{"id":496788,"date":"2025-10-13T18:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/496788\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T18:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:21:13","slug":"bob-dylan-picks-out-his-favourite-member-of-traveling-wilburys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/496788\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Dylan picks out his favourite member of Traveling Wilburys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u201cA<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ The Traveling Wilburys)<\/p>\n

Mon 13 October 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n

Surely asking a person to pick their favourite bandmate is a risky move, but when it comes to the Traveling Wilburys<\/a>, with so many icons in one lineup, you\u2019d hope their security in their talent was enough to make it fine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Traveling Wilburys were a supergroup like no other. It\u2019s like if you took the very concept of a supergroup, which brings together different members of different units into one new band, and then put it into rock and roll overdrive. Forming in 1988, it featured the heroes of the 1960s and 1970s<\/a>, including Bob Dylan and a Beatle.<\/p>\n

It happened by complete accident,<\/a>\u00a0though, as a beautiful reminder that behind the scenes, heroes can actually be friends. George Harrison was already working with Jeff Lynne at the time, and one day they realised they needed some other piece of equipment, so they went over to Bob Dylan\u2019s home studio, knowing he\u2019d have it. At some point or another, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty came along, too, and suddenly the whole lineup was there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While they were there, Harrison figured he might as well get them both to help with the song, which happened to be \u2018Handle With Care\u2019. By the time they\u2019d finished it, it no longer felt like a Harrison track, but a single for a new project and a new band. <\/p>\n

Each obviously brought skill and talent, but in their own unique ways. Each member brought their own strengths to the table, like Dylan\u2019s lyricism, Harrison\u2019s riffs or Petty\u2019s ability to make a radio-ready hit. It would be wrong to rank them, but for Dylan, it was Roy Orbison who always stood out.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cWith Roy, you didn\u2019t know if you were listening to mariachi or opera. He kept you on your toes,\u201d Dylan said as it was the surprise element of the singer that had him truly wowed, adding, \u201cHe sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop, and he meant business.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Orbison\u2019s biggest hits like \u2018Oh, Pretty Woman\u2019 or \u2018In Dreams\u2019 might not scream technicality or complexity, Dylan saw exactly that in him. \u201cOne of his previous songs, \u2018Ooby Dooby\u2019, was deceptively simple, but Roy had progressed. He was now singing his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff,\u201d he explained with a clear tinge of jealousy. <\/p>\n

But overwhelmingly, Dylan\u2019s feelings towards Orbison led to one niche likeness. \u201cHe sang like a professional criminal,\u201d Dylan said, and who really knows what that means. Perhaps he\u2019s trying to say that Orbison\u2019s abilities are sneaky, that you would never guess them until they attack. Or maybe Dylan has simply heard a lot of crooning criminals in his time. <\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, he\u2019d start out in some low, barely audible range, stay there a while and then astonishingly slip into histrionics. His voice could jar a corpse, always leave you muttering to yourself something like, \u2018Man, I don\u2019t believe it.\u2019 His songs had songs within songs,\u201d Dylan waxed lyrical about his bandmate, packing on the albeit niche praise. But then he stopped and said something simple and kind: \u201cThere wasn\u2019t anything else on the radio like him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ The Traveling Wilburys) Mon 13 October 2025 17:30, UK Surely asking a person to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[39538,77,269,119012,13532,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-496788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bob-dylan","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-roy-orbison","12":"tag-the-traveling-wilburys","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115368250079770634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}