Hurricane

Bob Dylan

Am F Am F
Am F
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Am F
enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
Am F
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Am F
Cries out "My God they killed them all!"
C F
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
C F
The man the authorities came to blame
Dm C
for something that he never done
Dm C
Put in a prison cell but one time
Em Am F C G F Am F
he could have been the champion of the world
 
Three bodied lying there does Patty see 
and another man named Bello moving mysteriously 
"I didn't do it" he says, and he throws up his hands 
"I was only robbin the register, I hope you understand 
I saw them leavin," he says and he stops 
One of us had better call the cops 
so Patty calls the cops 
and they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin 
in the hot New Jersey night 
 
Meanwhile somewhere in another part of town 
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around 
number one contender for the middleweight crown 
had no idea what kind of shit was about to go down 
when a cop pulled him over on the side of the road 
just like the time before and the time before that 
in Paterson that just the ways things go 
If you black you might as well not show up on the streets 
Less you wanna draw the heat 
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops 
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin around 
He said "I saw two men runnin out, they looked like middleweights 
They jumped into a white car with out of state plates" 
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head 
Cop said "Wait a minute boys, this one's not dead" 
so they took him to the infirmary 
and although this man could hardly see 
they told him that he could identify the guilty men 
 
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in 
Take him to the hospital and bring him upstairs 
the wounded man looks up though his one dying eye 
says "why'd you bring him here for? he ain't the guy!" 
Yes, here the story of the Hurricane 
The man the authorities came to blame 
for something that he never done 
put in a prison cell but one time he could've been 
the champion of the world 
 
Four months later the ghetto's in flame 
Rubin's in South America fightin for his name 
while Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game 
and the cops are puttin the screw to him looking for somebody to blame 
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?" 
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?" 
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?" 
"Think it might have been that fighter that you saw running that night?" 
"Don't forget that you are white" 
 
Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure" 
Cops said "A poor boy like you could really use a break 
We got you for the motel job and were talking to your friend Bello 
Now you don't want to ave to go back to jail, be a nice fellow 
You'll be doin' society a favor 
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver 
We want to put his ass in the stir 
We want to pin this trip murder on him 
He ain't ne Gentleman Jim" 
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch 
he never did like to talk about it all that much 
It's my work he'd say, I do it for pay 
and when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way 
up to some paradise 
where the trout streams flow and the air is nice 
and ride a horse along a trail 
but then they took him to the jail house 
where they try to make a man into a mouse 
 
All of Rubin's card were marked in advance 
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance 
the judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums 
to the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum 
but to the black folks he was a crazy nigger 
no one doubted that he pulled the trigger 
and though they could not produce the gun 
the D.A. said he was the one who did the deed 
And the all-white jury agreed 
 
Rubin Carter was falsely tried 
the crime was murder "one", guess who testified? 
Bello and Bradley and the both badly lied 
and the newspapers all went along for the ride 
how can the life of such a man 
be in the palm of some fool's hand? 
to see him obviously framed 
couldn't help but be ashamed to live in a land 
where justice is a game 
 
Now all the criminal in their coats and their ties 
are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise 
while Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten foot cell 
and innocent man in a living hell 
that's the story of the Hurricane 
but it won't be over till they clear him name 
and give him back the time he's done 
put in a prison cell but one time he could've been 
the champion of the world 


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