Reissues: Traveling Wilburys: Two From the Vault
By Steve Knopper
Rolling Stone #1024 - April 19, 2007
The Traveling Wilburys, the supergroup starring George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and ex-ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, will finally reissue their two long-out-of-print CDs on June 12th with a twenty-four-minute studio documentary and various bonus tracks such as the Harrison-sung "Maxine," the group effort "Like a Ship" and alternate takes of "Not Alone Any More" by Orbison (on the vinyl release only). "It's quite exciting to find new phrases by Roy that haven't been heard in nineteen years," says Lynne. "[The bonus tracks] are just like the Wilburys, exactly the same as the other ones. We just didn't have room for them. Mixing them was very nostalgic."
The Wilburys, perhaps the most star-studded supergroup in rock history, came together almost on a whim in 1988. Both Vol. 1 and the intentionally misnumbered Vol. 3 went platinum but have been out of print since 1996, when the band's license with Warner Bros. Records expired. Harrison, who owned the rights, didn't get around to reissuing them before he died. Rhino Records won a bidding war when Harrison's widow, Olivia, shopped the reissues last year. "I just felt it was up to me to revive it," she says. "I know it's something that George would have done with great enthusiasm."