The Album Club choice for August comes courtesy of Barry with The Travelling Wilburys - ‘Volume 1’.

As always, please listen to the album in its entirety before you vote.



The Travelling Wilburys ‘Volume 1’



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_Wilburys


The Travelling Wilburys are in my opinion the best supergroup ever assembled. Formed in 1988, The Wilburys consisted of Jeff Lynne (ex The Move and ELO), Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and George Harrison.

What I like about this album is here we have five consummate performers, each having had success on their own terms, coming together to play music, to enjoy themselves and not to have anything to prove. Despite having several vocalists in the group, different tracks feature different soloists, with the others joining in the chorus. Likewise the various tracks, whilst jointly penned and credited to The Travelling Wilburys, display the individual compositional style of the various members. For example: Track 2 ‘Dirty World’, not only has Bob Dylan singing, but sounds very much like a track he would have written himself.

There are 12 tracks on ‘Volume 1’:

1. Handle With Care
2. Dirty World
3. Rattled
4. Last Night
5. Not Alone Any More
6. Congratulations
7. Heading for the Light
8. Margarita
9. Tweeter and the Monkey Man
10. End of the Line
11. Maxine (bonus track on the CD version)
12. Like a Ship (bonus track on the CD version)

I can’t really single out any favourite tracks – they are all sufficiently varied for me to appreciate and enjoy them all. But if I did have to make a ‘Desert Island’ choice it would be track 10: ‘End of the Line’.

If you’re not moved to at least get up and bop around the room on the more up-tempo numbers, then I’m afraid sadly there is no cure for you.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2hO4YtXUFJiUYS2uYFvHNK

Incidentally you might be wondering about the rather prosaic title: ‘Volume 1’. Well this is because there was a ‘Volume 2’ and a ‘Volume 3’. Volume 2 was a DVD of the Wilburys performing tracks from Volume 1 and from the later released (in 1990) ‘Volume 3’. (Sadly Roy Orbison died before the second recording was made.)

Finally the performers are credited as:

Lucky Wilbury – acoustic guitar, lead and backing vocals

Otis Wilbury – keyboards, guitars, lead and backing vocals

Charlie T, Wilbury Jnr – acoustic guitars, lead and backing vocals

Lefty Wilbury – guitars, lead and backing vocals

Nelson Wilbury – guitars, lead and backing vocals.

(It is left as an ‘exercise to the reader’, to work out who is who.)