HURRICANE (Bob Dylan)
Am F Am F
Am F
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Am F
enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
Am F
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Am F
Cries out "My God they killed them all!"
C F
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
C F
The man the authorities came to blame
Dm C
for something that he never done
Dm C Em
Put in a prison cell but one time
Am F C G Am F Am F
he could have been the champion of the world
Am F
Three bodied lying there does Patty see
Am F
and another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
Am F
"I didn't do it" he says, and he throws up his hands
Am F
"I was only robbin the register, I hope you understand
C F
I saw them leavin," he says and he stops
C F
One of us had better call up the cops
Dm C
so Patty calls the cops
Dm C Em Am
and they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin
F C G Am F Am F
in the hot New Jersey night
Am F
Meanwhile somewhere in another part of town
Am F
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Am F
number one contender for the middleweight crown
Am F
had no idea what kind of shit was about to go down
C F
when a cop pulled him over on the side of the road
C F
just like the time before and the time before that
Dm C
in Paterson that just the ways things go
Dm C Em Am
If you black you might as well not show up on the streets
F C G Am F Am F
Less you wanna draw the heat
Am F
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Am F
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin around
Am F
He said "I saw two men runnin out, they looked like middleweights
Am F
They jumped into a white car with out of state plates"
C F
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
C F
Cop said "Wait a minute boys, this one's not dead"
Dm C
so they took him to the infirmary
Dm C
and although this man could hardly see
Em Am F C G Am F Am F
they told him he could not identify the guilty men
Am F
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Am F
They took him to the hospital and brought him upstairs
Am F
the wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Am F
says "why'd you bring him here for? he ain't the guy!"
C F
Yes, here the story of the Hurricane
C F
The man the authorities came to blame
Dm C
for something that he never done
Dm C Em
Put in a prison cell but one time
Am F C G Am F Am F
he could have been the champion of the world
Am F
Four months later the ghetto's in flame
Am F
Rubin's in South America fightin for his name
Am F
while Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
Am F
and the cops are puttin the screw to him looking for somebody to blame
C F
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
C F
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
Dm C
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
Dm C Em Am
"Think it might have been that fighter that you saw running that night?"
F C G Am F Am F
"Don't forget that you are white"
Am F
Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
Am F
The cops said "A poor boy like you could use a break
Am F
We got you for the motel job and your talking to your friend Bello
Am F
you don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
C F
You'll be doin' society a favor
C F
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver
Dm C
We want to put his ass in the stir
Dm C Em Am
We want to pin this triple murder on him
F C G Am F Am F
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"
Am F
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
Am F
he never did like to talk about it all that much
Am F
It's my work he'd say, I do it for pay
Am F
and when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
C F
up to some paradise
C F
where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
Dm C
and ride a horse along a trail
Dm C Em
but then they took him to the jail house
Am F C G Am F Am F
where they try to turn a man into a mouse
Am F
All of Rubin's card were marked in advance
Am F
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
Am F
the judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
Am F
to the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
C F
but to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
C F
no one doubted that he pulled the trigger
Dm C
and though they could not produce the gun
Dm C Em Am
the D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
F C G Am F Am F
And the all-white jury agreed
Am F
Brother Carter was falsely tried
Am F
the crime was murder "one", guess who testified?
Am F
Bello and Bradley and the both badly lied
Am F
and the newspapers all went along for the ride
C F
how can the life of such a man
C F
be in the palm of some fool's hand?
Dm C
to see him obviously framed
Dm C Em Am
couldn't help but be ashamed to live in a land
F C G Am F Am F
where justice is a game
Am F
Now all the criminal in their coats and their ties
Am F
are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
Am F
while Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten foot cell
Am F
and innocent man in a living hell
C F
that's the story of the Hurricane
C F
but it won't be over till they clear him name
Dm C
and give him back the time he's done
Dm C Em Am
put in a prison cell but one time he could've been
F C G
the champion of the world
Am F Am F Am F Am F Am F Am F...