[Intro]
Well, here's a song now
This is about a man in jail out there you probably have heard of
We're tryna get him out of jail

[Verse 1]
Pistol shots ring out on a barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the outer 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 something that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time, he could've been
The champion of the world

[Verse 2]
Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving mysteriously
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbing the register, you understand?"
"I saw them leaving," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call on the cops"
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night
[Verse 3]
Meanwhile, far away, in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit 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 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

[Verse 4]
Alfred Bello, he had this rap on the cops
He and Arthur Dexter Bradley were in here prowling around
He saw two men running out of here, 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, boys, 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

[Verse 5]
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Says, "Why'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could've been
The champion of the world
[Verse 6]
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws to him, looking for someone 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've been that fighter that you saw running that night?"
"Don't forget now, you're white"

[Verse 7]
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, we're talking to your friend Bello
You don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favor
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"

[Verse 8]
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
Never did like to talk about it all that much
"It's my work," he'd say, "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
[Verse 9]
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
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

[Verse 10]
Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder one, guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley, and they both lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
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

[Verse 11]
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 'til they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put in a prison cell, but one time
He could've been the champion of the world