At the tail end of 1979, while Bruce was recording The River, Graham Parker and The Rumour were recording their next album as well. Danny Federici was doing double duty at the time, recording with both the E Street Band and with The Rumor–he appears all over the album. Parker’s album had another E Street connection as well: Darkness on the Edge of Town engineer Jimmy Iovine was in the producer’s chair for Parker’s 1980 release.
One evening, Bruce dropped by Graham’s studio, and the subsequent jam session led to a Springsteen guest appearance that’s more than a cameo but not quite a duet.
The track is “Endless Night” (a Springsteen title if ever there was one), and you can find it on The Up Escalator, released to positive reviews about five months ahead of The River.
Bruce’s vocals enter the scene just past the one-minute mark, and they don’t so much back Graham’s vocals as echo them. The effect is very much what you’d expect from an unplanned guest turn, and it only adds to the song’s charm.
Take a listen below.
Endless Night
Recorded: December 1979
Released: The Up Escalator (1980)
Never performed
