Thanks to Sonic Surprises whose version wouldn’t play here so I found other versions . . . . .
Ray Charles and The Raelettes - "Hit the Road Jack" (live on Brazilian TV in 1963)
Percy Mayfield wrote "Hit the Road Jack" and recorded it as an a capella demo in 1960. The song became a hit when Ray Charles recorded it with vocalist Margie Hendrix of The Raelettes
The demo that started it all You know Ray Charles’ version. But have you heard Percy Mayfield’s demo?
Stripped bare, sly as hell, and absolutely dripping with attitude.
The demo is the highlight for me — then Ray Charles comes roaring in and turns it into a classic.
Ray Charles - Hit The Road Jack (Rare Live Take) (1961)
"The Jimi Hendrix Experience were booked to perform on April 26, 1969 with opening acts Chicago Transit Authority (soon-to-be renamed Chicago) and Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys, the latter of whom shared management with the headliners. By the time The Jimi Hendrix Experience took the stage to blaze through a spirited set, live concert sound had drastically improved from the time of The Beatles baseball stadium tours, but crowd control was still a major concern. Between songs, Jimi pled with audience members to stop rushing the stage. A heavy police presence is felt; lyrics for their hit “Purple Haze” are altered (“’Scuse me while I kiss that policeman!”) and Jimi dedicates “Spanish Castle Magic” to “the plain clothes police out there and other goofballs.”
A Traveling Wilburys tour could have been one of the greatest tours of all time. You can picture it: They each do a short solo set to start, two or three songs apiece, maybe with a few duets thrown in. Then it builds to the main event, all five of them together onstage doing eight or nine songs from their two albums. The show ends with, inevitably, “End of the Line.”
It almost happened too. “There were plans,” Wilburys drummer Jim Keltner (a “Sidebury”) told me. “Big plans. We were going to go on a train tour. We were going to take a train across the United States.” Everybody thought Bob would nix it, but he didn’t. George did.
not the version Ray used on the blog but I couldn’t get it to play
So, in lieu of any actual Wilburys shows, I wanted to know, what Wilburys songs have been played live by actual Wilburys? Which Wilbury has performed the most Wilburys songs? Let’s count up, starting with…
Roy Orbison: 0 Wilburys Songs Live
Orbison died a month and a half after Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 came out. He was only 52 years old. Had he lived longer, you can imagine him absolutely crushing “Not Alone Any More” every night in concert. It wasn’t to be. RIP Roy.
Bob Dylan: 1 Wilburys Song Live
Sadly, Bob has never done “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” live (yet!). In the early days of the Never Ending Tour, though, he did “Congratulations” a few times. Toad’s Place is probably the most famous, but I prefer this version, from Birmingham, England. He’d just finished a hits-heavy run of “I Shall Be Released,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “One Too Many Mornings,” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” But when he sings the opening line of “Congratulations,” a huge cheer goes up from the crowd. As if they’re like, finally, a song we know!
George Harrison: 1 Wilburys Song Live
Harrison did one Wilburys song live, in 1997 at his final public performance before his death. He appeared on a VH1 show with sitar master Ravi Shankar to promote Shankar’s new album Chants of India. The vibe is very loose, with George just strumming whatever song he thinks of. “A bit of busking on here,” he jokes. Friend-of-the-newsletter John Fugelsang, who’s hosting the show, asks George, “One of yours?” George answers: “Well, sort of.”
It’s “If You Belonged to Me,” a Dylan song from Volume 3. Despite the casual setup, Harrison sings it beautifully, nailing all the words and even doing a tricky little acoustic run to end it. Either he remembers it perfectly from almost a decade prior or he’s been practicing it at home.
More “Wilburys By Wilburys” after the jump!...
note I have added playable videos so go to see the original post at the Flaggin Down the Double Eshere . . . . .
for Roy, Tom and George of course . . . . . . .. . and Ray P hisself!
