"Hurricane" by Bob Dylan
LyricsPistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall. She sees the bartender in a pool of blood, Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!" |
CommentsMr. Dylan takes poetic license with the facts throughout the song, particularly in his descriptions of what people said and did. His quotes are not real (according to the real "Miss Patty Valentine," who was interviewed for this report).
Valentine could not see the bartender. His body was behind the bar. |
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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-a been The champion of the world. |
The "somethin' that he never done" line fails the accuracy test.
Could-a been the champ? His record was 7-7-1 in 1965-'66 and getting worse each year. |
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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 the hot New Jersey night. |
Mr. Dylan's imagination is running wild again.
It was four months later when Bello admitted to police that he had taken cash from the register. Bello DID NOT step over bodies to go steal money from the cash register. He went to the register to get a dime to call police and took an extra $60 in cash -- which he fully admitted at trial. Yes he stole it; no, that was not his reason for going to the register. Pat Valentine said on 1/12/00 that none of this exchange between her and Bello actually happened. BOTH Bello and Valentine called the cops. Bello was so rattled while he was on the phone that he couldn't remember what street the bar was on and ran outside to look for a sign. He couldn't find it -- even though it was right there on the corner. |
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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 wanna draw the heat. |
This is the first of several verses in which Dylan uses racism over reason in an attempt to discredit those who prosecuted Carter. His use of racism is coupled with generalizations that don't address the facts. Well, that's just the way things go.
No act of racism by prosecutors has ever been documented. The judge who freed Carter said the use of the racial revenge theory, which calls the murders retaliation for the earlier killing of a black man, appealed to "racism over reason." But the jury that convicted Carter in 1976 had two voting black members, and a black legislator (working with a black investigator) who examined the case for the N.J. governor said racial revenge was the only plausible explanation for the murders. On the day of the murders, press reports raised the possibility of racial revenge. Carter's car was pulled over because it matched the description of the getaway car — perfectly. |
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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." |
Bello did not admit the attempted burglary until months later when he gave a full statement about what he saw that night.(Bello and Bradley were near the murder scene to break into a sheet metal company.)
The quote is made up, and the description of the car was much more precise because it included the distinctive butterfly tail lights. It was so precise that two police officers immediately recognized Carter's car from the description because they had pulled it over minutes before. |
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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 though this man could hardly see They told him that he could identify the guilty men. |
This implies that Valentine just went along with the racist conspiracy when in fact she too described the getaway car, its distinctive taillights, and its out-of-state plates. Within an hour of the crime, she positively identified Carter's car as the killers' getaway car.
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Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs. The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!" |
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Two cops stopped Carter's car just 10 minutes after the murders and let him go. Minutes later, after getting a detailed description of the killers' car, those cops realized Carter's car fit the description and went looking for it. They found it -- with Carter and Artis inside -- just 30 minutes after the murders. THAT is how Carter got caught.
He ain't the guy?! The wounded man, Willie Marins, made no such statement. He said "I don't know." Marins was too scared to identify Carter publicly, but privately he told his brother and two friends that it was Carter and Artis who did the shooting. Significantly, Marins NEVER SAID it was NOT Carter and Artis. Carter reports that fact in his own book on Page 329. |
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Four months later, the ghettos are 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 screws to him, lookin' 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-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?" "Don't forget that you are white." |
This is made up and another irresponsible attempt to discredit by using racism without facts. The quotes are all made up.
The cops had no need to put the screws to Bradly because his partner Bello had already identified Carter by name. After Bello gave his statement, detectives went to interview Bradley — who was 75 miles away in a reformatory and therefore could not have coordinated stories with Bello. During the interview, Bradley was afraid to identify Carter while a guard was present, but said the killer "has many fans" and said his initials are "R.C.," Bradley's full statement about the events of that night matched Bello's. |
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Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow. You'll be doin' society a favor. |
This is all made up.
Bradley was already IN jail (a reformatory) when he was approached by detectives. According to the investigating detectives' report: "The guard went out of the room for a short period and Bradley said the he saw Rubin Carter come around the corner with what he thought was a rifle. ... Bradley confirmed the story told to us by Alfred Bello." |
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That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his ass in stir We want to pin this triple murder on him He ain't no Gentleman Jim." |
Dylan is again trying to discredit police by attributing their actions to racism without citing facts.
I think the "braver" line is an allusion to Carter's comments in the Saturday Evening Post about shooting cops. Carter blames the story for bringing the cops down on him — but then, he blames others for virtually everything bad that ever happened to him. Gentleman Jim was a famous white boxer. |
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Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much. It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way Up to some paradise Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice And ride a horse along a trail. But then they took him to the jailhouse Where they try to turn a man into a mouse. |
Noooo — he liked to talk about punching out horses. And shooting at people.
Paradise? Trout streams? Nice air? Oh c'mon, Bob! He left his wife at home and was hanging around and drinking in Paterson bars that night. He spent so much time at the Nite Spot he had a special table. This is a lame attempt to portray Carter — who was convicted of beating and robbing people before he became a convicted murderer — as a nature-loving man of peace. Funny. And sad. Months after Dylan released this song, Carter beat up a woman who was the leader of the "Free Carter" campaign in New Jersey. |
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All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance. The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum |
"Marked in advance?" Ah, the police conspiracy. Doesn't it strike you as odd that no credible evidence of a conspiracy has been revealed in over 35 years? Has Carter team ever taken their conspiracy allegations to higher authorities? Has Carter ever sued? No.
Pig-circus = police slur. Another attempt to discredit by generalizing without facts. The judge made them out to be drunkards from the slums? That's news to me. That alone would have been grounds for a new trial. [The judge did ask one drunken witness how many drinks he had consumed before testifying.] Revolutionary? Will someone please fill me in on Rubin Carter's civil rights achievements? I am aware of none — except his claim to have turned down Dr. King when King allegedly asked him to join a march. All the black leaders Carter claims to have been friends with are dead (King, Malcolm X, Steve Biko). Does that tell you anything? |
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And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger. And though they could not produce the gun, The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed And the all-white jury agreed. |
No guns were needed to get a conviction. Two trials proved that.
The jury that convicted Carter in 1976 had two blacks. Of course, that trial occurred after this song was written. Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys, the man who at the 1976 trial said Carter "did the deed," was a civil rights activist and a member of the NAACP. He was about as far from being a racist as a white guy can get. |
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Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified? Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride. |
Bello and Bradley baldly lied? They were interviewed separately and had not seen each other in months, yet they told the same story about that night. Other witnesses corroborated parts of their stories.
Newspapers went along for the ride? Here's another pathetic attempt to discredit without offering a shred of facts. When this song was being written, my paper was printing "the other side of the story," which showed why Carter was guilty. Carter's team didn't like that. If Dylan had adhered to the standards of ethics and accuracy that are followed by good newspaper reporters, this would be a much different song. |
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How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand? To see him obviously framed Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land Where justice is a game. |
I take this to be a shot at Lt. DeSimone, by all accounts a decent, honest and sensitive man, and not a racist.
The attacks in this song were very hurtful to DeSimone and his family. His boss was also a very ethical man. |
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Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell An innocent man in a living hell. That's the story of the Hurricane, But it won't be over till they clear his name And give him back the time he's done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been The champion of the world. |
People have received millions of dollars for being falsely imprisoned. So why hasn't Rubin Carter sued?
Could-a been a champion? More likely he could-a been a Quadruple Murderer. Bottom line ... it's a great song if you just ignore the words. |