(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Thu 5 February 2026 19:54, UK
“You know there was a weariness about him that actually made me feel so much more for him,” said producer David Was when discussing what it was like recording Bob Dylan’s album Under The Red Sky, “There were times when we looked absolutely beleaguered, doing this stuff. It occurred to me that it was a continuous burden having to be ‘Bob Dylan’ after all these years.”
It’s true that while Dylan was one of the most prolific songwriters ever to put pen to paper, there must have been a tremendous amount of pressure that came with having such a massive reputation. He wasn’t the only musician who felt this, which is why when The Traveling Wilburys came together, the band could write and create freely, absorbing the press from one another and creating for the sake of loving doing so.
The minds of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne all came together by accident. As George Harrison found himself needing to write a final song for his solo album, an impromptu supergroup was formed, and the song written (‘Handle With Care’) was dubbed too good to go on a solo record. Instead, it marked the beginning of The Traveling Wilburys.
Each band member brought their own unique spin to the band, as they could embrace their creative side in a judgement-free environment, knowing it wouldn’t just be their name on the album. “There’s tunes that Bob had the most influence on, it sounds like him, and there’s a song which we wrote specifically for Roy, which is very much like an old Roy Orbison song,” said George Harrison. “It’s not like we tried to set out to do something that wasn’t like going out and buying an album of mine or ELO or Tom Petty, Bob Dylan or Roy Orbison.”
While there were a number of positives that came with making this album, there were also some downsides. Members didn’t just abandon their solo careers in the face of the band, and it meant that a lot of them were overworked. This led to Bob Dylan’s poor performance on Under The Red Sky, one of his worst-reviewed albums ever.
“I made this record, Under the Red Sky, with Don Was, but at the same time I was also doing the Wilburys record,” said Dylan, “I don’t know how it happened that I got into both albums at the same time. I worked with George [Harrison] and Jeff [Lynne] during the day — everything had to be done in one day, the track and the song had to be written in one day, and then I’d go down and see Don Was, and I felt like I was walking into a wall.”
Don Was tried to help Dylan by enlisting the help of some other musicians, but this just led to the album sounding disjointed and almost like Dylan had no input. “[Was would] have a different band for me to play with every day, a lot of all-stars, for no particular purpose,” said Dylan. “Back then, I wasn’t bringing anything at all into the studio; I was completely disillusioned. I’d let someone else take control of it all and just come up with lyrics to the melody of the song.”
But the band’s sophomore album would provide a different energy and give him the work he desired. Dylan felt that it was just what he wanted out of The Wilburys, saying, “Last time it was a pretty rushed affair. A lot of stuff was just scraped up from jam tapes. This time, there was a whole lot left over. The songs are more developed. If people liked the first one, they’ll love this one.”
The truth is, at the time, Dylan struggled to really find himself in the studio or outside of it. Dylan was a powerhouse songwriter, and as the decade wore on, he struggled to really let himself go. But while the Wilburys maybe slowed him down personally, they certainly allowed him to flourish musically.
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