Album version
Spanish Johnny drove in from the underworld last night
With bruised arms and broken rhythm in a beat-up old Buick but dressed just like dynamite
He tried selling his heart to the hard girls over on Easy Street
But they sighed, "Johnny, it falls apart so easy and you know hearts these days are cheap"
And the pimps swung their axes and said, "Johnny, you're a cheater"
Well, the pimps swung their axes and said, "Johnny, you're a liar"
And from out of the shadows came a young girl's voice
Said, "Johnny, don't cry"
Puerto Rican Jane, oh, won't you tell me what's your name
I want to drive you down to the other side of town
Where paradise ain't so crowded, there'll be action going down on Shanty Lane tonight
All them golden heeled fairies in a real bitch fight pull thirty-eights and kiss the girls goodnight
Oh, goodnight, it's all right, Jane
Now let them black boys in to light the soul flame
We may find it out on the street tonight, baby
Or we may walk until the daylight, maybe
Well, like a cool Romeo he made his moves, ah, she looked so fine
And like a late Juliet she knew he'd never be true, but then she didn't really mind
Upstairs a band was playing, the singer was singing something about going home
She whispered, "Spanish Johnny, you can leave me tonight, but just don't leave me alone"
And Johnny cried, "Puerto Rican Jane, word is down the cops have found the vein"
Well, them barefoot boys, they left their homes for the woods
Them little barefoot street boys, they said homes ain't no good
They left the corners, threw away all of their switchblade knives
And kissed each other goodbye
Johnny was sitting on the fire escape watching the kids playing down in the street
He called down, "Hey, little heroes, summer's long, but I guess it ain't very sweet around here anymore"
Janey sleeps in sheets damp with sweat; Johnny sits up alone and watches her dream on, dream on
And the sister prays for lost souls, then breaks down in the chapel after everyone's gone
Jane moves over to share her pillow but opens her eyes to see Johnny up and putting his clothes on
She says, "Those romantic young boys (those romantic young boys), all they ever want to do is fight"
Those romantic young boys (those romantic young boys), they're calling through the window:
"Hey, Spanish Johnny, you want to make a little easy money tonight?"
And Johnny whispered, "Goodnight, it's all tight, Jane
I'll meet you tomorrow night on Lover's Lane
We may find it out on the street tonight, baby
Or we may walk until the daylight, maybe"
Oh, goodnight, it's all right, Jane
I'm gonna meet you tomorrow night on Lover's Lane
Ah, we can find it out on the street tonight, baby
Or we may walk until the daylight, maybe
Ah, goodnight, it's all right, Jane
I'll meet you tomorrow night on Lover's Lane
Now we may find it out on, on the street tonight, baby
Or we may have to walk until the morning light, maybe
(Goodnight, it's all right, Jane)
(Goodnight, it's all right, Jane)
(Goodnight, it's all right, Jane)
(Goodnight, it's all right, Jane)
(Goodnight, it's all)
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and released on his 1973 album The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle. The above lyrics are for Bruce Springsteen's album version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET as released in 1973.
According to Brucebase, INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was written in mid-1973 and recorded during the second phase of The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle recording sessions. It was apparently the final song completed for the album.
The band line-up on this track is unknown, but as far as one can tell, Bruce Springsteen sings vocals and handles guitar, David Sancious plays piano, Danni Federici plays second piano, Vini Lopez plays drums, Garry Tallent plays bass, and Suki Lahav sings choir vocals. The track also has organ. Clarence Clemons was around for the recording, but did not play on this song so far as one can tell. The track, as well as the whole album, was recorded at Sound Studios in Blauvelt, NY and produced by Mike Appel and Jimmy Cretecos. On the album, the piano moves seamlessly from INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET into the next track, ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT).
INCIDENT ON THE W. SIDE is a unknown song from The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle period (fall 1972 to fall 1973). It is probably an early draft of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET, or possibly just an alternate title for it.
A handwritten lyrics sheet containing what appears to be an early draft of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET exists. See the early draft for more details.
The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle is Bruce Springsteen's second studio album. It was recorded between mid-May 1973 and mid-September 1973 at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, NY. Studio time was slotted in during various itinerary breaks in the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Tour, but recording sessions dragged on much longer than originally anticipated and this eventually caused some gig rescheduling and cancellations during the period from July to September 1973.
The album's recording sessions can be split into distinct phases:
Most of the basic ensemble recording of The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle emanates from the first phase of sessions, prior to the arrival of David Sancious to the sessions on 22 Jun 1973. Sancious verified in a late seventies interview with Thunder Road magazine that most of the session songs had already been recorded (as basic tracks) by the time he joined. He then overdubbed his parts onto these recordings. THE E STREET SHUFFLE is an exception, which was written after Sancious became a member of the band. The latter phase of the sessions involved embellishing additional "frills" instrumentation, vocals, and experimenting with different mixes. No audio evidence has yet emerged that any of the basic recordings of were re-recorded from scratch with Sancious. Indeed, one of the most noteworthy aspects to the audio evidence that has emerged from The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle recording sessions is that there is not one genuine alternate take to be found – all song recording variations are merely alternate mixes of the same basic recording.
The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle was produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos and engineered by Louis Lahav. It features 7 new Springsteen compositions and clocks at 46:47. It was commercially released on 05 Nov 1973.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET can also be found on two Bruce Springsteen promo-only samplers.
Other versions of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET were also officially released.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been performed at least 34 times during what is considered The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour (September 1973 to March 1975), from 1974 onward. Some of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song must have been played on some more dates during The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour. The first of these performances, from 26 Jan 1974 in Nashville, TN, was a jazzy full-band version featuring Vini Lopez on drums and David Sancious on piano (see the live 29 Jan 1974 version). The next 4 performances, from spring and summer of 1974, featured Ernest "Boom" Carter on drums and David Sancious on piano (no audio from these performances circulates). The next performance, from 20 Sep 1974 in Upper Darby, PA, featured Max Weinberg on drums and Roy Bittan on piano (no audio from this performance circulates). The song became the show opener from that date onwards. The last 29 performances, from fall 1974 and winter 1975, were performed in a stripped down arrangement featuring Springsteen backed by Roy Bittan on piano and Suki Lahav on violin and backup vocals (see the live 05 Feb 1975 version).
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been performed at least 18 times during the Born To Run Tour (73 know dates / 81 known shows, July to December 1975). Some of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song may have been played on some more dates during the Born To Run Tour. On this tour, the song was the show opener whenever it was performed, and it was played in a stripped-down arrangement featuring Springsteen on vocals and Roy Bittan on piano.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been performed at least 11 times during the so-called Chicken Scratch Tour (35 know dates, March to May 1976). Some of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song may have been played on some more dates during the Chicken Scratch Tour. On this tour, the song was played in a full-band version, closer to the album arrangement than The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle Tour full-band arrangement, but "rockier".
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been performed at least 5 times during what is known as The Lawsuit Tour (62 know dates, August 1976 to March 1977). Some of that period's setlists are incomplete or unknown, and therefore, the song may have been played on some more dates during the Lawsuit Tour; it may have been played only once during the 1976 leg of the tour. On this tour, the song was played in a full-band arrangement similar to that from the Chicken Scratch Tour, but including the since-traditional extended guitar outro by Springsteen followed by a reprise of the chorus, not to mention some horrible harmonies from Steve Van Zandt on the choruses.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been performed at least 6 times during the Darkness On The Edge Of Town Tour (111 dates, May 1978 to January 1979), all between mid-September and early October. On this tour, the song was played in a straight-forward full-band arrangement. The live 20 Sep 1978 version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was released on the Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ September 20, 1978 official live download in 2017.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been performed at least once during The River Tour (138 dates, October 1980 to September 1981), on 29 Dec 1980 in Uniondale, NY. A few setlists from that period are incomplete, and therefore, the song may have been played on some more dates during The River Tour, but that's very unlikely. On this tour, the song was played in a full-band album-style arrangement. The live 29 Dec 1980 version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was first released on the War European EP in 1986.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 4 times during what is known as The Reunion Tour (132 dates, April 1999 to July 2000). The song was played in its traditional full-band arrangement. The live 25 Sep 1999 version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was released on the First Union Center, Philadelphia September 25, 1999 official live download in 2020. The live 23 Oct 1999 version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was released on the Los Angeles October 23, 1999 official live download in 2019.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 15 times during The Rising Tour (120 dates, August 2002 to October 2003). The song was played in a solo piano arrangement (see the live 27 Oct 2002 version), expet twice in 2003 when it was played in its traditional full-band arrangement (see the live 11 Aug 2003 version). The live 16 Oct 2002 version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was released on the Live In Barcelona home video in 2003.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 13 times during the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour (72 dates, April to November 2005). The song was played in a solo piano arrangement. See the live 08 Nov 2005 version.
In preparation for the Magic Tour, INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET is known to have been practiced during at least one of the private rehearsals that took place in September 2007 in Asbury Park prior to the tour's first leg.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 11 times during the Magic Tour (100 dates, October 2007 to August 2008). The song was played in its traditional full-band arrangement. The first four of these performances featured Danny Federici on organ (see the live 06 Oct 2007 version) while the rest featured Charles Giordano on organ (see the live 31 Jul 2008 version).
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 4 times during the Working On A Dream Tour (83 dates, April to November 2009). The song was played in a full-band arrangement. The live 07 Nov 2009 version of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was released on the MSG 11.07.09 official live download in 2020.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 10 times during the Wrecking Ball Tour (133 dates, March 2012 to September 2013). On this tour, the song was played 8 times in a full-band arrangement and twice in a solo piano arrangement.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed once during the High Hopes Tour (34 dates, January to May 2014), on 26 Feb 2014 in Brisbane, Australia. The song was played in a full-band arrangement. Audio recordings for most High Hopes Tour shows are officially available for purchase. See the live 26 Feb 2014 version for more details.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed 8 times during The River Tour 2016 (75 dates, January to September 2016). On this tour, the song was played twice in a solo piano arrangement (as show opener) and 6 times in a full-band arrangement. Audio recordings for all The River Tour 2016 shows are officially available for purchase.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed once during the Summer '17 Tour (14 dates, January and February 2017), on 22 Jan 2017 in Perth, Australia. The song was played in a full-band arrangement. Audio recordings for all Summer '17 Tour shows are officially available for purchase.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed during two of the five 2001 Asbury Park holiday shows. These concerts were billed as "Bruce Springsteen with The Max Weinberg 7 and Friends", with The Max Weinberg 7 serving as the house band, and Springsteen bringing guests on and off the stage throughout the shows. On these shows the song was played in an arrangement featuring Bruce Springsteen on piano and vocals, Soozie Tyrell on violin and backup vocals, Patti Scialfa on backup vocals, and Lisa Lowell on backup vocals. See the live 08 Dec 2001 version.
Bruce Springsteen appeared at a total of six Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers concerts at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, in 2010, 2011, and 2014. INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed on 04 Nov 2011 and 22 May 2014. The song was played solo on acoustic guitar.
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET was performed during the twelfth (2012) annual Light Of Day benefit. The song was played solo acoustic.
At least 5 artists have recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET.
Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake at BTX and Greasy Lake) for the lyrics help.
Some of the above info about the studio recording and the live performances is taken from Brucebase.
List of available versions of INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET on this website:
INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET [Album version]
