Handle Me With Care by The Traveling Wilburys

"Handle With Care" by The Traveling Wilburys

In a magical ten day period, rock legends George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan came together to form the rock supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys. All five of these legends were friends and had worked together previously but this was the first time they came together as a band.

George Harrison known to the world as the “quiet” Beatle by 1988 had established himself as a solo artist. Jeff Lynne, famous for his work with Electric Light Orchestra, had solidified his importance in pop musicians a composer, singer, guitarist and record producer. Musicians and critics alike respected Roy Orbison a true rock legend for his inventive song writing and his angelic voice. Tom Petty, the youngest of the group was continuing to come into his own when the Wilburys formed as a rock artist while Bob Dylan continued to add to his legend as one of the most important artist not only in music but in American culture.

“Supergroup” is a term used popular music to refer to a band that is made up of previously established musician. This dream team of sorts is often short-lived and doesn’t always come up with fantastic results. However every so often, these groups create great music like “Handle Me With Care.”

No, the Traveling Wilburys did not reach the heights that Harrison did with the Beatles or the legendary songs of Dylan but what the Traveling Wilburys did was capture a group of musicians enjoying the music that made them famous.

“Handle With Care” started as a an additional track for a George Harrison album that he was recording with Orbison, and Lynne at Bob Dylan’s home studio. Tom Petty happened to leave his guitar there and came by when they were working on the song to pick it up. After working on “Handle With Care” together, they decided the song was too good to just be filler track.

“Handle With Care” takes the warning on mail packages and applies it to a well-lived and a heart well-loved. George Harrison starts the song singing out the tribulations in his life with small descending arcs but reflects on how “you’re the best things that I’ve ever found” with a gentle rise in the melody that warms the words like a smile. Harrison continues to contemplate his reputation and life situations but concludes that “baby you’re adorable” focusing on what is truly important before beckoning “handle me with care.”

To many people “Roy Orbison” is a one hit wonder, with his 1964 hit “Oh, Pretty Woman.” Because his voice is so often emulated, it’s easy to forget how importance of Roy Orbison. However when you hear his voice rising through the words “I’m so tired of feeling lonely,” in “Handle With Care” the transcendent nature of his voice is instantly felt. In his light tenor, there is aching and loneliness that for some magicalreasons feels so good to listen to.

In an almost a humorous contrast, Dylan and Petty enter in the next sections reassuring Orbison that “everybody needs somebody to lean on.” Both Dylan and Petty has a similar folk inspired gravel in their voice and without hearing them sing together it’s hard to imagine that you would even be able to understand the words at all if these two singers sang together, but it works. Dylan’s and Petty’s duet reassure like an old man at a bar stool philosophizing to his beer.

Harrison continues to reflect on his long career being “sent to meetings hypnotized” and “overexposed, commercialized.” Orbison continues to long for love while Dylan and Petty reassure. There is a sense of nostalgia and warmth comes through as these elder statesmen of rock ponder their lives.

Sometimes in a song, you can feel things beyond the music. In “Handle With Care” you can hear warmth of these five men not as legends but friends enjoying the simplicity of a song.