This morning’s CarTune is “Dirty World” from the 1988 debut album by the semi-fictional super group, The Traveling Wilburys. 

For those who aren’t old enough to remember, or simply forgot, the Wilburys were:

+   George Harrison — Nelson Wilbury

+   Bob Dylan — Lucky Wilbury

+   Tom Petty — Charlie T. WIlbury

+   Roy Orbison — Lefty Wilbury

+   Jeff Lynne — Otis Wilbury

…the gag being that the five Wilburys were half-brothers, the sons of five different mothers and one father, a well-traveled blues musician named Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.

Thus united, the group recorded two albums, The Traveling Wilburys Volume 1 and The Traveling Wilburys Volume 3  (another gag), though tragically, Orbison passed away before the second record was produced. But while it ran, the 1988-1990 project recharged the creative juices of Dylan and Harrison and introduced a whole new generation of listeners to the gifted Orbison, rock and roll’s royal tenor.

The automotive-themed lyrics of “Dirty World”—profane and silly at the same time—were reportedly inspired by a stack of car magazines that Harrison, a devoted car buff and F1 fan, left sitting on a table. The Autocar and Autosport back copies were passed around the room, generating ridiculous double entendres like “wax job,” “electric dumplings,”  and “parts and services.”

Or so the story goes. It’s a dirty world, such a dirty, dirty world. So here’s the band’s official 1988 video.

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