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Lyrics for Hurricane by Bob Dylan:
| | | Artist: | Bob Dylan |
| | Album: | Unknown | | Track: | Hurricane | | | | Date Added: | 18/10/2007 | | Views: | 185 | | | | Lyrics: | 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’ve 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 infirmary
And 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
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 D.A. 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 in a prison cell, but one time he could-a
been
The champion of the world | | | |  Reddit | X / Twitter | Facebook | Copy link |
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