Who wrote the least songs for the Traveling Wilburys?
In all the conversations that can possibly be had about the Traveling Wilburys, one thing that is less commonly mentioned is the sheer speed at which they moved.
Naturally, you could easily attribute this to the fact that they were already five of the biggest powerhouse musicians on the planet at the point of their formation: they didn’t need to faff about with finding their sound or any pretentious bonding exercises before they hit the studio. From the very first second they met, they could put their collective foot straight on the gas.
Yet in other ways, as much as all of the above was definitely still true, there was also an element of necessity in their quick movements, only transpiring to become apparent to the band almost at the point when it was too late. It’s worth remembering the timeline – the band only came together in April 1988, and by December of that same year, they had lost one of their founding members.
The grief was made even more profound by the fact that, despite their own respective illustrious streaks, the other four of the Traveling Wilburys orbited around Roy Orbison as if he was their North Star; the one who was Jeff Lynne’s musical idol, and who was instantly respected by George Harrison for his encyclopedic knowledge of Monty Python.
However, the nature of his inclusion in the band hinged on a few important things: firstly, because he had endured a tumultuous two decades to that point, and the offer to join from Lynne represented a helping hand. Secondly, he was there to sing, not to get bogged down in the logistics. As such, that’s just what they gave him, and Orbison was more than happy to take a backseat on the writing.
What did the other Traveling Wilburys think of Roy Orbison?
It was also a state of affairs that the rest of the band would absolutely and willingly oblige, given how gassed they seemed to even have Orbison there in the first place. Later speaking of those earliest recording sessions that took place as a five-piece, Lynne recalled just how majestic it was to have the ‘Only the Lonely’ singer in the room.
“Everybody just sat there going, ‘Wow, it’s Roy Orbison!’,” he enthused, before adding, “Even though he’s become your pal and you’re hanging out and having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [microphone] and he’s doing his business, suddenly it’s shudder time.”
This was clearly the precise reason that they devoted an entire solo song to Orbison on Volume 1, ‘Not Alone Any More’. It was the perfect opportunity to show off exactly why having that powerhouse of a man within their ranks was the right decision – and with his operatic overtures blowing them all away, it was high time to also display that to the world.
Orbison’s untimely death only months later was, of course, completely tragic for many reasons that can be extolled at length, but if you were to take away one silver lining from the situation, it would be that he went to his deathbed happier than he had been in a long time before, with bandmates who loved him and a world that was left pining for more. He may have left the building early, but Orbison was always king.
