Pistol shots ring out in the bar room 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
Three bodied lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving 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 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 somewhere in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kind of 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 Patterson that just the ways things go
If you black you might as well not show up on the streets
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 middle-weights
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 although this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up though his one dying eye
Says "why'd you bring him here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here 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've been
The champion of the world
Four months later the ghetto's on 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 screw to him looking 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 have been that fighter that you saw running 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 really use a break
We got you for the motel job and were talking to your friend Bello
Now you don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doin' society a favor
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in the stir
We want to pin this trip murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
He never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work he'd say, 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 make a man into a mouse
All of Rubin's card 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
but to the black folks he was 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 testifie?
Bello and Bradley and the both badly lied
And the newspapers all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's han?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help make him feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game
Now all the criminal 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
And 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've been
The champion of the world