Hurricane lyrics

Artist  : Bob Dylan 
Song : Hurricane



 Send "Hurricane" Ringtone to your Cell 

 Pistols 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 something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a
been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving around
mysteriously
"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his
hands
"I was only robbing the register I hope you
understand
I saw them leaving" 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 flashing
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile far away 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 kinda sh*t 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 Patterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not shown up on
the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for
the corps
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out
prowling around
He said "I saw two men running 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 though 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 they bring him
upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying
eye
Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't
the guy !"
Yes here comes 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-a been
The champion of the world.

Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the
robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws 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-a been that fighter you saw
running that night ?"
"Don't forget that you are white".

Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
Cops said "A boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talking to
your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a
nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favor
That sonofabit*h is brave and getting braver
We want to put his as* 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 jailhouse
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
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The DA 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 they both baldly lied
And the newspapers they 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 make me feel ashamed to live in
a land 
Where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals 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
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a
been
The champion of the world.