{"id":168310,"date":"2025-08-23T04:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T04:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168310\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T04:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T04:51:12","slug":"jeff-lynne-on-the-traveling-wilburys-songs-he-regrets-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168310\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Lynne on the Traveling Wilburys songs he regrets most"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Sat 23 August 2025 2:00, UK <\/p>\n

Considering how busy all of the respective members of the group were in their own output, it\u2019s frankly a miracle that Traveling Wilburys<\/a> even existed in the first place.<\/p>\n

Bringing together two or three incredible and illustrious musicians to collaborate on a record is a feat in itself, but to have five of the greatest songwriters all working together on the same project is almost unheard of. Even hearing a record from George Harrison and Bob Dylan would have been enough to get people licking their lips in anticipation, but to throw Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison<\/a> into the equation as well feels like something of a flex, and that\u2019s why there hasn\u2019t been another supergroup quite like them since.<\/p>\n

If you think that this is the sort of one-and-done project that wouldn\u2019t have the legs to survive, then you can think again. Traveling Wilburys somehow managed to put out a second record together against the odds, outlasting all expectations that had been laid out for them, although things weren\u2019t exactly as straightforward on their sophomore outing.<\/p>\n

They were no longer operating as a quintet when their second album was recorded, on account of the fact that Orbison passed away in 1989. Of course, there was enough talent between the four remaining members to be able to carry on without Orbison. Still, the hole that was left in his absence was also too large to be ignored. While it didn\u2019t necessarily impact the band in terms of quality, it certainly affected the members who cherished him not only as a bandmate, but as a songwriting idol.<\/p>\n

Jeff Lynne<\/a> was of the opinion that a second record shouldn\u2019t have happened without Orbison, and the release of their version of Hank Snow\u2019s \u2018Nobody\u2019s Child\u2019, which was recorded at the same time as the sessions for the second Traveling Wilbury\u2019s album, ought to have signalled that they should have quit while they were ahead, and retired from activity when they lost such a valuable member.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Nobody\u2019s Child\u2019 was a charity thing we did after the first album,\u201d Lynne later explained in an interview with Rolling Stone. \u201cIt raised money for orphans. It\u2019s an old American folk song. It\u2019s got a real nice sentiment to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, while Lynne recognised the significance and poignance of recording this song, he went on to say that all of the recordings they did without Orbison in the group felt superfluous, and that if he\u2019d had the foresight, he would have put his foot down much firmer and attempted to stop the rest of the group from continuing. \u201cWe did a second album after Roy died, but I could have done without it,\u201d he said. \u201cRoy was just too big a part of the original group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynne\u2019s relationship with Orbison was a strong one, and his admiration for \u2018The Big O\u2019 was one that had stuck with him for decades prior to them working together in the same band. You can understand exactly why Lynne wouldn\u2019t have wanted to ruin Orbison\u2019s legacy by releasing something he could have been a part of, but hindsight can be a cruel thing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Sat 23 August 2025 2:00, UK Considering how busy all of the respective…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,96445,975,96446,93707,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-168310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jeff-lynne","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-roy-orbison","12":"tag-the-traveling-wilburys","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115076286668413772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}