Editing Incident on 57th Street (section)

==Reception==
Music writer Patrick Humphries describes "Incident on 57th Street" as "the moment when Springsteen the writer came into his own."<ref name=complete>{{cite book|title=The Complete Guide to the Music of Bruce Springsteen|author=Humphries, P.|pages=13–14|year=1996|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=071195304X}}</ref>  Music critic [[Clinton Heylin]] called it "an early masterpiece, it is the kinda epic song [Springsteen] has spent his youth imagining and the [previous] 18 months working towards.<ref name=heylin/>  ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' critic [[Dave Marsh]] calls it one of the "few precious moments in rock when you can hear a musician overcoming both his own limits and the restrictions of the form."<ref name=marsh/>  Beviglia calls it "the bridge from the 1973 Bruce to the one who has been near or atop the [[rock-and-roll]] world for about 40 years now.<ref name=counting/>  He goes on to say that "Incident" was a critical step towards Springsteen's being able to create ''[[Born to Run]]'', calling it a "dry run that came out perfect."<ref name=counting/>

In 2014, Beviglia rated "Incident on 57th Street as Springsteen's 3rd greatest song.<ref name=counting/>  In 2013, a ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' panel rated it Springsteen's 17th greatest song.<ref name=rs>{{cite news|title=The 100 Greatest Songs|newspaper=Rolling Stone Collector's Edition: Bruce|page=87|publisher=[[Rolling Stone]]|year=2013}}</ref>

Humphries sees an influence from "Incident on 57th Street" on the structure of [[Dire Straits]]' 1980 song "[[Romeo and Juliet (Dire Straits song)|Romeo and Juliet]]."<ref name=complete/>  ''Rolling Stone'' viewed it as a precursor to the "expansive urban storytelling" of Springsteen's 1975 classic song "[[Jungleland]]."<ref name=rs/>  According to Springsteen's [[saxophone]] player [[Clarence Clemons]], the introduction to "Jungleland" evolved from the piano and violin introduction to the version of "Incident on 57th Street" that Springsteen had been playing live.<ref name=clemons>{{cite book|title=Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales|url=https://archive.org/details/bigmanreallifeta00clem|url-access=registration|author=[[Clarence Clemons|Clemons, C.]] & Reo, D.|year=2009|publisher=Grand Central Publishing|isbn= 9780446558242}}</ref>  Springsteen himself has suggested that the lyrics of "Jungleland" may tell what happened after "Incident on 57th Street," with Johnny becoming "Jungleland"'s Magic Rat.<ref name=marsh/>