Tunesday 3: Traveling Wilburys
December 16th, 2008 at 12.18pm (Tunesday)
Intro to the track of the week series
The track this week is by legendary supergroup the Traveling Wilburys: George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne. I can’t think of a supergroup more stacked than that, to be honest!
The band was only active for a period of a few years, releasing their first record in 1988 and the follow-up in 1990 (the re-release of both records with a companion DVD, titled The Wilbury Collection, hit shelves last year). Everybody shared in the songwriting and singing duties, and between the five of them most of the instrumentation was covered, although sideman Jim Keltner drummed for both albums.
I’ve always loved the Wilburys; Volume 1 was one of my first favourite albums, and I carried the cassette around in my backpack to and from school so I could listen to it. I used to say that I liked George Harrison’s voice “because it always sounds like he’s smiling when he’s singing”. The production on both the records is terrific, too — the guitars sound absolutely fabulous, probably due to the large amount of steel-string acoustics, and the drum sound is among my favourites ever. Whatever they did, they did it well.
The track today is from their second record, Volume 3, written and recorded after the death of Roy Orbison, and it’s the final track on the album. Tom Petty sounds as cool as he ever did, Jeff Lynne is clearly having a good time, and the guitars sound marvelous. The lyrics don’t hurt either:
Put your hand on your head, put your foot in the air
Then you hop around the room in your underwear
Ain’t never been nothing quite like this,
Come on baby it’s the Wilbury Twist
Lift your other foot up, fall on your ass
Get back up, put your teeth in a glass
Ain’t never been nothing quite like this,
It’s a magical thing called the Wilbury Twist
Hope you enjoy! (I expect videos of everybody trying to actually do the Wilbury Twist.)
Tunesday 3: Wilbury Twist
Tags: traveling wilburys
barbara said,
December 17, 2008 at 10.27pm
Awwww, the travelling WIlburys! I quite liked them too, although I only know the first album so am looking forward to listening to your selection.
When you get back to town, drop us a line, so we can compare schedules and get together! Looking forward to swapping lies with you.
Ruhee said,
December 19, 2008 at 1.41am
Yeah, the third album got unfairly overlooked at the time and hasn’t resurfaced as well as the first one has unfortunately. I think it’s great, although there is a tragic absence of Roy Orbison
I’d love to hang out! Let’s do it.
John Kiggins said,
January 28, 2009 at 9.32am
I just saw this posted… and while I don’t really care for the song… have you seen the video? It has John friggin’ Candy in it. For serious.
And in terms of it being the “third” album, it isn’t. It’s just called “Volume 3″. I have the box set with both albums and a DVD with videos and documentaries. That first album still blows nearly anything else out of the water without even being played.
Ruhee said,
January 28, 2009 at 12.54pm
Err, that’s what I meant. Sorry. I did say second record in the post, but I seem to constantly say the wrong thing when I’m not thinking about it. Anyway, I do know the history of the Wilburys quite ridiculously well, it having been the first cassette tape I carried around in my backpack obsessively … haha! That CD/DVD package is pretty awesome, too; I really like the documentary, especially all the raw footage of them playing guitar in the kitchen or Tom Petty walking around with a handycam.