My topic for this week’s blog post is the album “The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1”. My hope is to achieve through this blog a recognition by producers and musicians that over producing an album may be a detriment to the art by taking away from the natural real time magic of the live recorded collaboration. Second, I want to re-emphasize that the art of improvisation among musicians in a collaborative setting is priceless to the production of originally great music and may actually save time compared to highly produced music with shorter studio periods. Third, I want to show that putting all egos aside (even for larger egos like those of the members of The Traveling Wilburys) and focusing on the craft can produce greatness in a very short amount of creative time.
“The best record of its kind ever made” said David Wild in his Rolling Stone article on October 18, 1988. A bold statement and worthy of a closer look. An impromptu “supergroup” known as the Traveling Wilburys was made up of George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.
This group was formed casually over dinner and drinks among friends when George Harrison mentioned that he needed a B side recorded for his upcoming single release. The group liked the idea and quickly gathered and recorded the new original “Handle with Care”. The single featured lyrics, vocals and guitar by each member of the group. Upon sharing the single with Warner Bros, both the label and the members realized that the single was too good to be wasted on a B side. So the group, with Warner Bros blessing, pressed forward to record a 12 track full album. I chose this album for today’s blog to highlight a true ego-less improvisational collaboration. All of these were stars/megastars individually and with groups, none bigger than The Beatles, but they put aside their egos and fluidly shared a moment in time together to simply create great music.
Why is this story relevant today? We live in the new age of digital production where artists collaborate by placing their tracks in Dropbox for the producer to add to the mix and on many occasions then over-produce with digital effects. This process sometimes relies largely on a single person’s creative musical style in the production phase. Let us remember the story of the The Traveling Willburys to never forget how the magic of true collaboration and improvisation in a live setting can make great music in a short period of time when done in the right way. Over a 16 day period in 1988, this group came together in Dave Stewart’s home studio in Los Angeles and wrote, arranged, recorded and produced an entire album which has since been critically acclaimed by Rolling Stone as one of the top 100 albums of all time. When the Traveling Wilbury’s Collection was re-released in 2007, the album reached number one nearly thirty years after a B-side single turned into music history.
Bringing the music of the world … to the world …
Eric Foster