The one guitarist George Harrison wanted everyone to hear: “Incredible”
By the time George Harrison left The Beatles, he had stopped trying to compete with every guitarist in the world.
He didn’t like the idea of playing the most technical solos of all time, because he knew that his best moments were better suited for times when he was making a bunch of tunes that people could be deeply moved by. He wanted the chance to make music for himself and for the world, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep tabs on what the new school of kids were doing.
I mean, isn’t that half the reason why half of the Traveling Wilburys existed? Sure, Harrison was looking to work with some of his heroes from the moment that Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison walked through the door, but when you look at the way that he was talking to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, both of them seemed to be on the same page as the former Beatle when it came time to break out the acoustic guitars.
Because, really, the caveat to being a member of the Wilburys seemed to be whether or not you could play rhythm guitar. Petty always joked that the band was nothing but five rhythm guitar players coming out for a jam session, and while they did have honorary members like Jim Keltner and Mike Campbell, it all came back around to what all five of them did on that first record. They were bound to become one of the biggest supergroups in the world, but Orbison’s death practically stopped any forward motion they had.
No one was going to be able to replace Orbison, no matter what they did, and even if they entertained the idea of working with a few other people, their sophomore record felt much better knowing that they would finish it as a four-piece. A lot of the songs were a lot more garage-rock than what they had previously done, but the idea of bringing in Gary Moore on guitar was a much more inspired choice than anyone else would have called.
Or at least it looked that way on paper. Moore was one of the greatest blues guitarists working at the time, but the fact that he got the gig always came down to the fact that he had been Harrison’s neighbour. Harrison had run into him more than a few times and liked his playing, and while the solo that he laid down on ‘She’s My Baby’ was fantastic, Harrison felt that Moore’s influence as a whole was getting overlooked.
There were plenty of people who knew him from his days in Thin Lizzy and even the odd solo track, but Harrison felt that Moore always needed more eyes on him, saying, “I think he’s one of the best players. I don’t think, from his records, if that’s really come across, but I’ve had the privilege of seeing him playing in a little room, and he’s incredible. He started out on heavy metal, and now he’s doing heavy blues. I think he’s going to become more focused on what he wants. There’s more to him than a big stack of amplifiers.”
And when listening to something like ‘Still Got the Blues’, Moore definitely had the chops to pull off a crossover song if he wanted to. A lot of his tracks may have been much heavier than most pop fans were willing to go, but when you go through some of his records, they’re basically case studies in how to make tasty blues guitar riffs, especially when looking at some of the work he did in Thin Lizzy.
So while the Wilburys weren’t looking to draft in another full-time member by any stretch, Harrison was at least aware of other great people that he could depend on every time he made a new record. Moore was always going to be on the fringes of rock and roll history compared to Harrison, but the former Beatle wouldn’t have minded if he had joined the rest of the group if they had decided to carry on for the long term.
