054: The Traveling Wilburys - Vol. 1 (1988)

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“One of the most amazing things ever about the Wilburys was this poles-apart thing of Roy [Orbison] and Bob Dylan. That's what I thought was wonderful – the best singer and the best lyricist, and they're both in the same group.”

–Jeff Lynne

Sometimes we choose albums to cover on the show because they’re important and we want to analyze them, and other times we choose albums because they make us happy. The Traveling Wilburys fall firmly into that second group. Their music may not have been especially important or ground-breaking, and the history of music wouldn’t be any different without them - but the world would certainly be poorer without this album in it. Amanda, Rich, Ben, and John spent a very happy 90 minutes talking about why we love these songs, and why one of them is Amanda’s very favorite song of all time.

Miscellany

• About George Harrison being a movie fan: He was pals with the Monty Python guys, and when they were having trouble getting Life of Brian financed, Harrison mortgaged his house to come up with the money to form his own production company, HandMade Films, and got it done.

• Speaking of Monty Python, we forgot to mention that the liner notes for Vol. 1 were written by Michael Palin. Eric Idle did the notes for Vol. 3.

• John is such a Bob Dylan fan that he once had a letter to the editor published in the Chicago Tribune defending Dylan’s influence on rock music.

• For what it’s worth, Tom Petty himself once said that “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” was meant as praise, not criticism. Ben remains skeptical. 

Other links 

• “Handle With Care” (YouTube)

• “End of the Line” (YouTube)

• “The Traveling Wilburys of pain.” (Yarn)

• Discord & Rhyme’s Vol. 1 playlist (Spotify)

• Discord & Rhyme’s Patreon

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

• Edith Wilbury (Amanda Rodgers) (host)

• Charlie T. Wilbury III (Ben Marlin) (moderator)

• Dewey Wilbury (Rich Bunnell)

• Levi Wilbury (John McFerrin) 

Vol. 1 tracklist 

1. Handle With Care

2. Dirty World

3. Rattled

4. Last Night

5. Not Alone Any More

6. Congratulations

7. Heading for the Light

8. Margarita

9. Tweeter and the Monkey Man

10. End of the Line 

Other clips used 

The Traveling Wilburys:

• Wilbury Twist

• Cool Dry Place

• New Blue Moon 

Others:

• Ariana Grande - Break Free

• Def Leppard - Animal

• The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun

• Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky

• Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone

• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Even the Losers

• Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman

• George Harrison - Got My Mind Set On You

• Adrian Belew - Not Alone Anymore

• Headstones - Tweeter and the Monkey Man

• Roy Orbison - You Got It

• Tom Petty - A Face in the Crowd

• Bob Dylan - Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum

• Tom Petty - Big Weekend

Band/album personnel 

• Nelson Wilbury (George Harrison) – lead and harmony vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, slide guitar

• Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) – lead and harmony vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, keyboards; drums and cowbell on "Handle with Care"

• Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. (Tom Petty) – lead and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar

• Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison) – lead and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar

• Lucky Wilbury (Bob Dylan) – lead and harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica on "Handle with Care"

• Buster Sidebury (Jim Keltner) – drums (all tracks except "Handle with Care")

• Jim Horn – saxophones

• Ray Cooper – percussion

• Ian Wallace – tom-toms on "Handle with Care"

Credits 

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

• Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

• Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

• The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

• Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

• Herbie Hancock - Hornets

• Kraftwerk - Autobahn

• Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

• The Traveling Wilburys - Margarita (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Vol. 1 and the other album by The Traveling Wilburys at travelingwilburys.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Dewey, and special thanks to our own Cyrus Wilbury (Mike DeFabio), the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.