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THE TRAVELING WILBURYS

The 1989 single, 'End Of The Line' by The Traveling Wilburys (compromised Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty) was said represented "the train's last stop." 'End Of The Line' took place on a train. In the song, the band sung about "Well it's all right … Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring (end of the line)." 'End Of The Line' was the final track on the album, 'Traveling Wilburys Volume One'. 

In its review of the album in October 1988, 'Rolling Stone' magazine noted, "This is the best record of its kind ever made. Then again, it’s also the only record of its kind ever made." 'Rolling Stone' also observed it was stated on the album's liner the origins of the band, "The original Wilburys were a stationary people who, realizing that their civilization could not stand still for ever, began to go for short walks – not the 'traveling' as we now know it, but certainly as far as the corner and back." 

In 2013, some 25 years later, 'Classic Rock Review' website remarked, "The most perfect album closer to any album – ever, 'End Of The Line' contains a Johnny Cash-like train rhythm beneathe deeply philosophical lyrics, delivered in a light and upbeat fashion. Harrison, Lynne, Orbinson, and Harrison again provide the lead vocals during the chorus hooks while Petty does the intervening verses. 

"The song revisits the classic music themes of survival and return with the universal message that, in the big picture, it all ends someday. The feeling of band unity is also strongest here with the folksy pop/rock chords and great harmonies. The music video for 'End Of The Line' was filmed after Roy Orbison's death in December 1988, mere weeks after the album's release, and paid tasteful respect with a shot of a guitar sitting in a rocking chair during the verse which Orbison sang." 

Speaking to 'Mojo' magazine in January 2010, Tom Petty described writing a song with Bob Dylan, "There's nobody I've ever met who knows more about the craft of how to put a song together than he does. I learned so much from just watching him work. He has an artist's mind and can find in a line the key word and think how to embellish it to bring the line out. I had never written more words than I needed, but he tended to write lots and lots of verses, then he'll say, this verse is better than that, or this line. Slowly this great picture emerges. He was very good in The Traveling Wilbury's: when somebody had a line, he could make it a lot better in big ways." 

Speaking to the 'Count Down' TV program in 1990, George Harrison recounted the origins of The Traveling Wilburys, "First time it (the band) came about I just made a record called 'Cloud Nine'. In Europe, you know, they make those 12-inch singles and they usually like to have an extra song on the record. So they asked me for an extra song and I didn't have one already recorded. 

"So I thought the easiest thing to do was to go into a studio the next day and to write a song quickly, record and mix it and give it to them. So that night I had dinner with Jeff Lynne who was having dinner with Roy Orbison. We all had dinner together, and I said tomorrow I'm going to find a studio and go in some place, make up a tune and make this record. 

"So I said to Jeff, 'Do you want to come and help?' and he said, 'Yes, okay.' But the problem is, you know, where are we going to find a studio and engineer so quickly. So Roy Orbison was there and he said, 'Well, if you do something, call me. I'd like to come along and watch.' And I thought Bob Dylan has a little studio in his garage so I called him and said, 'Do you mind if we come along tomorrow?' He said, 'No, come along, that's okay.' 

"And Tom Petty, also, I had to go to his house to pick up my guitar around his house so he said, 'Oh good, I'll come.' I was wondering what was I going to do tomorrow so the next morning I started to write a song and thought well if Roy Orbison going to come it's silly to have him sitting there, you know, he's a better singer than everybody. I'll write a little part for Roy to sing. Jeff thought that was a bit cheeky. 

"Anyway, we got to Bob's house and Jeff and I finished the song off - the music to it. We didn't write words at that point and then we wrote the lyrics and that story, I said that story many times, about to try to think what the song lyrics would be? We needed a title or some idea and I saw a box in the garage at Dylan's house said, 'Handle With Care'. So we wrote the lyrics around that. As I had the part for Roy, I thought, I might as well get a part for Bob and Tom, Jeff, everyone singing in the middle part. 

"So we made the record. We mixed it. I took it to the record company. They said, 'Oh it's too good to just give to Europe on an extended play because it's not going to sell 'Cloud Nine' record.' It's not on the album. They didn't want it to be imported to America because it has no value. So I kept the tape in my pocket and I kept playing it. So I thought the only thing I could think of doing with it is, if we did that one song in one day, all we need are nine days with Bob and Roy, everybody and we make an album. So that's what I did. I asked them to 'Let's make an album.'" 

The Traveling Wilburys, George Harrison explained, "It came about by those circumstances and it just happened that Roy and Bob and Tom, everybody was there. By the time we finished the record - we wrote the songs in the 10 days but Jeff Lynne and myself then produced it into the album, so we spent a little more time working on it - and by the end of it, we thought it was a good record. I thought just by the people who were on the record, that's good enough maybe in America to sell four or 500,000 copies. If it's not good music than it won't sell anymore doesn't matter who is it. The record, obviously people liked it and it did very well so I was happy about it but I didn't expect anything really.    

"We wrote two songs a day for the first five days and then the following week we got together again we did five songs in one day with the drummer, all live, but that's the basic structure of the song, that isn't with the lyrics and the melody. We then wrote the words later ... When we make solo albums we take longer because it's difficult to make sure you're doing the right thing. 

"In The Wilburys, it's a totally different situation. With four people there, you know, when you write the words, if one or two people don't like that particular line then you just write it again. But by the time you've written the word or singing the word then you know that's final, that will do so you don't get hung up on it because it's shared responsibility, so, also in the structure of the song or the chord change or the attitude to the song has. 

"It's much easier to determine because if the moment everybody agree and start playing it, you know it's good enough for me if they all like it. The thing about The Wilburys for me is if we have tried to plan that or if anybody have tried, you know, say that, 'Let's form this band and get these people in it,' it will never happen. It's impossible. And the thing (Traveling Wilburys) happened completely just by magic, just by circumstances, maybe there was a full moon that night or something like that and it's quite a magical little thing really."

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