BOB DYLAN - Hurricane
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin´ that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Three bodies lyin´ there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin´ around 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 up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin´
In the hot New Jersey night.
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin´ around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that´s just the way things go.
If you´re black you might as well not show up on the street
´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 infirmaryAnd though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
Four in the mornin´ and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin´ eye
Says, "Wha´d you bring him in here for? He ain´t the guy!"
Yes, here´s the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin´ that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Four months later, the ghettos are 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 screws to him, lookin´ 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-a been that fighter that you saw runnin´ 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 use a break
We got you for the motel job and we´re talkin´ to your friend Bello
Now you don´t wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You´ll be doin´ society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin´ braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain´t no Gentleman Jim.
"Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It´s my work, he´d say, and 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 turn a man into a mouse.
All of Rubin´s cards 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 |
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