18_desire/hurricane.htm

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   7 <title>Hurricane</title>
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  13 <h1 class="songtitle">Hurricane</h1>
  14
  15
  16 <p>Words and music Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy<br />
  17 Released on <a class="recordlink" href="index.htm">Desire</a> (1976), and in a live version on <a class="recordlink" href="../42_bs5/index.htm">Live 1975</a> (2002)<br /></p>
  18
  19 <p>Tabbed by Eyolf &Oslash;strem</p>
  20
  21 <p>The <em>Live 1975</em> version is virtually identical to the album
  22 version (chord-wise)</p>
  23
  24 <hr />
  25
  26 <pre class="verse">
  27 |: Am   F   Am   F :|
  28
  29 Am                           F
  30 Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
  31 Am                             F
  32 Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
  33 Am                          F
  34 She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
  35 Am                       F
  36 Cries out, &quot;My God, they killed them all!&quot;
  37 C                           F
  38 Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
  39 C                       F
  40 The man the authorities came to blame
  41 Dm                          C
  42 For somethin' that he never done.
  43 Dm                        C   Em              Am
  44 Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
  45     F               C       G
  46 The champion of the world.
  47
  48 Am   F   Am   F
  49
  50 Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
  51 And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
  52 &quot;I didn't do it,&quot; he says, and he throws up his hands
  53 &quot;I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
  54 I saw them leavin',&quot; he says, and he stops
  55 &quot;One of us had better call up the cops.&quot;
  56 And so Patty calls the cops
  57 And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
  58 In the hot New Jersey night.
  59
  60 Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
  61 Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
  62 Number one contender for the middleweight crown
  63 Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
  64 When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
  65 Just like the time before and the time before that.
  66 In Paterson that's just the way things go.
  67 If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
  68 'Less you wanna draw the heat.
  69
  70 Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
  71 Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
  72 He said, &quot;I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
  73 They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates.&quot;
  74 And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
  75 Cop said, &quot;Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead&quot;
  76 So they took him to the infirmary
  77 And though this man could hardly see
  78 They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
  79
  80 Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
  81 Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
  82 The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
  83 Says, &quot;Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!&quot;
  84 Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
  85 The man the authorities came to blame
  86 For somethin' that he never done.
  87 Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
  88 The champion of the world.
  89
  90 Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
  91 Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
  92 While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
  93 And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.
  94 &quot;Remember that murder that happened in a bar?&quot;
  95 &quot;Remember you said you saw the getaway car?&quot;
  96 &quot;You think you'd like to play ball with the law?&quot;
  97 &quot;Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?&quot;
  98 &quot;Don't forget that you are white.&quot;
  99
 100 Arthur Dexter Bradley said, &quot;I'm really not sure.&quot;
 101 Cops said, &quot;A poor boy like you could use a break
 102 We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
 103 Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
 104 You'll be doin' society a favor.
 105 That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
 106 We want to put his ass in stir
 107 We want to pin this triple murder on him
 108 He ain't no Gentleman Jim.&quot;
 109
 110 Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
 111 But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
 112 It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
 113 And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
 114 Up to some paradise
 115 Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
 116 And ride a horse along a trail.
 117 But then they took him to the jailhouse
 118 Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
 119
 120 All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
 121 The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
 122 The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
 123 To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
 124 And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
 125 No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
 126 And though they could not produce the gun,
 127 The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
 128 And the all-white jury agreed.
 129
 130 Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
 131 The crime was murder &quot;one,&quot; guess who testified?
 132 Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
 133 And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
 134 How can the life of such a man
 135 Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
 136 To see him obviously framed
 137 Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
 138 Where justice is a game.
 139
 140 Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
 141 Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
 142 While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
 143 An innocent man in a living hell.
 144 That's the story of the Hurricane,
 145 But it won't be over till they clear his name
 146 And give him back the time he's done.
 147 Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
 148 The champion of the world.
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