We’ll start with the group: the Traveling Wilburys. The name came from George Harrison and Jeff Lynne who produced Harrison’s album Cloud Nine. When the equipment went kabluey and cause hiccups in the recording, Harrison would say, “Well bury’em in the mix.” Eventually, the called any technical error a Wilbury.
In recording that album, Harrison started talking to Lynne about forming a fun little band and when they suggested possible bandmates, Harrison suggested Dylan and Lynne pushed for Roy Orbison (When you were a Beatle, no name is too big.). Harrison and Dylan had become friends in the late 60’s and Harrison would visit Bob in Woodstock. Dylan performed at Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh and the pair sent time n the studio recording songs never released.
The idea was floating out there but how it happened required some serendipity. The record label asked Harrison to record an extra song for the Cloud Nine album. He and Lynne had invited Roy Orbison to lunch and Harrison asked him to come along to the recording station.
They needed a place to record and couldn’t find an available studio. Harrison called his friend Bob Dylan, who has a studio at his home in Malibu. Bob said come on down. Harrison needed a guitar and called Petty to borrow one. Petty jumped in the car. The next thing you know, all five were together in the studio. Harrison suggested they form the band he had dreamed out and all agreed.
- Bob Dylan (aka Lucky Wilbury)
- George Harrison (aka Nelson Wilbury)
- Roy Orbison (aka Lefty Wilbury)
- Tom Petty (aka Charlie T, Jr, Wilbury)
- Jeff Lynne (aka Otis Wilbury)
Given their fame, what fun they must have had since no one person had to carry the weight of the band. Harrison filmed much of what they did focusing on Dylan whom he adored. At one point, Harrison left the room, Dylan looked at the others and pointed at the exiting Harrison, “You know, he was Beatle.”
Writing the Song
Harrison filmed much of what they did, with the rehearsals taking place in Jeff Lynn’s kitchen. At one point, Dylan and Petty started riffing about American music and the others wrote down their conversation. Dylan took those words and crafted them into a song with the others adding a line here and there (Give Harrison for credit for the line “And the walls came down.”) All five received songwriting credit, though Dylan’s publishing company published the song.
Four of the five bandmates sang on the song with Roy Orbison missing this recording session.
Tweeter and the Monkey Man
What great fun: A big nod to Bruce Springsteen, a typical Dylan story song with swift details and unanswered mysteries, a gangster story, a tale of good and evil and a little film noir for good measure.
Early in his career critics, dubbed Springsteen “the new Dylan” as they did with Elliot Murphy, John Prine, Loudon Wainwright III and others. If Dylan influenced Springsteen, Bob repaid the favor here setting the song in Jersey, citing half a dozen Springsteen song titles plus “Jersey Girl,” written by Tom Waits, but made famous by Bruce. And it has shady characters like many Springsteen songs.
(On hearing Springsteen’s first album. Greetings from Asbury Park, Dylan told Clive Davis at Columbia Records, “He’d better be careful or he might go through every word in the English language and run out of words.”)
And what hoot right from the start
Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash
They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash
To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan
For reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man
How deft the storytelling. We have the main characters: Tweeter and the Monkey Man some drug dealers in trouble, their nemesis, the Undercover cop, and the mysterious Jan. And the next verse tells us about the Tweeter:
Tweeter was a Boy Scout ‘fore she went to Vietnam
And found out the hard way, nobody gives a damn
They knew that they found freedom just across the Jersey line
So they hopped into a stolen car, took Highway 99
In a day when a local library voted to remove any LGBTQ displays or references from the children’s section of the library, it is interesting to see the way Dylan deals with gender fluidity in this song. Tweeter was a Boy Scout ‘fore she went to Vietnam. Later, we hear these lines:
Jan said to the Monkey Man, “I’m not fooled by Tweeter’s curl
I knew him long before he became a Jersey Girl”
As the story unfolds, Dylan’s humor shines, even if there are some junior high laughs:
The undercover cop never liked the Monkey Man
Even back in childhood he wanted to see him in the can.
And look at the sheer joy of this encounter:
It was out on Thunder Road, Tweeter at the wheel
They crashed into paradise, they could hear them tires squeal
The undercover cop pulled up and said “Everyone of you is a liar
If you don’t surrender now it’s gonna go down to the wire“
Or his take on justice in Jersey:
Next day the undercover cop was hot in pursuit
He was taking the whole thing personal, he didn’t care about the loot
Jan had told him many times, “It was you to me who taught
In Jersey anything’s legal as long as you don’t get caught”
When it all ends, the narrator heads south:
I guess I’ll go to Florida and get myself some sun
There ain’t no more opportunity here, everything’s been done
Sometimes I think of Tweeter, sometimes I think of Jan
Sometimes I don’t think about nothing but the Monkey Man
Enjoy.
#Songoftheday #spreadinghappiness #emmylouharris
YouTube: https://youtu.be/PabG3nJRu3k?si=Z6VJosB_1HX7e-H8
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2rm4CNyzlEGs3PcK91wzGe?si=de6e1ef6d7fe42e8