Lyrics Hurricane - Vanguart

Pistol shots ring out in the bar room night
Enters Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
And cries out, "Goddamn, they killed them all!"

Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he's never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Three bodies lying there, does Patty see
And another man named Bello, moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it", he says and throws up his hands
"I was only robbing the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leaving" he says, as he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive right on the scene with their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
The number one contender to the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
'Til the cops pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
'Cause in Paterson, that's just the way things go
If you're black, you might as well not show up on the street
Unless you want to draw the heat

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out there prowling around
They saw two men running and they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
The 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 morning and they haul Rubin in
They take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks through his one dying eye
Says, "Why did you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"

Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he's 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, fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws
To him, looking for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"Well, we think you might like to play ball with the law"
"We think it was that fighter that you saw out there on the streets that night"
"Don't forget that you are white"

Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure"
The cops said, "A poor boy like you could really use a break
We've got you for the motel job and we've been talking to your friend Bello
You don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favor
That son-of-a-bitch is brave and getting 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 liked to talk about it all that much
"It's my work", he'd say, "and I do it for pay
And when it's all over I'd soon go on my way"
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
To ride a horse along the trail
But then they took him to a jailhouse
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 the jury 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
Nobody doubted that he'd 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 fools' hands?
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 suits 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

This is the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over 'til 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