Derek Taylor’s fictional “family history” of the Traveling Wilburys
For a lot of people, the Bible is the ultimate ancient text that holds the answer to all mankind. For rock and roll diehards, it’s the liner notes in the first Traveling Wilburys album.
As if it wasn’t such an unfathomable thing enough that the band came together in the first place, with outright sonic legends joining forces in a way that can only be contemporarily compared to the uprising of the Avengers. For the band themselves, they must have realised the magnitude of what they were doing, but they also wanted to have a bit of fun along the way.
That’s why, surreal as it may have seemed, the band decided to go along with the fun shtick that they were all actually half-brothers hailing from a family of travelling performers, hence also having to adopt fake names in the process. George Harrison was Spike Wilbury, Jeff Lynne was Otis Wilbury, Roy Orbison was Lefty Wilbury, Bob Dylan was Lucky Wilbury, and Tom Petty was Charlie T Wilbury Jr.
Yet it was the extra added flair of the last pseudonym that perhaps caught more eyes than the rest, with Petty always knowing how to command a room only through the power of his sheer presence. However, in many ways, it wasn’t him that people had to thank for the ingenuity of the persona – it was the Fifth Beatle himself, Derek Taylor.
The former PR manager naturally always had a way with words, starting out as a journalist before going on to market the biggest band in the world as just that. His personal power was in the pencil, and having kept a friendship with Harrison even after the band had ended, his handiwork came in useful once again when his new outfit took flight.
Indeed, the Beatle had asked Taylor to write an entire family history for the Wilburys at their outset – an exorbitant task if ever you’ve been given one, but still he obliged. From this, he conceived of the idea that the Wilbury father was named Charles Truskett Wilbury, therefore explaining Petty’s moniker of Charlie T Wilbury Jr.
However, despite the finite details that Taylor put into this, it was frankly criminal that his efforts were never fully realised, as the liner notes that appear on Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 explaining this backstory were based on his idea, but written by Michael Palin under yet another alias. Yes, the band bonded over Monty Python, but couldn’t they have given the original creator credit?
But the band continued on their travels, Taylor kept on pushing new stories with the pen, and they were happy in each of their respective places. To the fans, the story of how the band seemingly made their way into the world was a delightfully entertaining romp as an inside joke for those who had the knowledge.
For the Traveling Wilburys themselves, it was far more symbolic of how five global mega stars could suspend their disbelief into a world of imagination where history, fame, and record sales suddenly had no relevance. They were simply a band of true brothers, and nothing – not even the real truth of the situation – could come between them.
