[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
Em                 Am   F                   C   G  Am  F  Am  F
He could have been the champion of the world

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 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
Em        Am    F          C  G  Am  F  Am  F
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
Em                 Am   F                 C  G  Am  F  Am  F
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 testified?
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 hand?
Dm                      C
To see him obviously framed
Dm                                      C
Couldn't help make him feel ashamed to live in a land
Em       Am   F       C  G  Am  F  Am  F
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