The Main Wilbury Influence?

[Zimmerman The Gnome]

Although George's idea I think the sound of the Wilburys is similar to that of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Was he the real driving force? Discuss!

[FPSHOT]

Nice one mister Gnome :smile1:

I do not think Tom was the driving force, nor do I think that the sound of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers is similar to that of the Traveling Wilburys.

Okay, when you play Volume 3 then one may conclude that Tom and Bob were leading on the record, but I guess you know the story behind Bob doing so much vocals.

Tom is the one from the band I think who apart from George has spoken most about the insides and outsides of the band. He told for instance that George was 'the leader' and that George also was in real the manager of the band.

What you say about the sound of the band is maybe just the other way round, where through Tom's cooperation with Jeff and George his musical ideas especially when it comes to acoustic songs has turned a bit.

Here is one thing Tom said in an interview:

Tom Petty: Yeah. They wrote it specifically for Roy. Because it just turned out that everybody was there that day. I think George always had the idea in his head of the Traveling Wilburys. Actually, we had all been hanging out for some time by then. We had all been hanging out socially. I think maybe we had already done part of "Full Moon Fever" by that point. Probably recorded part of it. Roy had just come on the scene, because Jeff was going to do a track with Roy. The first day I met Roy, Jeff
and I and Roy wrote that song, "You Got It." "Anything you want, you got it..." We had written that song. So everybody knew each other. We had been hanging out. And George decided - cause he was just trying to do an extra track for a single - so he thought, if we're all here, let's design something for each of us to sing on. And when we got the record on, he felt it wasn't really a George Harrison record, it's more of a group. So what do you say we have a group? So that's how that ball got rolling. It was a great band. It was really fun being in that band."

That already says a bit how Tom saw George as the motivator of the band, and that he was already recording Full Moon Fever which has quite some Jeff influence, which links to partly the Wilbury production sound.

Also the band's name came from George and Jeff.

George even had guitar plectrums made during the Cloud Nine sessions which had the name "Trembling Wilburys" on them, the name was about bloopers.

Here is this about George being the manager and owning the rights of the songs:

So why are the twangy supergroup's LPs out of print?
TOM PETTY: It's a simple, explanation, really. George [who owned the rights and acted as manager] really wanted to do another Wilburys record, with the idea of bringing them all out on CD at once. But we never just got around to it. I guess people live off their brother's old copy. And I think they'd really like some new ones!

So, I would say No, Tom is not the driving force, I think George was the initiator and driving force whereas in the short time of it's existence the band did not really have a leadr, only the two musical producers i.e. George and Jeff.

And the fact he did not play this upfront role on Volume 3 maybe, is just because Bob was there...and then George just stays a bit on the background, it's just like he was?

[Jocelyn]

Funny to read this ... since I was just playing a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song, and my mother came in and said 'is that the Travelling Wilburys?' LOL

But it's honestly something I'd not thought about much, so I'll be interested to read what other people say :smile1:

[ringo_rama]

I think that George was the driving force behind the band, but he was more than content to just play with his buddies than be the most upfront member of the band when you listened to the records.

[Rellevart]

Seems like a collaborative effort to me...some songs sound more George-like, some more Dylan-ish, some more like Petty...it's just a great kind of collage of all their styles, which, in a way, I like better than most of their individual efforts....

[beatlebangs1964]

Gestalt...the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. This tripartate (sp) effort of Harrison, Dylan and Petty is what makes the effort so excellent and effective.