“Just magic”: Jeff Lynne reflected on the happiest time of his career
George Harrison was just two months into working on his album Cloud Nine with Jeff Lynne when the idea first came up. “I wanna do an album with some of my mates,” the former Beatle floated, voicing the sudden urge to surge forward with a force that would later emerge as The Traveling Wilburys—a supergroup featuring some of his closest friends and musical collaborators.
“We should have a group, me and you,” Harrison told Lynne at the time, the perceived lack of conviction in such a career-altering statement appearing as if he was merely reading the day’s newspaper headlines. Cloud Nine wasn’t the first time Lynne worked with Harrison, but it was the first time something so obvious was presented to him with such a casual demeanour.
Lynne was besotted with The Beatles the moment he witnessed them creating The White Album. The intensity and creativity he then channelled into his group, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), reflected his deep admiration, making him the only talent ever to come close to picking up where they left off. Then, when Lynne worked on Harrison’s Cloud Nine, his production revitalised Harrison’s solo career and sparked a unique energy, one marked by the desire to pull together the best of the best.
It wasn’t just an itch, like the kind you get when you suddenly start craving junk food; it was lightning in a bottle—the mere existence of The Traveling Wilburys seems like a force of magic made possible by a subset of circumstances that only seem to exist at certain moments in time. Moreover, the supergroup was casual yet highly successful, making it one of the only groups in history to approach greatness with such nonchalance.
Years later, in 2019, Lynne reflected on the unforgettable memories they each created together while shedding some light on the experience of writing alongside some of the world’s greatest creative minds. “[Those were] some of the happiest times,” he told Billboard, reflecting on how he joined forces with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison as a matter of personal choice.
“It was a lot of fun and very much an exciting time,” he added, recalling how they would all sit at a table writing songs with their guitars, enjoying the creative license that came with being the best writers in the industry. “All those just funny things like that we used to do because we could,” he mused, claiming that the main part of the fun was that it “all worked out” because they tried a mix of “simple things” and “silly things”. As a result, “Everybody got along great and it was just magic really.”
Although Lynne’s memories may appear vague, many stories emerged from the famous Traveling Wilburys sessions, with each member only having words of praise for their fellow musicians. Petty, for instance, was left in awe by Dylan’s contributions and enjoyed the ease with which they all worked in tandem. For instance, he claimed the song ‘End Of The Line’ epitomised this working environment as they sat together and created its music and lyrics.
Recalling this memory and the experience in a broader sense, Petty described it as “quite an experience” and one that “we probably will never see anything again like that.” Rare and fleeting, The Traveling Wilburys was more than just a supergroup. It was a unique moment in time captured by the effortless convergence of the biggest stars the world will ever see.
When you consider the breadth and length of the careers mentioned it is impressive that so many of them pinpoint this band, this comparatively fleeting moment in their careers as the happiest. But that’s exactly what happens when the business is put aside and the art, plus the friends who make it, are championed above all else.
