“The Load Out/Stay” by Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne cut "The Load-Out" onstage at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on August 27, 1977, while touring behind The Pretender, and it landed on Running on Empty, his 1977 album for Asylum. He co-wrote it as a thank-you to his road crew and his fans, and it walks through the daily routine of musicians and roadies on tour and all it stirs up.

It starts small, just Browne at the piano and David Lindley on lap steel for the first three verses, before a synthesizer drifts in and then the full band. From there it rolls straight into Maurice Williams' 1960 hit "Stay", with Browne, Rosemary Butler and Lindley on vocals: Butler takes the high part on the first chorus, Lindley answers in falsetto on the second. It's the sound of a show that doesn't want to end.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.