The Wilburys Movie
"Life flows on within you and without you…"
George Harrison actually SAYS THAT! About Roy Orbison.
Stop everything. Really. Pull this movie up immediately. Because it’s gonna evaporate in a matter of hours.
Then again, does anything ever really go pfftt in the Internet age? Or is it just resuscitated by some pirate making sure it doesn’t fade away but radiates?
The sun just came out in Southern California. And watching this video will lift the sadness from your eyes. This is the pure essence. Watching this your only desire is to go hang out in the studio yourself.
Hanging out online ain’t bad. But it’s nothing like the real thing.
And back before the whole world was democratized, we had a superior race, not rich fucks, but rock stars. They ruled our world. We believed if we could only meet them, our lives would be irreparably changed, we’d be happy forever more, fulfilled.
This could be one of the great rock films of all time. Because of its simplicity, its honesty, because it captures a moment in time, the zeitgeist, five players at the top of their game coming together to create something spontaneously…
George Harrison? He hasn’t gotten his due. He died and people forgot that he created so many of those riffs.
And Bob Dylan? He’s the crusty old enigmatic bastard with barely any voice who you can see but you cannot touch.
But here Bob is like your next door neighbor. Unguarded, fully alive.
And George is truly alive. A Beatle not luxuriating on his laurels, but soldiering on in creativity.
Roy Orbison is a living legend who’s dead now too and Tom Petty is the luckiest guy in the world. Sometimes, you’re in the right place at the right time. Just a generation behind, your elders stumble upon you and anoint you, they welcome you into the club, they believe that you’re just that good.
And if the organizer, the true glue is George, the man who makes it all work is Jeff Lynne, who was just coming into his fame as a producer.
We’ve listened to these records ad infinitum. How did they make them? What did it look like? How did they come up with the words?
This film answers all those questions.
You’re the fly on the wall.
Music, when done right, exists in its own separate universe. Unencumbered by the outside world, it’s pure, that’s its magnetism.
You can trot out your bank book all day, tell us about your endorsements, but anyone can do that. Can you be cool, can you have charisma, can you create great music out of nothing…
That’s what a rock star can do.
This film is both riveting and inspirational. It reminds me of why I’m a music fan and why I live in Southern California.
I just had to get closer to the sound. Its power was undeniable.
