The Traveling Wilburys
A Reason To Smile
The Traveling Wilburys made great, old-fashioned, toe-tapping music. Their rollicking songs are guaranteed to leave you beaming, which is why they are this week’s reason to smile.
The Americana super-group composed of superstars George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne made only two albums, but my goodness, they are masterpieces.
They chose the band’s name, according to Petty, because they “didn’t want it to sound like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, like a bunch of lawyers.” The five musicians created a fictional backstory for the group — that the Wilburys were brothers who had the same father, Charlie T. Wilbury Sr., but five different mothers. They even adopted aliases. Harrison was “Nelson,” Dylan was “Lucky,” Orbison was “Lefty,” Petty was “Charlie T. Jr.,” and Lynne was “Otis.”
The group’s first album, the Grammy-winning “The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1,” was released in 1988. One of the most popular songs from the album was “End of the Line.” Though all of the Wilburys got a writer credit, it was Harrison who did the heavy lifting, writing a catchy song that dispenses life lessons we could all do well to heed.
You may notice that Orbison doesn’t appear in the video. He passed away before the video was filmed but after he recorded the vocals. To pay tribute to their legendary bandmate, the surviving members decided to show a shot of a guitar rocking in a chair and a photo of Orbison for his solos.
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Stay Steady,
Dan
I remember this album with two emotions: elation at the beauty of the music and the fact that so many of my favorite musicians were collaborating, and utter sadness at the loss of one of the purest vocalists (Orbison) ever born. Thank you for this Mr Rather. A truly great song and definitely a reason to smile.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Dylan and Harrison (two I was once in love with) et al. And my do they look happy. The rocking chair with guitar was a classy touch. Classy men, classy music. “It.’s all right “. Let’s hope we’re saying that same thing after Tuesday.