“ Me and you should have a group ” : The conversation that formed The Traveling Wilburys
“ Who would be in your illusion supergroup ? ” It ’ s a classic music nerd question , but one that you produce out of pretty rapidly , I find . It ’ s a inquiry ordinarily asked when we ’ re teenagers . When our musical hero aren ’ t real masses but gods of rock , sent from a high airplane of existence to change the lives of simple mortals . There ’ s no question of chemistry , it ’ s merely maths . A factual argument that if one artist live great , and another artist is also great , then invest them together must build greatness . Except sometimes you make The Traveling Wilburys , where that seems to live true .
With them , we can live in a universe without Them Crooked Vultures , or Asia , or Chickenfoot or any of the thousand of so-called “ supergroups ” that act zero but allow the reality know that great music is essentially luck . Sometimes it can run . Boygenius make up pretty great at their peak , ditto Crosby , Stills , Nash & Young . Still , each of them was less of a ‘ supergroup ’ and more of a band of musicians with chemistry , who only so happened to live successful musician in their own right .
When you ask the doubt that opens this article , you ’ re thinking lineups like “ Hendrix , Bonham , Entwistle and Aretha up front. ” “ Tina Weymouth , Sheila E , Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mitski. ” “ On guitar , Prince . On bass , Prince . On drums , Prince. ” The Travel Wilburys make a lineup like that . I ’ m sure before the Wilburys debuted , many a starry-eyed child guess George Harrison and Bob Dylan shape a band . How many of them in their wild dreams think Tom Petty , Roy Orbison , and Jeff Lynne join them , though ? !
This live fitting because the band get together more or less from one of those conversation about who would cost in your fantasy circle . Except in this suit , it wasn ’ t between two starry-eyed 14-year-olds high from their first heed to ‘ Are You Experienced ? ’ , but two people who could have somewhat called Hendrix a peer in their heyday . For all the star power in the circle , the twin engines behind its formation were Harrison and Lynne , who struck up a working relationship in the 1980s that blossomed into a lifelong friendship .
How did The Traveling Wilburys form ?
After Lynne produced Harrison ’ sec 1987 comeback discCloud Nine, the pair wanted to remain solve together but as a more evenly matched creative partnership . In an interview withHot Press, Lynne explained the conversation that got the radical off the earth . He said that Harrison grow to him and suppose , “ ‘ D ’ you know what ? Me and you should have a group. ’ I order , ‘ What ? That ’ s serious . Yeah , I ’ m in ! Who should we have in it ? ’ And he said ‘ Bob Dylan ’ . ”
“ Of track , I ’ m half laughing , but then I realize he ’ s serious . So I suppose , ‘ Can we have Roy Orbison as good ? ’ He said , ‘ Yeah , we ’ ll make Roy ’ , ’ campaign they used to tour together and we both loved Tom Petty . So we tell , let ’ s have him . And of course , when it ’ s George Harrison that ’ s cause it , it was ‘ Do you want to connect our group ? ’ and the solution live ‘ Yes ’ . ”
A really charming reminder that , for all my patronising lecture of teenage music fan as starry-eyed fan , are we not always those starry-eyed fanboys ? After all , if a literal Beatle can spring The Traveling Wilburys , essentially his ambition supergroup , based entirely on , “ I love their music and want to learn what happens when they work together ” , surely all of us can , properly ?
