Hurricane

 
              
Intro: Am F Am F  
 
Am                F  
Pistol shots ring out in the bar room night  
Am                F  
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall  
Am                 F  
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood  
Am                F  
Cries out "My God they killed them all!"  
C                 F  
Here comes the story of the Hurricane  
C                F  
The man the authorities came to blame  
Dm                 C  
For something that he never done  
Dm              C  
Put in a prison cell but one time  
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He could have been the champion of the world  
Am                  F  
Three bodied lying there does Patty see  
Am                      F  
And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously  
Am                    F  
"I didn't do it" he says, and he throws up his hands  
Am                    F  
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand  
C                F  
I saw them leavin'," he says and he stops  
C                 F  
One of us had better call the cops  
Dm           C  
And so Patty calls the cops  
Dm               C  
And they arrive on the scene  
Em                    Am  
with their red lights flashin'  
F                  C    G  Am  F  Am  F  
In the hot New Jersey night  
Am                F  
Meanwhile somewhere in another part of town  
Am                        F  
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around  
Am                F  
Number one contender for the middleweight crown  
Am                       F  
Had no idea what kind of shit was about to go down  
C                F  
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road  
C                 F  
Just like the time before and the time before that  
Dm                 C  
In Patterson that just the ways things go  
Dm                        C  
If you black you might as well not show up on the streets  
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Less you wanna draw the heat  
Am                           F  
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops  
Am                             F  
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around  
Am                              F  
He said "I saw two men runnin out, they looked like middle-weights  
Am                        F  
They jumped into a white car with out of state plates"  
C                 F  
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head  
C                 F  
Cop said "Wait a minute boys, this one's not dead"  
Dm                 C  
So they took him to the infirmary  
Dm                C  
And although this man could hardly see  
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They told him that he could identify the guilty men  
Am                 F  
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in  
Am                 F  
Take him to the hospital and bring him upstairs  
Am                    F  
The wounded man looks up though his one dying eye  
Am                     F  
Says "why'd you bring him here for? He ain't the guy!"  
C                 F  
Yes, here the story of the Hurricane  
C                 F  
The man the authorities came to blame  
Dm                 C  
For something that he never done  
Dm                    C  
Put in a prison cell but one time he could've been  
Em    Am   F        C  G Am F Am F  
The champion of the world  
Am            F  
Four months later the ghetto's on flame  
Am                F  
Rubin's in South America fightin' for his name  
Am                    F  
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game  
Am                        F  
And the cops are puttin' the screw to him looking for somebody to blame  
C                 F  
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar"  
C                 F  
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car"  
Dm                      C  
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"  
Dm                                 C  
"Think it might have been that fighter that you saw running that night"  
Em          Am   F         C  G Am F Am F  
"Don't forget that you are white"  
Am                F  
Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"  
Am                     F  
Cops said "A poor boy like you could really use a break  
Am                           F  
We got you for the motel job and were talking to your friend Bello  
Am                        F  
Now you don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow  
C            F  
You'll be doin' society a favor  
C                 F  
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver  
Dm             C  
We want to put his ass in the stir  
Dm               C  
We want to pin this trip murder on him  
Em      Am   F    C  G Am F Am F  
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"  
Am                F  
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch  
Am                F  
He never did like to talk about it all that much  
Am            F  
It's my work he'd say, I do it for pay  
Am                    F  
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way  
C     F  
Up to some paradise  
C                F  
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice  
Dm         C  
And ride a horse along a trail  
Dm              C  
But then they took him to the jail house  
Em          Am    F          C G Am F Am F  
Where they try to make a man into a mouse  
Am                 F  
All of Rubin's card were marked in advance  
Am                    F  
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance  
Am                         F  
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums  
Am                         F  
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum  
C                 F  
but to the black folks he was a crazy nigger  
C                 F  
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger  
Dm               C  
And though they could not produce the gun  
Dm                      C  
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed  
Em      Am   F      C  G Am F Am F  
And the all-white jury agreed  
Am         F  
Rubin Carter was falsely tried  
Am                 F  
The crime was murder "one", guess who testifie?  
Am             F  
Bello and Bradley and the both badly lied  
Am                 F  
And the newspapers all went along for the ride  
C          F  
How can the life of such a man  
C            F  
Be in the palm of some fool's han?  
Dm        C  
To see him obviously framed  
Dm                C  
Couldn't help make him feel ashamed to live in a land  
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Where justice is a game  
Am                   F  
Now all the criminal in their coats and their ties  
Am                              F  
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise  
Am                   F  
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten foot cell  
Am            F  
And innocent man in a living hell  
C           F  
That's the story of the Hurricane  
C                  F  
But it won't be over till they clear his name  
Dm                C  
And give him back the time he's done  
Dm                  C  
Put in a prison cell but one time he could've been  
Em     Am   F          C  G Am F Am F  
The champion of the world