(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Sat 20 December 2025 20:15, UK
Most people would consider themselves lucky to have any other band with the same star power as the Traveling Wilburys.
The thought of that many legends in one band would have been unthinkable, but I suppose that when George Harrison has an idea for something, he would move the Earth if it meant getting what he needed. But as much as people loved to listen to their music, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty had a different perspective, being the new kids of the group in the beginning.
Granted, it’s not like each of them didn’t have experience in the limelight. Petty had become the go-to face of heartland rock with the Heartbreakers, and even though Lynne hadn’t been working with ELO for some time, his second career as one of the greatest producers in the world had already made him a star outside of the spaceships and large cellos scattered throughout the stage.
So being asked to join Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison in a group would have been a dream come true for all of them. And listening to their first record, you can hear that excitement coming out of the speakers half the time. No one in the group had an ego about them, and they were more than happy to make the best music they could among friends and hand off any song to whoever they felt could deliver it the best. When Orbison passed away, though, there was bound to be something missing from their next record.
The record is far from terrible, but Lynne said that no one really needed to hear a version of the Wilburys without Orbison, saying, “We did a second album after Roy died, but I could have done without it. Roy was just too big a part of the original group.” It’s not like that is exactly an unfair assessment. Orbison was the heart of the band in many ways, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some great tunes on the record, either.
In fact, the record feels a lot closer to a garage rock album than anything any of the members had done. ‘Wilbury Twist’ was a decent enough romp through a traditional blues tune, and while Dylan’s voice is far more dominant than before, they do a great job at working around his shortcomings on tunes like ‘Inside Out’ and ‘New Blue Moon’.
Still, Petty couldn’t help but think that the second record didn’t really need to be heard outside of longtime fans, saying, “I think we made a little rougher record, a little more rumble—and boom! The first was this wonderful blockbuster thing, and the second one’s a little more inside.” That doesn’t mean it’s bad by any stretch; just different. And considering they were working with scraps, there’s actually far more great material on here than most would expect.
A lot of it does play into the dad rock that the cheeky album title implies, but Petty does sound like he’s having a ball putting his stamp on everything. And as much as Lynne may not have wanted to be there half the time, it’s his voice that keeps everything moving on a few songs, especially with his harmony vocals soaring over some of the tracks and his fantastic ear for arrangements on tunes like ‘She’s My Baby’.
There wasn’t enough here to really justify taking another crack at it, but it was nice to see the band going out for one more ride, having the time of their lives. It wasn’t meant to be a showstopping record, but sometimes all you can ask for is a bunch of friends getting together and having some fun.
Related Topics