Published: 2011-06-12 21:33 Selection chords: Sofia Davis
-1
Intro: G#mEG#mEG#mE
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
G#mE
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
G#mE
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
G#mE
Cries out My God they killed them all!
BE
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
BE
The man the authorities came to blame
C#mB
For something that he never done
C#mB
Put in a prison cell but one time
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
He could have been the champion of the world
G#mE
Three bodied lying there does Patty see
G#mE
And another man named Bello moving mysteriously
G#mE
I didnʼt do it he says, and he throws up his hands
G#mE
I was only robbin the register, I hope you understand
G#mE
I saw them leavin, he says and he stops
G#mE
One of us had better call the cops
C#mB
So Patty calls the cops znd they arrive
C#mB
On the scene with their red lights flashin
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
In the hot New Jersey night
G#mE
Meanwhile somewhere in another part of town
G#mE
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
G#mE
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
G#mE
Had no idea what kind of shit was about to go down
G#mE
When a cop pulled him over on the side of the road
G#mE
Just like the time before and the time before that
C#mB
In Paterson that just the ways things go
C#mB
If you black you might as well
B
Not show up on the streets
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
Less you wanna draw the heat
G#mE
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
G#mE
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin around
G#mE
He said I saw two men runnin out, they looked like middleweights
G#mE
They jumped into a white car with out of state plates
G#mE
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
G#mE
Cop said Wait a minute boys, this oneʼs not dead
C#mB
So they took him to the infirmary
C#mB
And although this man could hardly see
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
They told him that he could identify the guilty men
G#mE
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
G#mE
Take him to the hospital and bring him upstairs
G#mE
The wounded man looks up though his one dying eye
G#mE
Says whyʼd you bring him here for? he ainʼt the guy!
G#mE
Yes, here the story of the Hurricane
G#mE
The man the authorities came to blame
C#mB
For something that he never done
C#mB
Put in a prison cell but one time he couldʼve been
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
The champion of the world
G#mE
Four months later the ghettoʼs in flame
G#mE
Rubinʼs in South America fightin for his name
G#mE
While Arthur Dexter Bradleyʼs still in the robbery game
G#mE
And the cops are puttin the screw
E
To him looking for somebody to blame
G#mE
Remember that murder that happened in a bar?
G#mE
Remember you said you saw the getaway car?
C#mB
You think youʼd like to play ball with the law?
C#mB
Think it might have been that fighter
B
That you saw running that night?
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
Donʼt forget that you are white
G#mE
Arthur Dexter Bradley said Iʼm really not sure
G#mE
Cops said A poor boy like you could really use a break
G#m
We got you for the motel job
E
And were talking to your friend Bello
G#m
Now you donʼt want to ave to go
E
Back to jail, be a nice fellow
G#mE
Youʼll be doinʼ society a favor
G#mE
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver
C#mB
We want to put his ass in the stir
C#mB
We want to pin this trip murder on him
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
He ainʼt ne Gentleman Jim
G#mE
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
G#mE
He never did like to talk about it all that much
G#mE
Itʼs my work heʼd say, I do it for pay
G#mE
And when itʼs over Iʼd just as soon go on my way
G#mE
Up to some paradise where the trout streams
G#mE
Flow and the air is nice
C#mB
And ride a horse along a trail
C#mB
But then they took him to the jail house
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
Where they try to make a man into a mouse
G#mE
All of Rubinʼs card were marked in advance
G#mE
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
G#mE
The judge made Rubinʼs witnesses drunkards from the slums
G#mE
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
G#mE
But to the black folks he was a crazy nigger
G#mE
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
C#mB
And though they could not produce the gun
C#mB
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
And the all-white jury agreed
G#mE
Rubin Carter was falsely tried
G#mE
The crime was murder one, guess who testified?
G#mE
Bello and Bradley and the both badly lied
G#mE
And the newspapers all went along for the ride
G#mE
How can the life of such a man
G#mE
Be in the palm of some foolʼs hand?
C#mB
To see him obviously framed
C#mB
Couldnʼt help but be ashamed to live in a land
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
Where justice is a game
G#mE
Now all the criminal in their coats and their ties
G#mE
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
G#mE
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten foot cell
G#mE
And innocent man in a living hell
G#mE
Thatʼs the story of the Hurricane
G#mE
But it wonʼt be over till they clear him name
C#mB
And give him back the time heʼs done
C#mB
Put in a prison cell but one time he couldʼve been
D#mG#mEBF#G#mEG#mE
The champion of the world