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Inside Out

Written by: The full band Lead vocals: Bob Dylan (verses), full band (sections and chorus) Length: 3:35 Album: Vol. 3, track 2

"Inside Out" carries more weight than its breezy, folk-driven arrangement lets on. It was the very first song the surviving four Wilburys tackled when they reconvened in 1990, and George Harrison later said the group had the music finished within an hour of sitting down to write, a detail he specifically credited with convincing him the band could continue without Roy Orbison at all.

The lyrics take on environmental themes with the group's usual light touch, built collaboratively in real time the way most Wilburys songs came together: one member throwing out an observation, another topping it, until a verse existed. Dylan carries the verses, with the rest of the band filling in around him in a style critics have compared directly to the vocal give-and-take that made the debut album so appealing in the first place.

Released as a promotional single, "Inside Out" reached number 16 on the mainstream rock charts and remains one of the more fondly remembered tracks from an album that, fairly or not, spent most of its existence in its predecessor's shadow.

Previous track: She's My Baby. Next track: If You Belonged to Me. Or see the full Vol. 3 tracklist.