What were The Traveling Wilburys’ alter ego names?
When George Harrison and Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne were working on 1987’s Cloud Nine, one track recorded during those sessions was considered too good by Warner Bros Records executives and pushed for another foil to see the cut’s release. As much an excuse to hang out with his buddies as much as play together, Harrison conceived of The Traveling Wilburys, the granddaddy of all supergroups comprising Harrison, Lynne, plus Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison months before his death in 1988.
‘Handle With Care’, the lead single from The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, became their biggest hit, reaching number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song brought Bob Dylan back into the mainstream spotlight after a string of perplexing albums, sparked a career revival for Tom Petty that carried him through the 1990s, and introduced Roy Orbison to the MTV generation, leading to his posthumous mega-hit ‘You Got It’ with contributions from fellow Wilburys. Yet, the track is unmistakably George Harrison, with its opening guitar hook evoking the spirit of The Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence’, on which he played lead.
The quartet all came from a time when the very term ‘supergroup‘ was an undefined and yet established term. The 1960s were full of nebulous membership across differing groups; some of the era’s mammoth names like Cream or Crosby, Stills, & Nash became acclaimed acts in their own right and eclipsing the respective groups they came from. There was a 1980s precedent for the Wilburys, too, with country stars Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings forming The Highwaymen and scoring three chart singles.
With such heavyweights thrown together for The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, it’s a bang-average album, the sound of an ensemble enjoying themselves in the studio but producing material that’s only notable for the big names attached to it.
The 1980s weren’t kind to the Boomers, with few from the pre-punk generation managing to survive the decade’s rapidly changing cultural climate without a confused video or shoddily produced record. The Traveling Wilburys do their best, but ultimately is utterly irrelevant to the milieu of the moment.
What’s most fun about the quartet is the pseudonyms they adopted for the album’s credits and promotional campaign. Under the pretence of the travelling troupe of the Wilbury brothers, Harrison, Lynne, Dylan, Orbison, and Petty would respectively assume the alter-egos Nelson, Otis, Lucky, Lefty, and Charlie T Jr.
While playful use of monikers may have been new to everyone else, Harrison was no stranger to conceptual guises, happy to play along as part of the fictional Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and donning a rabbit mask for Magical Mystery Tour‘s psychedelic cover.
Evident enthusiasm for your musical comrades goes a long way, and there are worse reasons to get a band together. Speaking to the press while promoting their debut album, Harrison spoke about his affection for his fellow Wilburys: “From my point of view, I just tried to preserve our relationship. I worked so hard to make sure that all the guys who were in that band, and consequently on record and film, that their friendship wasn’t abused. Just to preserve our friendship – that was the underlying contribution, I think, that I was trying to do.”
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