums were million sellers but they fell out of print soon after first issue. Therefore The Traveling Wilburys may become a real revelation for many admirers of these musicians. In this year the complete collection of The Traveling Wilburys songs has finally seen the light of the day. The collection includes all the songs from both albums and a few unreleased tracks. The tracks are represented in the original order. The Traveling Wiburys, vol. 1 starts the album and then it is followed by vol. 3. It would be quite appropriate to inquire about vol. 2 here, but don't worry, everything stands on its places. Some people consider that vol. 2 is Tom Petty's album Fool Moon Fever as the same musicians except Dylan perform on it. However judging by other information such a numbering was just a joke. The album opener is Handle with Care – that very song, which started the project's story. The second single of the first album is End Of the Line – a perfect rock stomp, where the influence of every musician is clearly audible. Both of the songs show how easy it was for the band members to work with each other, everything sounds loose, joyful and enormously catchy. The most outstanding song from the second album is definitely She's My Baby, which sounds straightforward and really energetic. Yet, not a single track should be missed, there are tones of first class hooks that you never heard before but all of them look so familiar and heart warming. The Traveling Wilburys offers music for those who knows and loves classic rock. The sound, the material, the performance – everything sounds as if you have found yourself in 70's at the time when the best records of this genre were created. Excellent album, legendary musicians and precious historical rock document – such a combination is really hard to find nowadays.