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Credit: Far Out \/ The Traveling Wilburys<\/p>\n
Thu 8 October 2026 20:15, UK <\/p>\n
There\u2019s an unmistakable sense around the Traveling Wilburys<\/a> project that Tom Petty, George Harrison and others were having loads of fun.<\/p>\n How could they not? According to 2011\u2019s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, the former Beatle essentially set one simple test for his supergroup membership: \u201cwho you could hang out with\u201d. A chance to hang out with his mates and jam in the studio pulled in ELO\u2019s Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and rockabilly crooner Roy Orbison, who all adopted Wilbury monikers as part of the tongue-in-cheek fictional family troupe.<\/p>\n It was a supergroup line-up that rivalled Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young<\/a>. All were enjoying something of a career uptick aside from Dylan, who was in a creative trough and had yet to release the acclaimed Oh Mercy.<\/p>\n The jovial rapport of the gang played out in the studio, cutting 1988\u2019s Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 at Harrison\u2019s home studio and Eurythmics\u2019 Dave Stewart\u2019s recording facility in Los Angeles, reportedly commencing sessions around midday with a loose exchange of mutual riffs and lyric ideas, building the tracks together before rounding off the day listening to Orbison\u2019s tales of his Sun Records years.<\/p>\n Such studio holidaying appeared to be cut short, however, when Orbison suddenly died later that year. Trooping on, the now-four-piece adopted new pseudonyms and cut the confusingly titled Traveling Wilburys Vol 3 for another blast of supergroup hanging out. It would be their last, the Traveling Wilburys lapsing into dormancy indefinitely, but one song from their farewell LP remained in Petty\u2019s affections for many years.<\/p>\n \u201cMy favourite Traveling Wilburys song is probably \u2018End Of the Line\u2019, but there was an obscure one Jeff and I did, called \u2018Poor House\u2019 on the second record,\u201d Petty told Sound + Vision in 2013. \u201cThat was one I wrote about ten minutes after the session had ended and everyone was leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThe engineer, Richard Dodd, was like, \u2018Hey, everybody wait; we\u2019re gonna do this really quick.\u2019 We laid the track down, and Jeff and I did it all in two-part harmony together on one mic, which people don\u2019t do much any more. At that time, we sang together quite a bit, and we had gotten pretty good at harmonies. We just thought we\u2019d go for it because there\u2019s no fixing it up on one mic.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n What was unleashed was the perfect embodiment of the Traveling Wilburys spirit. Set to a bluegrass twang<\/a> and an affected Southern vocal drawl, \u2018Poor House\u2019 jumps into a comedic vignette of a financially battered divorcee lamenting an acrimonious split with his wife and all the cash she\u2019s cheerfully taking with her. Whether sourced from a real experience is unclear, but it\u2019s a country stomper that could only have come from the supergroup, a traded mirth or off-the-cuff quip quickly ballooning into a full-blown number.<\/p>\n All held together by Harrison\u2019s electric guitar takes, \u2018Poor House\u2019 would flash a last hurrah for the Traveling Wilburys. The band never regrouped once Harrison died in 2001, and Petty followed in 2017.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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