No artist should ever stop being a music fan once they get famous. Most people are always getting into the business because they love plugging in their guitars and hearing whatever warped idea comes out of one of their jam sessions, but the most challenging part of staying relevant is paying attention to what’s going on in the music world rather than relying on the same three records to keep you entertained.
The Traveling Wilburys could have easily settled into their position as rock and roll elder statesmen, but even they were curious to see what the new songwriters on the scene were doing.
I mean, they almost had to since they had one of them in the group. Tom Petty may have been the new boy compared to everyone else in the band, but compared to what Bob Dylan and George Harrison had written in their respective careers, the heartland rocker fit like a glove next to them, usually turning up for the perfect background harmony or taking one part of a song on tracks like ‘End of the Line’ and ‘Last Nite’.
But the greatest part of the Wilburys’ chemistry was how much they were fans of each other. Harrison was one of the ultimate Dylan enthusiasts before working with him, every one of them was amazed whenever Roy Orbison opened his mouth, and given what Jeff Lynne would do when he got to work with The Beatles for the Anthology project, he could practically teach a class on the ins and outs of their songwriting style.
That didn’t mean that they were totally insular. Both Dylan and Petty had a fixation with Johnny Cash, and while the idea of them replacing Orbison with Del Shannon was never taken all that seriously, each of them knew how well he could have fit into the club if he hadn’t passed away. But as far as people of Petty’s generation were concerned, there was something interesting going on in every Bruce Springsteen record.
Dylan could have justifiably been wary since critics were describing ‘The Boss’ as a model of him, but ‘Tweeter and the Monkey Man’ was as far as he was willing to go in terms of critiques. There were tiny references to countless Springsteen songs in the lyrics, but compared to Springsteen singing about a turnpike with a certain romantic flair, Dylan turned the story into something that belonged in some cheesy Western movie.
It may have raised some people’s eyebrows about Dylan’s intentions, but Lynne said that Springsteen’s music was always treated with love and respect during Wilburys jam sessions, saying, “I think [Dylan] liked talking about Bruce. You should ask him about that, really, because I know they sound [like] little bits of ‘Thunder Road.’ We all loved Bruce Springsteen, obviously; you could say it was an homage.”
Despite clearly trying to rip off another artist, the Wilburys can’t help but sound like themselves behind the scenes. Dylan has his traditional raspy voice going throughout the entire tune, and while hearing Lynne and Petty’s backing vocals is a lot sweeter compared to the voices, it does give the song a certain drama reminiscent of other cowboy songs from their youth, like ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’.
This kind of tune may have been a little too Americanised from what Harrison and Lynne were used to, but coming from Petty and Dylan, you’d have sworn that they had been playing these kinds of songs since the first time they started writing. The rest of the album may have been carefree most of the time, but in the world of this song, the band are carrying their guitars the same way the characters are packing their pistols.
