History Music / TheTravelingWilburys

'''The Travelling Wilburys''' is Music/BobDylan, Music/RoyOrbison, Music/TomPetty, Music/GeorgeHarrison, and [[Music/ElectricLightOrchestra Jeff Lynne]]. [[DreamTeam Holy shit]].

** {{Transsexual}}: Tweeter. Notable that its taken seriously, and portrayed non-sexually.

* DanceSensation: "The Wilbury Twist"

-->You don't need no wax job, you're smooth enough for me
-->[[UnusualEuphemism If you need your oil changed I'll do it for you free]]
-->Oh baby, the pleasure be all mine
-->If you let me drive your pickup truck and park it where the sun don't shine

* IntercourseWithYou: "Dirty World", according to WordOfGod, is an AffectionateParody of {{Prince}}. Which means you get Music/BobDylan singing lines like

* TheGarfunkel: Jeff Lynne is probably the most difficult to recognize of the group to general audiences, with neither him nor ElectricLightOrchestra having quite the pedigree of legendary musicians Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison, and not quite so many hits as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Subverted in that Lynne was arguably one of the masterminds behind the band, along with Harrison; he just has the misfortune of [[OvershadowedByAwesome not having]] ''[[OvershadowedByAwesome as]]'' [[OvershadowedByAwesome huge of a legacy as his bandmates]]. [[VindicatedByHistory Not]] ''[[VindicatedByHistory yet]]'', [[VindicatedByHistory anyway...]]
** Furthermore, while Lynne might not have the same public profile for his own music, behind the scenes he has a strong reputation as a producer.

* TheGarfunkel: Jeff Lynne is probably the most difficult to recognize of the group to general audiences, with neither him nor ElectricLightOrchestra having quite the pedigree of legendary musicians Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison, and not quite so many hits as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Subverted in that Jeff Lynne was, in fact, arguably the mastermind behind the band (along with George Harrison); he just has the misfortune of [[OvershadowedByAwesome not having]] ''[[OvershadowedByAwesome as]]'' [[OvershadowedByAwesome huge of a legacy as his bandmates]]. [[VindicatedByHistory Not]] ''[[VindicatedByHistory yet]]'', [[VindicatedByHistory anyway...]]

* IndecipherableLyrics: In "Margarita", largely because some of the lyrics appear to be an Indian language (AuthorAppeal for GeorgeHarrison perhaps?)

* EmptyChairMemorial: The Traveling Wilburys' music video for "End of the Line" cuts to an empty chair during Roy Orbison's stanza, as Orbison died before shooting the video.

* IntercourseWithYou: "Dirty World", according to WordOfGod, is an AffectionateParody of {{Prince}}. Which means you get BobDylan singing lines like

** And arguably [[CreedenceClearwaterRevival John Fogerty]], who made a live appearance in 1987 alongside George Harrison and Bob Dylan, in a group which bootleggers often refer to as "The [[MythologyGag Silver]] Wilburys". Strictly a FanNickname, though, as the ''real'' Wilburys weren't formed until 1988 (and the other Wilburys sans George and Dylan weren't present for this event anyway).

* TheGarfunkel: A lot of current-day "fans" of the of the Traveling Wilburys [[CriticalResearchFailure have trouble recognizing Jeff Lynne]], with one particularly [[TvTropesDrinkingGame egregious]] YouTube comment asking who "the Muppet with the women's sunglasses" is. Subverted in that Jeff Lynne was actually one of the driving forces behind the band; he just has the misfortune of [[OvershadowedByAwesome not having]] ''[[OvershadowedByAwesome as]]'' [[OvershadowedByAwesome huge of a legacy as his bandmates]]. [[VindicatedByHistory Not]] ''[[VindicatedByHistory yet]]'', [[VindicatedByHistory anyway...]]

** MurderBallad: fused with surreal pulp in a manner reminiscent of QuentinTarantino.

* SpecialGuest: The Wilburys recorded a version of Music/TheBeatles' "I Call Your Name" as a tribute to JohnLennon, with Ringo Starr added to the lineup as lead singer.

Music/BobDylan. Music/RoyOrbison. Music/TomPetty. Music/GeorgeHarrison. [[Music/ElectricLightOrchestra Jeff Lynne]]. [[DreamTeam Holy Shit]].

One of the greatest [[SuperGroup supergroups]] of all time, this rare confluence of nearly 200 combined years of musical history came together in the very late 1980s to produce two albums (or so-see below).

* {{Joisey}}: "Tweeter and the Monkey Man".
* MurderBallad: "Tweeter and the Monkey Man", which gives us an example of …

* NoNameGiven: The undercover cop in "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" is always referred to as "The undercover cop".

* {{Transsexual}}: Tweeter in "Tweeter and the Monkey Man".

* BSide: What "HandleWithCare" was originally going to be, until [[ExecutiveMeddling the label executives heard it, and decided an album was in order]].

One of the greatest [[SuperGroup supergroups]] of all time, this rare confluence of nearly 200 combined years of musical history came together in the very late 1980s to produce two albums (or so-see below).

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Roy Orbison died before ''Volume 3'', which was dedicated to him; that's why they never made any more, and George Harrison has since followed him.

* DevelopmentGag: In "Dirty World", one of the NoodleImplements mentioned is "She loves your Trembling Wilbury"--''The Trembling Wilburys'' was the working name for the band ("wilbury" being an in-joke Harrison made about engineers claiming that "we'll bury" mistakes in the mix).

* ExecutiveMeddling: A positive example--George had all the others over just to record a B-side, and the producers rather sensibly informed him that this "B-side" deserved to be the first track of an ''album''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was talk of a tour, which sadly never came to be.
-->'''George Harrison:''' I've always played around in my own mind what a Wilburys tour could be. Would each person do a solo set and then do Wilburys at the end, or would we all go right on from beginning to end and make everything Wilburys? It's an intriguing thought. We could have a great band up there and the four of us could play acoustic if we wanted to. We could all sing 'Blowin' In The Wind' and Bob could sing 'Something'. Or we could just sing our individual songs and make them Wilbury tunes, as if we'd recorded them that way. Whatever it was, we could do it.
** Also, Del Shannon was briefly considered as a replacement for Orbison, as Jeff Lynne was producing Shannon's comeback album, but he died before they could do anything together. The Wilburys paid tribute by covering his hit "Runaway".

* SuperGroup: Big time.

* FiveManBand: Literally.
** TheHero: George Harrison
** TheLancer: Bob Dylan
** TheBigGuy: Roy Orbison
** TheSmartGuy: Jeff Lynne
** KidAppealCharacter: Tom Petty
** TheSixthRanger: drummer Jim Keltner

** TheBumblebee: Tom Petty