Traveling Wilburys: the only supergroup George Harrison ever liked
No music fan ever gets tired of the idea of the supergroup. As much as it can be fun trying to see if people have great chemistry in one group, everyone has their ideas for what would happen if two of their favourite artists collided for a record. It might be a fun thought experiment while it lasts, but George Harrison always knew that that kind of chemistry only comes from people who have been playing together for years at a time.
After all, The Beatles didn’t suddenly become the most iconic band in the world simply by colliding one day. Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney had been playing together the longest, and although Ringo Starr joined a few months shy of them becoming one of the biggest names in music, even he had turned in time, subbing for Pete Best long enough to know how they operated.
But as the British scene got bigger, people started to see where someone could go purely by having great chops. Eric Clapton had already left The Yardbirds to join Cream when Sgt Peppers was making the rounds on the charts, and looking at the amount of bands that he worked with, ‘Slowhand’ could find a way to make nearly any group of musicians, whether it was playing opposite to Steve Marriott in Blind Faith or trading licks with Duane Allman with Derek and the Dominos.
But there came a point where it started to get far too manufactured for people’s tastes. Because if you put yourself in the mind of a record executive, having two big names in a band should be a license to print money, but it also means people clashing for all the wrong reasons as well. Take, for instance, the demo that exists with Lennon, McCartney, and Stevie Wonder playing together. Each of them was a legend in their own right, and yet with mountains of booze and cocaine, the whole thing sounds like a half-hearted jam that would get someone laughed out of a bar.
Then again, the stars could align in just the right spot sometimes, and Harrison happened to be in the right position when the Traveling Wilburys got together. The band’s conception was already a total fluke, so when Harrison and Jeff Lynne finally had the idea of putting it together for the song ‘Handle With Care’, everyone fell into place as quick possible, whether that’s Tom Petty playing bass or Roy Orbison soaring in with that heavenly voice of his.
Aside from it being a ton of fun, Harrison gladly put the Traveling Wilburys up against any other supergroup he ever saw, saying, “There was always those groups that made these superstar groups, and we hated that. The idea of these famous people trying to make a record. Most of the records weren’t that good. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be good if you get these people together, and I didn’t want it to be like that.”
This probably explains why the band took on monikers in the album’s credits. Despite the fact that any album with the words ‘Bob Dylan’ and ‘George Harrison’ on it would have sold millions of copies regardless, the label was going to have to deal with them going under pseudonyms like Nelson Wilbury and Lucky Wilbury.
While it’s hard to consider the Traveling Wilburys the best supergroup of all time, they were undoubtedly the best thing we could have asked for coming out of the 1980s. Harrison had been on a high after finishing up Cloud Nine, and considering the other competition of supergroups they had to go up against, they could blow away Damn Yankees or Mike and the Mechanics any day of the week.
