Album: Vol 1
Released on 28 October 1988
Produced by Otis and Nelson Wilbury.
George Harrison needed to record a B side for his single "This Is Love". Harrison and Jeff Lynne (who co produced the very successful "Cloud Nine" for George the year before) met in Bob Dylan's studio in Malibu. Jeff Lynne was also working with Roy Orbison who was also asked to join and as George had forgotten his guitar at Tom Petty's house he invited him to join too. They recorded an instrumental with their acoustic guitars to which lyrics were added and the result was "Handle With Care" but the song was judged too good to be a B side and that's when the decision was made to make an album together. An album with some of the best harmonies of the eighties that's for sure.
George Harrison: "The thing about the Wilburys for me is if we'd tried to plan it or if anybody had said let's form this band and get these people in it it would never have happened. It's impossible. And the thing happened completely just by magic just by circumstance maybe there was a full moon that night or something like that and it was quite a magical little thing really... I had dinner with Roy Orbison and Jeff and I said to Jeff like tomorrow I'm just gonna go to the studio and make up a tune you wanna come down? he said sure. Bob we knew had this little studio sometimes you'd call him and not get through for years but he picked up the first ring and said sure come on over. My guitar was at Tom Petty's house so Tom and Jeff picked me up and we come over to Bob's and I got the first lines been beat up and battered 'round and they just kept coming with all these lines and there is Bob he said now what is it called what's it about? and there was this big box (it was a record case in Bob Dylan's garage) with the sticker handle with care he said oh yeah good". Source: "The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys" DVD.
This record is full of humour and spontaneity they were friends just happy to play together and have a good time. The Recording started in April 1988 and continued through to the end of May. Unfortunately aged just 52 Roy Orbison died on 6 December 1988 of a massive heart attack.
During May 1988 the band's recording sessions were filmed and a short 15 minute film was produced entitled "Whatever Wilbury Wilbury".Then later in October the band shot a video for "Handle With Care" in Los Angeles. The video for the second single "End Of The Line" was made just 4 days after the passing of Roy Orbison.
They even had fun with the group name portraying themselves as the Wilburys who were half brothers:
Nelson Wilbury (George) - Lead vocals, guitars, backing vocals
Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) - Lead vocals, keyboards, guitars, backing vocals
Charlie T. Jnr (Tom Petty) - Lead vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison) - Lead vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Lucky Wilbury (Bob Dylan) - Lead vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
With:
Jim Keltner (Buster Sidebury) - Drums
Jim Horn - Saxophones
Ray Cooper - Percussion
Ian Wallace - Tom toms "Handle With Care"
This record has not a weak track. “Handle With Care” features a Nelson/Lefty duo with some great slide guitar from Nelson. “Not Alone Any More” features Lefty and obviously it takes on an additional poignancy. All of the Lucky's tracks “Tweeter And The Monkey Man” "Congratulations" "Margarita" (which has a little bit of synth but hell this was the 80's) and “Dirty World” are really good. “Rattled” is close to a rockabilly thing and has a nice lead vocal by Otis. "Last Night" features Charlie T. Jnr on lead vocals with Otis in the chorus. "Heading for the Light" is an optimistic track which features Nelson on lead vocals with perfect backing vocals by Otis. "End of the Line" features Nelson Otis Charlie T. Jnr and Lefty and was perfect to close the album.
Tracklist:
Handle with Care
Dirty World
Rattled
Last Night
Not Alone Any More
Congratulations
Heading for the Light
Margarita
Tweeter and the Monkey Man
End of the Line
As mentioned above the recording sessions were filmed and a short 15 minute film entitled "Whatever Wilbury Wilbury" was produced. Then in 2007 this album appeared remastered and with bonus tracks entitled "The Traveling Wilburys Collection". On Disc 1 and 3 there is "Traveling Wilburys Vol 1" and "Vol 3". And Disc 2 (The Traveling Wilburys DVD) is a 25 minute film: "The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys".
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