![\"Why](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Why-The-Traveling-Wilburys-never-travelled-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credit: Wikimedia)<\/p>\n
Mon 30 June 2025 17:50, UK <\/p>\n
The entire story of the Traveling Wilburys still feels like one of the happiest accidents in rock and roll history. Had the stars not aligned that fateful day when George Harrison<\/a> needed a B-side for one of his singles, we may not have had the opportunity to listen to one of the greatest supergroups of all time, but when everyone got together for a jam session, it was too good for them to go their separate ways when the night was over. They were simply having too much fun, but Harrison was the first to say that everyone brought their own spice to everything.<\/p>\n Whereas Harrison might have been the ringleader responsible for bringing all of them together, there were always bound to be some hiccups along the way. Since there were five people who all played guitar, there needed to be another person there to help even things out, and Jeff Lynne may as well have been the orchestrator behind everything. He had the smoothest voice and could play note-perfect, but he knew when to fall back if Roy Orbison had any idea for a vocal.<\/p>\n And throughout the entire process, it\u2019s insane that no one managed to let their ego get in the way of things. It\u2019s hard to argue anyone\u2019s lyrics next to Bob Dylan\u2019s, but looking through the band\u2019s work, it\u2019s easy to see where Dylan\u2019s strengths were used the best and when he needed to be put into the background. Still, Mr Zimmerman was never going to spend all his time in the group just writing lyrics.<\/p>\n His voice was by far the weakest out of the entire band, but it brought a certain character to the songs as well. You can groan all you want about how Dylan takes the reins on a tune like \u2018Tweeter and the Monkey Man\u2019, but for a song that sounds like it\u2019s ripped straight out of an old Western, he\u2019s the only person who could have sang the tune and done it justice rather than giving it to Orbison.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s that slurring tone in Dylan\u2019s voice that Harrison said the Wilburys always needed, saying<\/a>, \u201cIt sounds like the kind of raggedy Bob, or what you expect is just one-off or a second attempt or something. Then the backing voices smooth it out. That\u2019s quite a good thing, because if Bob wasn\u2019t in it, it\u2019d turn out sounding a little too smooth. He gives that edge to it, the roughness, which is really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n There are many cases where Dylan took over too much on Traveling Wilburys Vol. III, but that was a case of them making the best of a bad situation. Orbison was no longer an option, so having Dylan step up on \u2018Inside Out\u2019 is like a reprise of what they did on \u2018Handle With Care\u2019, with Harrison lifting the track on the bridge the same way Orbison did on their first single<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having Dylan behind the mic also allows for a bit of levity in the mix every now and again. Their first record already sounded a bit middle-aged, but there\u2019s a lot more room for tunes that seem designed to be played by dads around the world, like the goofy \u2018Cool Dry Place\u2019 or Dylan doing his trademark \u2018yahoos\u2019 in the middle of \u2018New Blue Moon\u2019.<\/p>\n So as much as fans roll their eyes whenever Dylan got behind the microphone for a Wilburys song, it always served its purpose on one of their records. This was a band touched by musical angels in many respects, but even the most heavenly rock bands need those few elements that humanise them. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
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