Let's Rank the Wilburies*
It's a slow Monday, so we might as well rank The Traveling Wilburies. My list looks like this:
1. Bob Dylan
2. George Harrison
3. Tom Petty
4. Roy Orbison
5. Jeff Lynne
Some may quibble with putting Petty over Orbison, but I enjoy Petty's music more at this point. So, how would you rank the Wilburies, and why?
*Post inspired by The Simpsons, in an episode where Homer is attempting to feign interest in Lisa. In order to find out more about her he asks the following:
1. Bob Dylan
2. George Harrison
3. Tom Petty
4. Roy Orbison
5. Jeff Lynne
Some may quibble with putting Petty over Orbison, but I enjoy Petty's music more at this point. So, how would you rank the Wilburies, and why?
*Post inspired by The Simpsons, in an episode where Homer is attempting to feign interest in Lisa. In order to find out more about her he asks the following:
Who is your favorite Traveling Wilbury honey? Is it Jeff Lynne? What about your favorite cigar size? Is it "Robusto?" Is it?
posted by PaulNoonan at
2:26 PM
13 Comments:
That's actually a really tough thing to rank. I think we can all agree that Jeff Lynne is last. But the rest of those guys are all so awesome it's tough to put one above the other. Are we using there individual work as a guide or ranking them by their contributions to the Wilburies? I suppose my list would go:
1) George (He's my favorite Beetle. I'd be insane if I would rank him ahead of John, Paul and Ring and behind any Wilbury)
2) Tom Petty (I've seen him a bunch of times in concert and he's awesome every time. If he doesn't have the same amount of talent at Bob or Roy, he's more entertaining.)
3) Roy Orbison (His contribution to the Wilburies is greater than Dylan's. They wouldn't be the WIlburies without him whereas we probably wouldn't even notice if Petty were to sing all of Dylan's lines. His voice is like butter.)
4 Bob Dylan (The man is a fantastic song-writer. If he wrote every Wilburies song I'd move him up a bit but I juist don't know how much he contributed to the writing process. "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" has Dylan written all over it but I wouldn't want to guess much beyond that. However, Bob Dylan is a shitty singer. Once upon a time he was okay enough to get by but now he gets by on his legend.)
5. Jeff Lynne (Who is Jeff Lynne?)
By
DannyNoonan, at 8:22 AM
Who is Jeff Lynne? Who do you think produced the albums? Gave it the distinctive sound that it had?
Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra and the Move, was also the producer for Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, Roy Orbison's last album, producer of George Harrison's Cloud 9...
Who is Jeff Lynne? Them's fightin' words.
By
James Wigderson, at 9:35 AM
So James, would you have J-Lynne ranked above any other member?
By
PaulNoonan, at 11:07 AM
None of them there people are Wilburys.
I rank 'em as follows: Lucky, Nelson, Charlie T. Jr., Lefty, and Otis.
Those latter-day Wilburys (Spike, Clayton, Muddy, and Boo) were all right, I reckon, but no substitute.
By
PRB, at 1:54 PM
Purely by Wilbury-ness, Jeff Lynne is #1. Orbison #2. Harrison #3. Bob Dylan #4 Tom Petty #5.
If you were to look at their careers and influence:
Bob Dylan #1
Orbison #2
Harrison #3
Jeff Lynne #4
Tom Petty #5
By
James Wigderson, at 4:17 PM
Orbison #1 forever. I don't care about who is #2, etc. The man was a genius, and we will not see his kind pass this way again. "It's over".
By
Anonymous, at 4:30 PM
Good point PRB. I'm a big fan of Volume 2 myself, but it's so darned hard to find.
If I'm just ranking Wiburiness:
1. George Harrison
2. Tom Petty
3. Bob Dylan
4. Jeff Lynne
5. Roy Orbison
Harrison is the primary singer on my two favortie Wilbury tunes, "Handle With Care" and "End of the Line," and if memory serves, he was the instigator for the project. Petty's contributions are solid, as are Lynne's, if unspectacular, although his "Heading for the Light" is quite good. Dylan get's big props for the aforementioned "Tweeter" and "Congratulations" but is AWOL on a few group sings.
I love Roy, and he may have contributed much behind the scenes, but his performance contributions are lackluster compared to the other 4, (in Wilburiness only).
James, Lynne may be the coolest guy out there, but he's not Dylan, Orbison, or a Beatle, and I like Petty more. ELO is fine and all, but come on, they're more likely to appear at the Leine Lodge than at the Marcus.
By
PaulNoonan, at 6:33 PM
Whatever Paul. How can you say "Handle With Care" is your favorite song and then minimize Orbison's contribution. That song is nothing without the line "I'm so tired of being lonely..." Roy makes that song. Same with lots of other songs. Even if he isn't the lead, he makes them.
By
DannyNoonan, at 7:52 PM
Oh...
PaulN. almost got it
Swap four and five
By
Anonymous, at 8:53 PM
Dylan is the only worth to remember
By
Anonymous, at 7:12 AM
I love Jeff Lynne!
Check out “Out Of The Blue” (Electric Light Orchestra, or ELO) and “A New World Record”.
Maybe two of the best albums he has ever made.
I also recommend his great, but underrated solo album Armchair Theatre.
Jeff Lynne has been an inspiration for so many.
Even Queen and Sweet got a whole lot of inspiration from good old Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra.
He has jobbed with all of the Beatles-members (except John Lennon… sadly) on many of their solo albums.
And now he is producing and writing for Tom Petty and using lot’s of money so we can listen to digitalremastred versions of classic ELO-songs.
Who the hell is Jeff Lynne?
A hell of a composer and a hell of a guy! ^_^
-- Andy K. (from myspace.com/dotlineline)
By
Anonymous, at 4:23 PM
Without Jeff Lynne, there's no Wilburys to begin with.
By
Anonymous, at 1:34 PM
I think this is mine:
1 - George
2 - Jeff
3 - Tom
4 - Roy
5 - Bob
Why?
George was the founder and the glue that hold the Wilburys together.
Jeff was his right hand.
Tom contributed more than Roy or Bob and he also provided certain spirit of joy and youth to the band.
I love both Roy and Bob and I rank Roy over Bob because I think is more important to the Wilbury sound.
I would have loved Ringo on the drums on any song. As a Wilbury´s cousin or something, he.
By
Ricardo from Argentina, at 3:24 PM
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