[00:07.69]Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
[00:18.70]Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
[00:22.91]She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
[00:26.95]Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
[00:30.55]Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
[00:34.36]The man the authorities came to blame
[00:37.92]For somethin' that he never done.
[00:41.67]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[00:45.19]The champion of the world.
[00:49.53]
[00:50.62]Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
[01:01.63]And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
[01:03.60]"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
[01:08.88]"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
[01:11.28]I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
[01:15.80]"One of us had better call up the cops."
[01:18.85]And so Patty calls the cops
[01:21.75]And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
[01:27.64]In the hot New Jersey night.
[01:32.85]
[01:34.14]Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
[01:43.13]Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
[01:46.81]Number one contender for the middleweight crown
[01:50.30]Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
[01:54.32]When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
[01:58.29]Just like the time before and the time before that.
[02:01.13]In Paterson that's just the way things go.
[02:04.76]If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
[02:09.24]'Less you wanna draw the heat.
[02:18.05]Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
[02:24.38]Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
[02:28.05]He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like
[02:30.55]middleweights
[02:32.12]They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
[02:35.53]And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
[02:38.41]Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
[02:42.54]So they took him to the infirmary
[02:45.80]And though this man could hardly see
[02:49.45]They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
[03:01.86]Fourn the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
[03:05.38]Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
[03:07.17]The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
[03:12.44]Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
[03:16.56]Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
[03:19.86]The man the authorities came to blame
[03:23.51]For somethin' that he never done.
[03:27.40]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[03:31.38]The champion of the world.
[03:43.30]Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
[03:46.62]Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
[03:50.13]While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
[03:53.54]And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody
[03:56.00]to blame.
[03:57.64]"Remember  that murder that happened in a bar?"
[04:00.93]"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
[04:04.46]"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
[04:08.13]"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that
[04:09.93]night?"
[04:12.23]"Don't forget that you are white."
[04:18.56]Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
[04:27.27]Cops  said, " A poor boy like you could use a break
[04:29.75]We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend
[04:33.25]Bello
[04:34.58]Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
[04:38.80]You'll be doin' society a favor.
[04:41.98]That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
[04:45.50]We want to put his ass in stir
[04:47.02]We want to pin this triple murder on him
[04:53.32]He ain't no Gentleman Jim."
[04:59.05]Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
[05:08.00]But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
[05:11.11]It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
[05:15.20]And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
[05:19.07]Up to some paradise
[05:22.20]Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
[05:25.58]And ride a horse along a trail.
[05:28.87]
[05:29.53]But then they took him to the jailhouse
[05:32.93]Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
[05:42.02]
[05:43.14]All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
[05:48.73]The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
[05:52.17]The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
[05:55.73]To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
[05:59.74]And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
[06:02.93]No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
[06:06.58]And though they could not produce the gun,
[06:10.38]The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
[06:14.45]And the all-white jury agreed.
[06:26.09]Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
[06:29.78]The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
[06:32.10]Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
[06:36.90]And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
[06:40.67]How can the life of such a man
[06:43.73]Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
[06:47.59]To see him obviously framed
[06:51.30]Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
[06:55.85]Where justice is a game.
[07:05.97]Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
[07:10.19]Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
[07:13.85]While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
[07:17.39]An innocent man in a living hell.
[07:21.36]Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane,
[07:24.65]But it won't be over till they clear his name
[07:28.08]And give him back the time he's done.
[07:31.38]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[07:35.98]The champion of the world.