[00:00.20]Hurricane (Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy)
[00:03.23]
[00:20.50]Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
[00:21.48]Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
[00:24.70]She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
[00:28.05]Cries out, “My God, they killed them all!”
[00:31.71]Here comes the story of the Hurricane
[00:35.05]The man the authorities came to blame
[00:38.77]For somethin’ that he never done
[00:42.44]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[00:47.45]The champion of the world
[00:49.62]
[01:00.64]Three bodies lyin’ there does Patty see
[01:02.87]And another man named Bello, movin’ around mysteriously
[01:06.62]“I didn’t do it,” he says, and he throws up his hands
[01:09.57]“I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand
[01:14.63]I saw them leavin’,” he says, and he stops
[01:17.30]“One of us had better call up the cops”
[01:20.56]And so Patty calls the cops
[01:24.89]And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin’
[01:29.48]In the hot New Jersey night
[01:31.97]
[01:43.84]Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
[01:47.13]Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin’ around
[01:50.99]Number one contender for the middleweight crown
[01:51.93]Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
[01:55.35]When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
[01:58.32]Just like the time before and the time before that
[02:02.36]In Paterson that’s just the way things go
[02:05.49]If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
[02:10.62]’Less you wanna draw the heat
[02:13.18]
[02:22.89]Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
[02:25.53]Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin’ around
[02:28.73]He said, “I saw two men runnin’ out, they looked like middleweights
[02:32.43]They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates”
[02:36.29]And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
[02:39.79]Cop said, “Wait a minute, boys, this one’s not dead”
[02:43.03]So they took him to the infirmary
[02:50.12]And though this man could hardly see
[02:51.81]They told him that he could identify the guilty men
[02:54.15]
[03:03.78]Four in the mornin’ and they haul Rubin in
[03:06.57]Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
[03:10.00]The wounded man looks up through his one dyin’ eye
[03:13.23]Says, “Wha’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!”
[03:17.24]Yes, here’s the story of the Hurricane
[03:20.36]The man the authorities came to blame
[03:24.01]For somethin’ that he never done
[03:27.93]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[03:32.65]The champion of the world
[03:35.15]
[03:44.67]Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
[03:48.05]Rubin’s in South America, fightin’ for his name
[03:52.71]While Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still in the robbery game
[03:54.44]And the cops are puttin’ the screws to him, lookin’ for somebody to blame
[03:58.34]“Remember that murder that happened in a bar?”
[04:01.76]“Remember you said you saw the getaway car?”
[04:05.57]“You think you’d like to play ball with the law?”
[04:09.16]“Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin’ that night?”
[04:11.84]“Don’t forget that you are white”
[04:15.63]
[04:27.27]Arthur Dexter Bradley said, “I’m really not sure”
[04:28.69]Cops said, “A poor boy like you could use a break
[04:31.74]We got you for the motel job and we’re talkin’ to your friend Bello
[04:35.50]Now you don’t wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
[04:40.24]You’ll be doin’ society a favor
[04:42.56]That sonofabitch is brave and gettin’ braver
[04:46.28]We want to put his ass in stir
[04:49.24]We want to pin this triple murder on him
[04:54.07]He ain’t no Gentleman Jim”
[04:55.45]
[05:05.85]Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
[05:09.03]But he never did like to talk about it all that much
[05:12.10]It’s my work, he’d say, and I do it for pay
[05:15.68]And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way
[05:19.71]Up to some paradise
[05:22.86]Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
[05:26.35]And ride a horse along a trail
[05:30.41]But then they took him to the jailhouse
[05:34.40]Where they try to turn a man into a mouse
[05:39.66]
[05:46.52]All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance
[05:48.96]The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
[05:51.56]The judge made Rubin’s witnesses drunkards from the slums
[05:55.22]To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
[05:58.79]And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
[06:02.78]No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
[06:09.77]And though they could not produce the gun
[06:13.84]The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
[06:17.91]And the all-white jury agreed
[06:21.25]
[06:29.87]Rubin Carter was falsely tried
[06:32.66]The crime was murder “one,” guess who testified?
[06:37.59]Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
[06:39.78]And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
[06:43.80]How can the life of such a man
[06:46.67]Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
[06:52.97]To see him obviously framed
[06:54.01]Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
[06:57.35]Where justice is a game
[07:02.36]
[07:10.39]Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
[07:13.38]Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
[07:16.38]While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
[07:20.59]An innocent man in a living hell
[07:24.30]That’s the story of the Hurricane
[07:27.50]But it won’t be over till they clear his name
[07:30.97]And give him back the time he’s done
[07:36.27]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[07:38.07]The champion of the world