Bob Dylan - Hurricane (Official Audio)

[00:16.92] Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night

[00:19.85] Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall

[00:23.81] She sees a bartender in a pool of blood

[00:27.28] Cries out, "my God, they killed them all"

[00:30.73] Here comes the story of the Hurricane

[00:34.47] The man the authorities came to blame

[00:38.48] For somethin' that he never done

[00:41.65] Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been

[00:46.72] The champion of the world

[00:49.37] Three bodies lyin' there, does Patty see

[01:01.86] And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously

[01:05.31] "I didn't do it" he says, and he throws up his hands

[01:09.30] "I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand"

[01:13.81] "I saw them leavin'" he says, and he stops

[01:17.00] "One of us had better call up the cops"

[01:20.18] And so Patty calls the cops

[01:23.37] And they arrive on the scene

[01:26.83] With their red lights flashin' in a hot New Jersey night

[01:32.67] Meanwhile, far away in another part of town

[01:43.83] Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around

[01:47.27] Number one contender for the middleweight crown

[01:50.73] Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down

[01:54.76] When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road

[01:57.94] Just like the time before and the time before that

[02:01.68] In Paterson that's just the way things go

[02:04.87] If you're black you might as well not show up on the street

[02:10.18] 'Less you want to draw the heat

[02:13.37] Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops

[02:24.79] Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around

[02:28.50] He said "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights

[02:32.23] Jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"

[02:36.21] And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head

[02:39.14] Cop said "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"

[02:42.86] So they took him to the infirmary

[02:45.81] And though this man could hardly see

[02:49.53] They told him he could identify the guilty men

[02:55.10] Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in

[03:05.99] They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs

[03:09.72] The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye

[03:13.20] Say "Why'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy"

[03:16.91] Here's the story of the Hurricane

[03:20.38] The man the authorities came to blame

[03:24.09] For somethin' that he never done

[03:27.28] Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been

[03:32.32] The champion of the world

[03:44.01] Four months later, the ghettos are in flame

[03:47.20] Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name

[03:50.66] While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game

[03:54.10] And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame

[03:58.10] "Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"

[04:01.28] "Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"

[04:05.01] "You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"

[04:08.20] "Think it mighta been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"

[04:11.66] "Don't forget that you are white"

[04:25.20] Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"

[04:28.13] The cops said "A poor boy like you, could use this break

[04:31.83] We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello

[04:35.30] You don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow

[04:38.75] You'll be doin' society a favor

[04:42.19] That son of a bitch is brave and gettin' braver

[04:45.93] We want to put his ass in stir

[04:48.86] We want to pin this triple murder on him

[04:53.90] He ain't no Gentleman Jim"

[05:05.60] Rubin could take a man out with just one punch

[05:08.79] But he never did like to talk about it all that much

[05:11.96] "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"

[05:19.67] Up to some paradise

[05:22.86] Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice

[05:26.31] And ride a horse along a trail

[05:29.23] But then they took him to the jailhouse

[05:33.48] Where they try to turn a man into a mouse

[05:46.50] All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance

[05:49.41] The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance

[05:52.87] The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums

[05:56.86] To the white folks who watched, he was a revolutionary bum

[06:00.30] And for the black folks he was just a crazy nigger

[06:03.76] No one doubted that he pulled the trigger

[06:07.21] And though they could not produce the gun

[06:10.13] The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed

[06:15.45] And the all-white jury agreed

[06:18.90] Rubin Carter was falsely tried

[06:30.09] The crime was murder one, guess who testified?

[06:33.81] Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied

[06:37.52] And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride

[06:41.00] How can the life of such a man

[06:43.92] Be in the palm of some fool's hand?

[06:48.19] To see him obviously framed

[06:51.64] Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land

[06:56.15] Where justice is a game

[07:00.95] Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties

[07:11.04] Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise

[07:14.49] While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell

[07:17.95] An innocent man in a living hell

[07:21.68] Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane

[07:25.12] But it won't be over 'til they clear his name

[07:28.57] And give him back the time he's done

[07:31.77] Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been

[07:36.80] The champion of the world