Am F Pistol shots ring out in the barroom 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 Em Am F C G Am F Am F he could have been the champion of the world
Three bodied lying there does Patty see and another man named Bello moving 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 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 on the side of the road just like the time before and the time before that in Paterson 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 middleweights 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 in 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" "A poor boy like you could really use a break
