“End of the Line” by Traveling Wilburys

"End of the Line" closes out Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, the October 1988 debut from the British-American supergroup, and in January 1989 it went out as the band's second single. It's a porch-swing shuffle passed around the circle like a jug: George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison each take a turn on the chorus, Tom Petty drawls the verses, and Bob Dylan, the one Wilbury who never steps up to sing lead, strums acoustic alongside Orbison and Petty.

Harrison wrote most of it, but all five share the credit, which is the whole Wilburys idea in miniature. Harrison and Lynne produced, Jim Keltner keeps the train rolling on drums with Ray Cooper on percussion, and the bright, chugging sound is pure good-natured fellowship. It climbed to No. 2 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart.

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