"Is this the same old place?"

"You must mean the Old Same Place. It's right out back, sonny, here's the key."
Firesign Theater [FN 1]


FRIENDS:
Last Saturday night was a marvelous night for a moondance ... two dozen of us, all aging boomers, celebrating one of our own’s wedding anniversary, gathered outdoors on a torch-lit patio at a friend’s home nestled in the trees in a small canyon in the foothills of Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Mountains.

As the moon rose, Rick pulled out his banjo, plugged in his Fender Telecaster and unsheathed his Washburn six string guitar; Richard opened up his baritone sax and flute cases; Duane plugged in some kind of custom five-string electric instrument that looked like a combination sawed-off electric guitar with deep cutaways and a mandolin; I unwrapped my Guild guitar and my son’s Larrivee; and someone covered a table with every conceivable kind of percussion instrument including some exotic ones from Brazil and Africa.

It may not have been worth recording for posterity, but the music was extemporaneous, fun, and derived from the culture of our youth – folk, bluegrass, blues, and Led Zeppelin. We stretched it out like good friends do, working through the rough parts, and reveling in those parts that came together on cue.

My cynical teenage sons would have been mortified to see us adults howling at the moon that shone on our balding pates, giggling as if we were in our early 20s, our wives and friends joining in from time to time from the bottom of their Coronas as the spirits moved.

But then, this wasn’t intended for my sons.

It was for us.

Which is what made me think of the album Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 [FN 2] Just a few boomer era guitar-slingers named George, Bob, Tom, Roy and Jeff having a good ‘ol time with the gang one night as they flew several sheets to the wind.


THE WILBURY FAMILY:
It’s almost like if you have to ask, don’t bother:

Travis Bickle: "You talkin' to me?" [FN3]
Otis Wilbury: "Yup."

That’s the level of intimacy and shared experience packaged into “The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1.” The liner notes are intentionally cryptic – Otis, Nelson, Charlie T. Jr., Lefty and Lucky Wilbury, all featured on guitars, lead and backup vocals, with Otis also handling the keyboards. Even the art work featuring the band’s picture makes it difficult to tell who’s really who if you don’t know.

Fact is, it's the Same Old Place re-labeled as the Old Same Place -- the Wilburys are George Harrison of the Beatles (Nelson Wilbury), Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra (Otis), Tom Petty of the Heartbreakers (Charlie T. Jr.), Roy Orbison (Lefty) and Bob Dylan (Lucky). Now THERE’S a super group worthy of the name.

The idea for the band was born of a collaboration between George and Jeff. In 1987 George need a B-side for his “Cloud Nine” single being released in Europe, and he and Jeff (who was producing it) concocted a story about a band formed by members of an extended family. Jeff was also producing an album for Roy, and he agreed to sing on the song. The only studio they could find to record in was Bob’s, and George’s guitar was at Tom’s house. One thing led to another and, “Voila!” One B-side and an available studio led to a “reunion” album.

THE ALBUM:
No one has ever accused Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 of containing great music. It doesn’t.

But the album's come-on-in-and ”shake the cornstarch off your mukluks" atmosphere [FN 1], combined with its musical pedigree from aging rock icons, made it a charming and irresistible collection when it was recorded in 1988, and makes it even more enjoyable to listen to now.

These guys were just having fun, period, clearly basking in the relative anonymity provided by the Wilbury name. If Phil Spector created the “Wall of Sound” for the Crystals and the Ronettes and their ilk in the early 60s, then George Harrison and Jeff Lynne created the “Wall of Guitars” with this production in the late 80s.

Handle With Care, the bouncy opening cut, was written and sung by George Harrison, and sounds like any of the better of his earlier solo recordings. But it’s on the chorus – with the unmistakable voices of Petty and Dylan croaking in from under Orbison's smooth tones -- that the nostalgic mood of the album is set, as all the Wilburys join in together:
“Everybody’s got somebody to lean on
Put your body next to mine, and dream on.”

Dirty World is a rollicking Dylan tune backed by several acoustic guitars and a horn section, a crisp back beat by session drummer extraordinaire Jim Keltner, and a background vocal arrangement right out of Lynne’s ELO. “Dirty World” celebrates the prurient side of life with the automobile as the "woman" metaphor, and uses Dylan’s rough voice to some of its best advantage ever as he leers at a “sexy body”:
“You don’t need no wax job, you’re smooth enough for me.
If you need your oil changed, I’ll do it for you for free.
Oh, baby, the pleasure’ll be all mine,
If you let me drive your pick up truck and park it where the sun don’t shine.”


Rattled was written by Roy Orbison, but is inexplicably sung by Jeff Lynne. A rockabilly tune, it fits in perfectly with the Orbison “early rock” motif, and features some of Roy’s signature growls in the background as well as some surprisingly strong twangy lead guitar from George:
“I get shaken, I get torn by the roots,
Yeah I’m shakin’ way down in my boots,
I get rattled baby, ohhh, over you.
I get rattled baby, ohhh, over you.”


Last Night is vintage Tom Petty. It's an up-tempo yet downbeat tune about a fling with, and betrayal by, a “long and tall” woman he picks up at a bar and takes upstairs while his buddies serenade them from below with the line, “Last night, thinking about last night.” It features absolutely outstanding Caribbean-style rim-shot drumming by Keltner and a wonderful contribution from Roy Orbison, showing off his deep, rich voice:
“Down below they danced and sang in the street, (ooooh, ooooh, ooooh)
While up above the walls were steaming with heat.”


Not Alone Any More is the one pure Orbison cut, a ballad that is a combination of country and rock. It is filled with ELO-like string arrangements and mournful “sha-la-la-la” backup vocals, as well as Orbison’s famous high-pitched vocal range:
“It hurts like never before,
You’re not alone, you’re not alone, you’re not alone any more.
Any more, any more, any mooooooore.”


Congratulations, a Dylan tune, is the roughest of the cuts on the album from a production standpoint. Yet it also symbolizes this group effort more than any other. Sounding like a bunch of rowdy good ol’ boys bellied up to the bar snapping the gallusses on their Big Dads while drowning their sorrows in long necks, the Wilburys follow Dylan’s lead and wail to their hearts content in a slow waltz:
“ Congratulations for breakin’ my heart,
Congratulations for tearin’ it all apart
Congratulations, you finally did succeed,
Congratulations, for leavin’ me in need.”


Heading For the Light is probably the weakest cut on the album. Though it moves nicely, it doesn’t move me. It’s a prototypical well-produced plastic George Harrison song with predictable strong hooks, horns and semi-spiritual message:
“Been close to the edge, hangin’ by my fingernails,
I’ve rolled and I’ve tumbled through the roses and the thorns,
And I couldn’t see the sign that warned me,
I’m heading for the light.”


Margarita smacks of Jeff Lynne and ELO. Synthesized keyboards blend into a wall of acoustic and electric guitars, horns and rich background harmonies. Dylan and Petty alternate on lead vocals in a song about a vanishing female vision named Margarita, and the entire Wilbury clan joins in on a Calypso style reprise:
“I asked her what we’re gonna do tonight,
She said, ‘Cahuenga langa-langa-shoe box shoop,’
We better keep tryin’ ‘til we get it right,
‘Tala mala sheela jaipur dhoop.’”

Tweeter And the Monkey Man is old-style Dylan at his absolute best, singing plaintively about the seamy and dreamy underbelly; mixing social satire, personal tragedy and political protest; bending genders, guitar notes, and vocal chords with equal ease into places they usually don’t go. In Tweeter he has created a transexual hero pushed to the brink of despair:
“Tweeter was boy scout before she went to Vietnam,
And found the hard way nobody gives a damn
They knew they found freedom just across the Jersey line,
So they hopped into a stolen car, took highway 99.”

And the Wilburys chime in as one on the chorus:
“And the walls came down,
All the way to hell,
Never saw them when they’re standing,
Never saw them when they fell.”

Dylan’s close is a chiller worthy of his best early work:
“The undercover cop was found face down in a field.
The Monkey Man was on the river bridge using Tweeter as a shield.
Jane said to the Monkey Man, ‘I’m not fooled by Tweeter’s curl,
I knew him long ago before he became a Jersey girl.”


The only way to follow the depressing power of Tweeter and the Monkey Man is to lighten it all up, which the album does with the only song that ever received major airplay on the radio, End of the Line. From its unmistakable and unforgettable opening guitar chords and pulsating bass line, to all five Wilburys alternating on lead vocals before seguing into ethereal harmonies, this song sends a closing message in Tom Petty's voice to aging boomers everywhere:
“Maybe somewhere down the road a ways (at the end of the line)
You’ll think of me and wonder where I am these days (at the end of the line, of the line)
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (at the end of the line),
Purple Haze.”


CODA:
Orbison died shortly after completion of Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1. There was no Volume 2, but there was a Vol. 3 by the remaining 4 Wilburys, which I never bothered to buy or listen to.

To my mind Vol. 1 had said it all perfectly. I couldn’t be bothered with a sequel.

It was close to midnight when Rick broke into a solo rendition of Hendrix’s “Little Wing.” Everybody else stopped and watched and listened as his fingers moved cleanly over the frets, raising before us the ghost of Jimi before he reached the end of the line.

---------------------------------------------------------


Footnotes:
[1] Paraphrasing from Firesign Theater's album, "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once, When You're Not Anywhere At All?"

[2]All songs copyrighted by Ganga Distributors B. V. Wilbury Records, 1988

[3]From the Movie "Taxi Driver", directed by Martin Scorcese


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving