One thing the ex-wilburys never seem to do when they play together...

[ABCKO]

Noticed that on the many two-or-more-wilburys colaborations that they have done on each other's albums... there's not a single duet, guest lead vocal, or even a case of one wilbury lead-singing a couple of lines ? *

* Unless I'm forgetting such an occasion...

''Cloud nine'', ''Mystery girl'', ''Full moon fever'', ''Armchair theatre'', ''Into the great wide open'', ''Zoom'', ''Brainwashed'', ''Highway companion'' are ridled with multi Wilburied tracks, not to mention many other songs...

... and, each time, the ''guest'' Wilburys just stay sort of in the backround, doing a b/vocal and/or playing their instrument and/or co-writing/producing.

Nothing wrong with that, but of all those times, not a single ''Hey, why don't you sing this bit here ?'' ?

And it's not just in the ''Hey, it's fellow Wilbury'' sense, but also in the sense that each Wilbury is a bona fide singer as well, who would be most well used if put at contribution, singing wise.

[ABCKO]

Now that I think about it some more... it's the same thing with the ex-fabs.

Many post Beatle colaborations, yet no singing (appart from b/vocals) on a fellow-fab's album...

... well, at best, I guess we could always count Ringo's couple of, solo, title repeats, at the end of Paul's "Beautiful Night", but that would a bit of a stretch...

[darkhorse]

It's quite usual, I believe, that a singer/songwriter would like to sing his song, and not "share" his "solo" album space with another singer. In fact the thing that distinguishes a solo album from a group effort is the fact that the soloist sings in all of the songs. Besides a guest lead vocal or so... But I don't see it as anything weird... I don't think that George would need anyone else singing in his solo records since he had a very good voice... the example is even more obvious when you do it with Roy: he's one of the best voices EVER, why would he want any more lead vocals than his own...

It could've been great but it would not have been "solo" enough I guess...

[FPSHOT]

I think it is a general thing in music. Take other musicians and you will in many other cases experience the same, apart from albums which have been recorded as duets, like Barry Gibb with Barbara Streisand.

In the Harrison catalogue I think only Vicki Brown sang a few lines, on Shanghai Surprise and we have "I Really Love You" where many can't hear George singing and some Live performances like with Leon Russel.

So that makes the Traveling Wilbury albums even more special.

Personally I am fine with this. I would really have to get used to knowing Jeff or Tom or Bob or Roy doing vocals on any of George's songs together with George. Well in that cse it is simple because it can't. But to have Jeff sing some lines on a Tom song or visa versa also for me is something I am not really enthousiastic about.

Probably because I am not much of a cover-lover. Having others sing Harrisongs is really nice as a tribute, but I always have the feeling that there is something missing and always find the original much better, no matter who does the cover or tribute. It is just a personal thing with George.