Hurricane: The Story of Rubin Carter

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall She sees a bartender in a pool of blood Cries out, "My God, they've killed them all" Here comes the story of the Hurricane The man the authorities came to blame For somethin' that he never done Put in a prison cell, but one time he could've been The champion of the world Three bodies lyin' there, does Patty see And another man named Bello, movin' around 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 up the cops" And so Patty calls the cops And they arrive on the scene With their red lights flashin' in a hot New Jersey night Meanwhile, far away in another part of town Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around The number one contender for the middleweight crown Had no idea what kinda sh- was about to go down When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road Just like the time before, and the time before that In Paterson, that's just the way things go If you're black, you might as well not show up on the street 'Less you want to draw the heat Alfred Bello had a partner, 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 Jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates" And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head Cop said, "Wait a minute, boy, this one's not dead" So they took him to the infirmary And though this man could hardly see They told him he could identify the guilty men Four in the mornin', and they haul Rubin in They took him to the hospital, and they brought him upstairs The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye Say, "Why'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy" Here's the story of the Hurricane The man the authorities came to blame For somethin' that he never done Put in a prison cell, but one time he could've been The champion of the world