Sunday, May 23, 2010

Handle (Me) with Care – ‘Been Beat Up, Battered Around’

Rarely do we see class on the scale of the late 1980’s Traveling Wilburys.

This little “happy accident” and “perfect collaboration” by five acknowledged rock music legends was to lead to one of those magic moments in life when all things collude together for good.

The abovementioned song took the world by storm at the time, almost as much as it did the band members, comprising George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison.

It has an absorbingly soothing message.

Sensitive to the growing pains we all go through in life—and continually so—these stars stepped their way serendipitously back into the common difficulties of life that hound the proudest and humblest multimillionaire alike, as much as each of us.

It discusses this nature of life that, well... suggests life truly is the not-so-perfect happenstance that we’d like it to be. We wish it (life) would treat us better.

It reminds us that we’re all “beat up and battered around” from time to time; that we all need to be handled with care, and additionally, that we need to actually handle others with care.

The song’s lyrics take us high above life where we can see things from a more philosophical, long term viewpoint. And the gentle grooving guitar-rich harmony these guys stumbled upon makes this thread an enduring musical wonder so engorged unto the heart.

But, the biggest thrill of this work of art is its broadness of application.

Its jumping-off point is scarcely truer—handle us with care—but it doesn’t stamp some overly dominant feature or statement on it.

It simply leaves the listener to muse into the imaginative sunsets of their personal situations.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

Reference: Traveling Wilburys Official Website “The Traveling Wilburys” at: http://www.travelingwilburys.com/default/index/

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