🎵
[00:16.32]Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
[00:19.98]Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
[00:23.88]She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
[00:27.30]Cries out, "My God, they've killed them all!"
[00:31.00]Here comes the story of the Hurricane
[00:34.96]The man the authorities came to blame
[00:38.43]For somethin' that he never done
[00:42.56]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[00:46.32]The champion of the world
[00:50.27]🎵
[00:58.75]Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
[01:01.85]And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously
[01:05.88]"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
[01:09.27]"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand"
[01:13.27]"I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
[01:16.97]"One of us had better call up the cops"
[01:20.66]And so Patty calls the cops
[01:24.33]And they arrive on the scene
[01:26.31]With their red lights flashin' in the hot New Jersey night
[01:31.36]🎵
[01:40.15]Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
[01:43.54]Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around
[01:47.18]Number one contender for the middleweight crown
[01:50.75]Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
[01:54.79]When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
[01:58.32]Just like the time before and the time before that
[02:01.48]In Paterson that's just the way things go
[02:05.33]If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
[02:09.69]'Less you wanna draw the heat
[02:14.70]🎵
[02:21.35]Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
[02:24.83]Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
[02:28.37]He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
[02:32.07]They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"
[02:35.65]And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
[02:39.16]Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
[02:42.66]So they took him to the infirmary
[02:46.65]And though this man could hardly see
[02:48.96]They told him he could identify the guilty men
[02:55.94]🎵
[03:02.72]Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in
[03:05.89]They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
[03:09.23]The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
[03:12.85]Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
[03:17.04]Here's the story of the Hurricane
[03:20.58]The man the authorities came to blame
[03:24.03]For somethin' that he never done
[03:27.62]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[03:31.44]A champion of the world
[03:35.99]🎵
[03:43.70]Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
[03:46.88]Rubin's in South America fightin' for his name
[03:50.57]While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
[03:53.92]And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame
[03:58.03]"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
[04:01.32]"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
[04:05.01]"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
[04:08.49]"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
[04:12.31]"Don't forget that you are white"
[04:17.67]🎵
[04:24.53]Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure"
[04:27.47]Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
[04:31.05]We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
[04:34.93]You don't wanna have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
[04:38.92]You'll be doin' society a favor
[04:42.39]That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver
[04:45.79]We want to put his ass in stir
[04:49.40]We want to pin this triple murder on him
[04:53.43]He ain't no Gentleman Jim"
[04:57.86]🎵
[05:05.26]Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
[05:08.37]But he never did like to talk about it all that much
[05:11.69]It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
[05:15.62]And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
[05:19.58]Up to some paradise
[05:22.98]Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
[05:26.76]And ride a horse along the trail
[05:30.03]But then they took him to the jailhouse
[05:33.33]Where they try to turn a man into a mouse
[05:39.38]🎵
[05:45.84]All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
[05:49.07]The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
[05:52.55]The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
[05:56.19]To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
[06:00.38]And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
[06:04.03]No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
[06:07.46]And though they could not produce the gun
[06:10.70]The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
[06:14.97]And the all-white jury agreed
[06:19.62]🎵
[06:26.98]Rubin Carter was falsely tried
[06:29.91]The crime was murder "one", guess who testified?
[06:33.97]Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
[06:37.10]And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
[06:40.85]How can the life of such a man
[06:44.74]Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
[06:48.05]To see him obviously framed
[06:51.67]Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
[06:55.77]Where justice is a game
[07:00.72]🎵
[07:07.04]Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
[07:10.77]Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
[07:14.27]While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
[07:17.68]An innocent man in a living hell
[07:21.63]Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane
[07:25.03]But it won't be over till they clear his name
[07:28.49]And give him back the time he's done
[07:32.16]Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
[07:36.02]The champion of the world
[07:39.57]🎵