Handle With Care - The Traveling Wilbury's

Supergroups in the 60's and the 70's they consistently, dotted the musical landscape, Hot Tuna, Cactus, Blind Faith, Derek and The Dominios, just add yours to the list. Everyone had their faves. In Broadcasing the life span of a supergroup was about a year or two, or a couple of albums.

One of my personal favorites for a Supergroup were, The Traveling Wilburys, consisting of George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. Now it is duely noted that they were not a supergroup of the peace and love generation (60's and 70's), but cut me a little slack here. They were extremely important parts of the 60's and the 70's in the music arena and individually.

As most ideas it usually starts over a meal, or socalizing of some sort and the beginning for the Wilbury's were no different. The Wilbury's started at dinner time at Bob Dylans house in Sunny Malibu. George Harrison,(Beatles) Roy Orbision, (The Man) and Jeff Lynne(ELO) were together to record an additional track as the flip side for Harrison's "This is Love". It has been rumored that Tom Petty's involvement was strictly an accident, as the story goes, George Harrison had left his guitar at Petty's house and called him to bring it over to Dylan's house, before cutting the new track. After recording the B-side for Harrison "Handle with Care', the individual artists realized it was just to good to release as a throw away B-side.



At that point in time a Supergroup was born. "Wilburys" actually was a slang term coined by Harrison and Lynne during the recording of Cloud Nine as a pet name for various types of equipment in the recording studio. The term was used again when the entire group was together. Harrison suggested "The Trembling Wilburys" as the group's name, (probably based on the fact of the age of each of it's members) instead Lynne suggested "Traveling", which was agreed on by the group


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 a labor of love but had to be recorded quickly over a ten-day period, because Dylan was scheduled to leave on a tour. Recorded in 1988 it was released later that year. It has been 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.

Tragedy struck the Traveling Wilbury's, on December 6th 1988 with the sudden death of Roy Orbison. The band immediatelly stopped any 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 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. Though it was their second release, the album was mischievously titled Vol. 3 by George Harrison. According to Jeff Lynne, "That was George's idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers.' "

Although there has since been speculation about further Wilbury releases, Harrison's 2001 death is considered to have ended any possible future projects with Harrison having been the unofficial leader of the group and with his estate owning the rights to both albums.

Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 was dedicated in memory of Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison).

After George Harrison’s distribution deal with Warner Bros. expired in 1995, ownership of the Dark Horse Records catalog as well as the two Traveling Wilburys albums reverted to Harrison and the albums went out of print


Sidenotes:

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.


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. In the booklet contained in the 2007 box set, the album name is credited to 'George being George'

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. Additionally, the iTunes Store carries a digital version which features both albums, the documentary, and videos. 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.

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.

Members

The Traveling Wilburys of Volume 1 were:
Nelson Wilbury - George Harrison
Otis Wilbury - Jeff Lynne
Lefty Wilbury - Roy Orbison
Charlie T. Jr. - Tom Petty
Lucky Wilbury - Bob Dylan

The Traveling Wilburys of Volume 3 were:
Spike Wilbury - George Harrison
Clayton Wilbury - Jeff Lynne
Muddy Wilbury - Tom Petty
Boo Wilbury - Bob Dylan
Additional named Traveling Wilburys on the 2007 Collection were:

Buster Sidebury - Jim Keltner
Ayrton Wilbury - Dhani Harrison
Jim Keltner, the session drummer and percussionist, was not listed as a Wilbury in Volume 1 or 3; however he is in some of the music videos. In the DVD released in 2007, he is given the Wilbury nickname 'Buster Sidebury'. The lead guitar on the song "She's My Baby" (from Volume 3) was played by blues guitarist Gary Moore.

As

Always

Peace


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