The 1988 Traveling Wilburys song that marked the only time they didn’t write together
What makes a great songwriting partnership? A lot of people would say similar mindsets, but they’d be wrong, as it’s embracing differences that allows groups to really thrive. Just look at The Traveling Wilburys.
This wasn’t a band that was ever really supposed to happen. Each member already had their own successful careers, and nobody needed their notoriety or stature boosted with a band like this. It came together based on a complete whim, as a few different members had previously been working together, and they decided it would be a good idea if they all put their collective creative consciousness together in a bid to make some good new music.
The story goes that Jeff Lynne and George Harrison were working together when the latter said that they should consider starting a supergroup. Lynne agreed to the idea almost immediately, but then started to think that maybe Harrison was joking around when the former Beatle suggested potentially getting Bob Dylan on board.
“Of course, I’m half laughing, but then I realise he’s serious,” recalled Lynne, “So I said, ‘Can we have Roy Orbison as well?’ He said, ‘Yeah, we’ll have Roy’, ’cause they used to tour together and we both loved Tom Petty. So we said, let’s have him. And of course, when it’s George Harrison that’s doing it, it was ‘Do you want to join our group?’ and the answer was ‘Yes’.”
While this might just sound like a bunch of friends getting together in a bid to have fun and write some songs, these artists were actually exposing themselves to new ways of thinking creatively. They had been successful for so long, they were stuck in their ways with how to write, how to put different tracks together, and how to ensure they had a hit on their hands. As such, by forming a group with other accomplished musicians, they were allowing themselves to learn about new approaches to music.
Tom Petty wrote in a different way to Harrison, who was different to Jeff Lynne, who was different to Roy Orbison, and so on and so on. A lot of people think that such differences can lead to creative friction, and that’s true to an extent, but if handled right, it can heighten the creative processes for everyone involved.
Most of the time, members of The Traveling Wilburys would come to the studio or to rehearse with the bones of a song in place, and then other members of the band would help to flesh the rest of it out. It was a real group effort, one that was fun for the different creative minds involved, but one that was also approached with freedom given there wasn’t a lot riding on the success of the group.
The only artist who deviated from this trend slightly was Dylan, who one day in 1988 rocked up with the song ‘Congratulations’ essentially complete. This would mark one of the only occasions when the supergroup to end all supergroups didn’t collaborate when putting a song together.
“Bob was the only one who had sort of a clear-cut tune one day,” recalled Jeff Lynne, “He came in and said, ‘What do you think of this one?’ And it was almost complete. We need to do sort of like the bridge and the…and a chorus or something, but…that was, um, ‘Congratulations’.”
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