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Intro
Verse 1
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
killed them all!"
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 have
been the
champion of the
world
Instrumental
Verse 2
Three bodies lyin’ there
does Patty see
And a
nother man named Bello, movin&rs
quo; around mysteriously
“I didn’t do it,&rdquo
; he says, and he throws up his hands
“
I was only robbin’ the
register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin’
,” he says, a
nd he stops
“One of us had bet
ter 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
Instrumental
Verse 3
Meanwhile, far away in a
nother 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 a
bout 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 t
hings go
If you&
rsquo;re black you might as
well not
show up o
n the street
’Les
s you wanna dra
w the
heat
Instrumental
Verse 4
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&rsquo
; out, they looked like middleweights
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 infirmar
y
And though this man could hardly
see
They
told him he could
identif
y the guilty
men
Instrumental
Verse 5
Four in the mornin’ and
they haul Rubin in
They
took him to the hospital and they
brought him upstairs
The
wounded man looks up through his
one dyin’ eye
"Say,
why’d you bring him in here for
? He ain’t the guy!”
Yes, here’s the story o
f the Hurri
cane
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
Instrumental
Verse 6
Four months later, the
ghettos are in flame
Rubin’s in South Am
erica fightin’ for his name
While
Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still i
n 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 wit
h the law?
Think it might-a been that fighter that you
saw
runnin’
that night?
Don&rsquo
;t forget that yo
u are whi
te.”
Instrumental
Verse 7
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, &ldqu
o;I’m really not sure”
The
cop said, “A poor boy like you
could use a break
We
got you for the motel job and we&rsq
uo;re talkin’ to your friend Bello
You don’t wanta have to go back to
jail, be a nice fellow
You’ll be doin&rsquo
; society
a favor
That sonofabitch is
brave and gettin’ braver
We want to put his ass in s
tir
We want to pin this triple
mur
der on
him
He
ain’t no Gent
leman
Jim”
Instrumental
Verse 8
Rubin could take a man out with
just one punch
But he
never did like to talk about it
all that much
It&rsquo
;s my work, he&rsq
uo;d say, I do it for pay
And
when it’s over I&rsqu
o;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
Instrumental
Verse 9
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 witn
esses 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 a
greed
Instrumental
Verse 10
Rubin Carter was
falsely tried
The
crime was murder “o
ne.” Guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they
both baldly lied
And the papers, they all went a
long 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 asham
ed to live
in a land
Where
justice is a
game
Instrumental
Verse 11
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
Yes, that’s the story o
f the Hurri
cane
But it won’t be over till
they clear his name
And give him back the time he&rs
quo;s done
Put in a prison cell, but
one
time he could-a
been
The
champion of the
world
Outro
(fade)
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