The Saga of the Traveling Wilburys

Caricatures of George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison

It was the supergroup to end all rock supergroups. The lineup was a veritable constellation of star performers. And those of us who were listening when their CDs were issued might have enjoyed the experience a little more if we had known how short it was going to last.

The band was the Traveling Wilburys, a collection of musicians who already had amassed a huge following of fans starting in 1960, continuing through the Beatles era and the 1970s. George Harrison was the catalyst for the formation, and he was joined by Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and former ELO leader Jeff Lynne.

What those five legends achieved was done largely in an acoustic fashion without gimmicks. The 21 total songs they put on two compact discs were a combination of great writing and vocals. 

After being out of print for over 10 years, the Wilburys’ CDs were re-released as a compilation with a DVD and some previously unreleased tracks included.

Volume 1 emerged in 1988. The seed for the group’s formation was planted the previous year during the recording of Harrison’s “Cloud Nine” album at Dylan’s studio in Santa Monica, Calif. One evening, as Harrison, Orbison and Lynne dined together, they came up with a plan to record a song for the B side of Harrison’s single, “This Is Love.”

Petty’s involvement came by happenstance. George had left his guitar at Tom’s house, went to retrieve it and spoke with Petty about the project. “Handle With Care” was the result.

“George was the ringleader of the whole thing,” Petty remarked at the Concert For George, which was held Nov. 29, 2002, one year after Harrison’s death. “We call him an idea man. And I think he kind of engineered it (the band) in a funny way. 

“We were in Bob Dylan’s garage, and there was a flight case that said ‘Handle With Care.’ He (George) had the chords pretty well put together. What’ll we call it? ‘Handle With Care.’ Boom!”

Petty explained that the band was at a barbeque when Harrison pulled out a pad of paper and said, “All right, give me some words.” Petty related, “And everybody, you know, just started shoutin’ out lines. And we got uninhibited – we weren’t afraid to say anything. And the ones that hit kind of got a big thumbs-up from everybody, and … would get written down. And that’s absolutely, you know, how the song came about.”

The bigwigs at Warner Bros. Records soon realized that the song was too precious to be assigned the role of a toss-in. Since the five musicians enjoyed working together so well, it was agreed that they would put out an entire album together – a concept album, if you will.

But what a unique concept! Instead of posing as themselves for this effort, the guys adopted the personas of half brothers who were said to be sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr. Harrison was Nelson Wilbury; Orbison was Lefty Wilbury; Lynne was Otis Wilbury; Dylan was Lucky Wilbury, and Petty was Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr.

The liner of the Vol. 1 CD gave producing credit to Otis and Nelson. It was Lynne who also co-produced “Cloud Nine” with Harrison. Nowhere was there mention of the artists’ real names, but their photographs and voices easily gave them away.

The liner notes went so far as to relate a tale about the history of this Wilbury clan. It began, “The original Wilburys were a stationary people …”

In reality the term “Wilbury” was created by Harrison and Lynne during the “Cloud Nine” sessions. They called a recorded flub that could be later edited a wilbury – “we’ll bury it in the mix …” Harrison first suggested Trembling Wilburys as the group’s name, but Traveling got the nod eventually.

Rock fans immediately embraced Vol. 1, sending sales over the 5 million mark. Two months after the Oct. ’88 release, Orbison died of a heart attack at age 52, one year after his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After Orbison’s passing there was speculation in the news media that Del Shannon would replace him in the Wilburys. Shannon’s suicide in 1990, however, sadly put that rumor to rest.

The remaining four Wilburys returned to the studio to crank out a second CD that was titled Volume 3, contained 11 songs and was released in Oct. 1990. The final track was “Wilbury Twist,” and the liner sleeve folded out to reveal lyrical and pictorial instructions on how to do the dance.

Whimsically, the quartet assigned themselves new first names for Vol. 3 – Harrison became Spike; Lynne: Clayton; Dylan: Boo, and Petty: Muddy.

Session drummer Jim Keltner’s work is prominent on both volumes. Although not an official Wilbury, he appears in some of the band’s videos. In the new DVD he is assigned the name Buster Sidebury.

One thing that the five Wilburys seemed to enjoy was creating music together while leaving their egos on the shelf. All of their songs were co-written by the group, with the member who had the most input getting the credit.

“It was terrific fun,” Petty said in a recent interview. “It’s just hard to describe how much fun it was. There was no laboring over it.”

So what happened to Vol. 2? Skipping that number could have been a tribute to Orbison. Some believe that Petty’s 1989 CD “Full Moon Fever” is considered to be Vol. 2 because Harrison, Lynne and Orbison appear on the disc. Lynne and Petty were co-producers along with Mike Campbell.

In the waning years of the 1990s, the two Wilbury CDs had limited availability and were largely out of print. Harrison was the primary holder to the music’s rights, and he died of cancer in Nov. 2001.

Harrison’s widow Olivia, in association with Rhino Records, has made the music available to the public once again. She commented that George liked to collaborate in his music making. “He had a lot of years solo, and he didn’t always enjoy that,” she said.

The Wilburys’ catalog now is available in various configurations, including packages that contain DVDs and vinyl, at www.travelingwilbuys.com. Apparel and accessories carrying the band logo also are for sale.

Writing on the website, Warner Bros. Records chairman emeritus Mo Ostin remarks, “You can hear George’s humility and good nature reflected in the Wilburys and their music. To my thinking, this was a perfect collaboration. All five were good friends who admired and respected one another.

“Roy Orbison was somebody they all idolized. Of course, they revered Bob Dylan, too. But Bob was closer to being their contemporary, so it was Roy who gave the project that special glow from rock and roll’s formative years.”

It was a collaboration the likes of which we are not likely to see ever again.