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[Intro]
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Am | F | Am | F
Am | F | Am
F
[Verse 1]
---------------------
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 Em Am F
Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been The cham
C G
pion of the world
[Bridge]
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Am | F | Am | F
[Verse 2]
---------------------
Am F
Three bodies 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 robbing the register, I hope you understand
C F
I saw them leaving," he says, and he stops
C F
"One of us had better call up the cops"
Dm C
And so Patty calls the cops
Dm C Em Am
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing
F C G
In the hot New Jersey night
[Verse 3]
---------------------
Am F
Meanwhile, far away 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 kinda 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 Paterson that's just the way things go
Dm C Em Am F
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street Unless you
C G
want to draw the heat
[Verse 4]
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Am F Am F 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 prowling around
Am F
He said, "I saw two men running out, they looked like middleweights
Am F
They jumped into a white car with outofstate 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 though this man could hardly see
Em Am F C G
They told him that he could identify the guilty men
[Verse 5]
---------------------
Am F
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Am F
They take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
Am F
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Am F
Says, "Why did you bring him in here for? He is not the guy!"
C F
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane
C F
The man the authorities came to blame
Dm C
For something that he never done
Dm C Em Am F
Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been The cham
C G
pion of the world
[Verse 6]
---------------------
Am F
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Am F
Rubin's in South America, fighting for his name
Am F
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
Am F
And the cops are putting the screws 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 Em
"Think it mighta been that fighter that you saw running that night?"
Am F C G
"Don't forget that you are white"
[Verse 7]
---------------------
Am F
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure"
Am F
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
Am F
We got you for the motel job and we're 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 doing society a favor
C F
That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver
Dm C
We want to put his ass in stir
Dm C Em
We want to pin this triple murder on him
Am F C G
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"
[Verse 8]
---------------------
Am F
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
Am F
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
Am F
"It's my work," he'd say, "and 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 Em
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Am F C G
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse
[Verse 9]
---------------------
Am F
All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
Am F
The trial was a pigcircus, 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
And to the black folks he was just 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 Em Am
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
F C G
And the allwhite jury agreed
[Verse 10]
---------------------
Am F
Rubin Carter was falsely tried
Am F
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Am F
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
Am F
And the newspapers, they 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 hand?
Dm C
To see him obviously framed
Dm C Em Am
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
F C G
Where justice is a game
[Verse 11]
---------------------
Am F Am F Am F
Now all the criminals 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 tenfoot cell
Am F
An 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 Em Am F
Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been The cham
C G
pion of the world.
[Outro]
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Am | F | Am | F
Am | F | Am | F
C | F | C | F
Dm | C | Dm | C | Em
Am | F | C | G | Am
F | Am | F
[(Fade out)]
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Am | F | Am | F
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