The Traveling Wilbury member Jeff Lynne said could “do it all” with a guitar
As much as The Traveling Wilburys captured the hearts of the rock and roll masses, they were very much also musicians’ musicians who ultimately lived to outdo one another.
This is not to suggest that the dynamic of the band was bitterly toxic or that it became a culture of constant competition, but a healthy element of rivalry simply became a natural by-product of an outfit for whom the individual members were already well and truly at the top of their game. An intricate guitar lick here, a special kind of drum beat there – they were all little touches thrown in to prove that together, The Traveling Wilburys were completely untouchable.
Yet within this, there was always going to be one member who stuck their head above the parapet just a little bit more than the rest, even if it was unnoticeable to the untrained eye. The one who was slick with a sense of charisma and power across the rock landscape; the one who the others ultimately fell in line towards and turned to for advice. In the eyes of Jeff Lynne, that was George Harrison – the former Beatle turned the Wilburys’ guitar-slinging virtuoso, who was all too used to this being a titan of fame thing.
For the ELO frontman, even though he and the majority of the rest of the group were all accustomed to being at the heart of their own respective bands, it’s just a plain fact that no one did it quite like The Beatles. Those years of blood, sweat, and mania gave way to something magical for each of the Fabs: a shining aura which shrouded them for the rest of time as musical gods, and which even those as well-versed in the scene as Lynne felt no option but to worship.
The true testament to this is that, even decades on from Harrison’s untimely passing, Lynne still holds him in the highest possible regard when it comes to the guitar-playing leagues, because he intrinsically knows that no one could ever beat him. “George Harrison is the best slide player I’ve ever heard,” Lynne wrote in an Instagram post last year.
Adding, “He’s so accurate on it, and he makes it sing, and he makes it cry, and he makes it do anything, really.”
The thing with Harrison, however, was that he wasn’t just prolific in one area of playing the instrument, and simply sufficient in all the others. “He can hold out a pure note with just beautiful vibrato that is so even. And it’s that style, it’s the melodic aspect of it, but it’s also soulful [and] bluesy. He can do it all,” Lynne enthused, with little to no air of hard-earned respect. It’s clear that he was an instant superfan from the very first second Harrison ever played a note, and that never changed.
Some people get the impression that certain musicians play the game for so long that they get to the point of only ever being fans of themselves, and never looking around to gauge out anybody else. There lies the ultimate sign of doom, where ego inflates the way and obscures any hint of humility. You can tell this never happened to The Traveling Wilburys by the sheer fact of their long-lasting appreciation for each other – because deep down, they were all simply huge fans.
