Editing Incident on 57th Street (section)

==Lyrics and music==
According to Springsteen, the theme of "Incident on 57th Street" is "redemption," a theme he would return to again many times.<ref name=rs/>  The story is set in New York City and tells the story of "Spanish Johnny" and "Puerto Rican Jane."<ref name=words>{{cite book|title=The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen|author=Kirkpatrick, B.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/wordsmusicofbruc00kirk/page/25 25–26, 35]|year=2007|publisher=Praeger|isbn=978-0275989385|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/wordsmusicofbruc00kirk/page/25}}</ref>  It has parallels to [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s ''[[West Side Story]]'' in telling a ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''-like story with Latin American characters set in New York.<ref name=romeo>{{cite book|title=William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet|editor=[[Harold Bloom|Bloom, H.]]|chapter=''Romeo and Juliet'', "Media Repackaging," ''West Side Story'' and Bruce Springsteen|author=Buhler, S.M.|pages=87–88|year=2010|edition=Revised|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn= 9781604138139}}</ref><ref name=marsh>{{cite book|title=Bruce Springsteen: Two Hearts, the Story|author=[[Dave Marsh|Marsh, D.]]|pages=62–65, 102|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn= 9781135880484}}</ref><ref name=complete/>  Johnny is explicitly referred to as "a cool [[Romeo]]" and Jane as "a late [[Juliet]].<ref name=words/><ref name=romeo/>

Johnny comes to midtown [[Manhattan]] after getting beat up while trying to work as a [[male escort]].<ref name=words/>  Although rejected by everyone else, he finds redemption when Jane sympathizes with him, saying "Johnny don't cry."<ref name=counting>{{cite book|title=Counting Down Bruce Springsteen: His 100 Finest Songs|author=Beviglia, J.|year=2014|publisher= Rowman & Littlefield|asin= B00KXRZF7S|pages=179–181}}</ref>  They sleep together, but when his old companions call to him asking him to join them in making "some easy money," he leaves Jane to join them.<ref name=words/>  Jane tells him that "you can leave me tonight but just don't leave me alone."<ref name=counting/>  Johnny agrees to return to her tomorrow, although he doesn't actually know if he will be able to, telling her that "We may find it out on the street tonight, baby/Or we may walk until the daylight maybe."<ref name=counting/>  Springsteen leaves the ending ambiguous, leaving to the listener's imagination whether Johnny's adventure that night meets with a tragic end, or whether the lovers actually do get away.<ref name=counting/><ref name=inside/>

The music starts quietly, with [[David Sancious]] on [[piano]] with some support from Springsteen on guitar.<ref name=counting/>  The song proceeds at a moderate [[tempo]], supported by what music writer Jim Beviglia describes as "hiccuping" from [[Vini Lopez]]' drumming.<ref name=counting/>  But upon Jane's line of "Johnny don't cry," the music becomes more lively, with [[Danny Federici]]'s [[organ (music)|organ]] taking prominence.<ref name=counting/>  After Johnny wakes up from their night of lovemaking, the music dies down again to a solo [[bass guitar]] part by [[Garry Tallent]].<ref name=counting/>  There are three statements of the line "We may find it out on the street tonight, baby/Or we may walk until the daylight maybe" at the end of the song.<ref name=counting/>  Beviglia describes the first as "a whisper," the second as being "more assertive" and the last as "a maelstrom of sound" as Springsteen sings "with majestic desperation as the band crashes all around him."<ref name=counting/>  Finally, the song ends with Sancious again on solo piano, which Beviglia interprets as depicting Jane waiting for Johnny to return.<ref name=counting/>  The song's [[harmony|harmonies]] are based primarily on [[tonic (music)|tonic]], [[dominant (music)|dominant]] and [[subdominant]], and the subdominant is often played with a [[major seventh chord]].<ref name=inside>{{cite book|title=Inside Classic Rock Tracks: Songwriting and Recording Secrets of 100 Great Songs from 1960 to the Present Day|author=Rooksby, R.|pages=79–80|year=2001|publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn= 9780879306540}}</ref>

As with many of Springsteen's early songs, "Incident on 57th Street" has a complex, extended structure.<ref name=inside/>  There are three [[verse (music)|verses]], each in three parts, although the second verse skips the second part.<ref name=inside/><ref name=write>{{cite book|title=Bruce Springsteen: Learn from the Greats and Write Better Songs|author=Rooksby, R.|pages=25–27|year=2005|publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn= 9780879308360}}</ref>  The [[refrain]] appears after the first verse, but is skipped at the end of the second verse.<ref name=inside/>  At the point at which the second refrain is expected, the music slows down to the solo bass part leading directly to the third verse.<ref name=inside/>  After the third verse, a [[suspended chord]] on Federici's organ generates a return of the refrain, which is then repeated three additional times as the intensity builds.<ref name=inside/>  On the album, after slowing and quieting down to Sancious' ending solo piano part, the music segues into the driving guitars of "[[Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)]]."<ref name=inside/>