Album of the Day #153: TRAVELING WILBURYS, VOL. 3

Artist: The Traveling Wilburys

Title: Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3

Label: Warner

Year: 1990

Songs: She's My Baby/Inside Out/If You Belonged To Me/Devil's Been Busy/7 Deadly Sins/Poor House/Where Were You Last Night?/Cool Dry Place/New Blue Moon/You Took My Breath Away/Wilbury Twist

Written by: The Traveling Wilburys

Produced by: Clayton and Spike Wilbury

Thoughts: Although not as great as the first, Vol. 3 still has much of the charm and humor that was built into its' predecessor. There's still a bunch of really cool songs, but there aren't any Dylan epics like "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" and classic George songs like "Heading For The Light". The singles are nowhere near as strong as "Handle With Care" and "End Of The Line" and "Inside Out" is clearly the better of the two. "She's My Baby" is more of a pedestrian rock song, but "Inside Out" has some hilarious lyrics in it.

Orbison is sorely missed, but Petty tries contributes a lot more than he did before, with fun tracks like "Cool Dry Place" and "Poor House". Another note is that, like the last one, Bob's sings are better than the ones that landed on his standard album of the same year. His contributions on Vol. 1 greatly eclipsed anything on Down In The Groove and his songs here are better than some of the stuff on Under The Red Sky. (Imagine the Wilburys doing "Handy Dandy"...that would have been funny.)

It is kind of amazing how little Harrison and Lynne do on this record. They do contribute vocals, but there is no stand-out song by either of them. I think that's probably what's missing more than Orbison (who did only write "Not Alone Any More" for Vol. 1). This album certainly could have been helped by at least one Harrison track. Still, it's a good listening experience and how can you go wrong with that line-up?

Album Of The Day #111: TRAVELING WILBURYS, VOL. 1 - The Traveling Wilburys

Title: Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1
Artist: The Traveling Wilburys
Label: Wiblury/Warner
Released: 1988
Songs: Handle With Care/Dirty World/Rattled/Last Night/Not Alone Anymore/Not Alone Anymore/Congratulations/Heading For The Light/Margarita/Tweeter And The Monkey Man/End Of The Line
Written by: The Traveling Wilburys
Produced by: Otis & Nelson Wilbury
Thoughts: I was originally going to write this as a complete joke and actually use the Wilbury names that they gave themselves, but I thought that was a little much and I decided to go with a straight up review.
This has to be one of the greatest albums of all time. The group comprised of George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison…and how could you go wrong with that? All of them threw their egos out the door and did it for fun, which completely shows throughout the record. What really sticks out is that all of them make significant contributions; with at least one song by each member (although I guess Tom got a free pass). George and Bob have the most, with three each, but why should they not? They are the best songwriters out of the five.
However, the most annoying thing is Bob’s songs. Down In The Groove, one of his absolute worst albums came out in the same year as this, 1988. The album, a hodge-podge that only included two solo Dylan compositions, could certainly have been made so much stronger with just one of his songs. Although, we have to be thankful that the Wilburys lit the fire that Dylan apparently needed and used to make Oh Mercy. Still, was the Dylan that wrote “Tweeter And The Monkey Man” really the same man that wrote “Had A Dream About You Baby”?
George’s songs are very much in the vein of Cloud Nine. “Handle With Care”, “End Of The Line” and “Heading For The Light” could easily have found homes on that album.
Now, the rest of it is pretty good, like Roy’s amazing “Not Alone Anymore”, Jeff’s “Rattled” and the full-group collaborations, “Last Night” and “Margarita”.
Even if you do split them up and attribute a song to each member, you can see that all members still made significant contributions and none of them would sound good without some missing part.