Hurricane

Lam Fa  x4

Lam                           Fa
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
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Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
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  She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
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 Cries out "My God they killed them all!"

Do                             Fa         Sol
  Here comes the story of the Hurricane
Do                         Fa
  The man the authorities came to blame
Rem                            Do
  For something that he never done
Rem                         Do   Mim
  Put in a prison cell but one time
              Lam       Fa               Do      Sol
He could have been the champion of the world

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Lam                              Fa
  Three bodies lyin’ there does Patty see
     Lam                              Fa
And another man named Bello, movin’ around mysteriously
Lam                                  Fa
  “I didn’t do it,” he says, and he throws up his hands
       Lam                           Fa
“I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand
Do                        Fa          Sol
  I saw them leavin’,” he says, and he stops
Do                       Fa
  “One of us had better call up the cops”
Rem                       Do
  And so Patty calls the cops
Rem                       Do                Mim         Lam
  And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin’
       Fa              Do      Sol
In the hot New Jersey night

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Lam                      Fa
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
      Lam                     Fa
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin’ around
Lam                           Fa
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
    Lam                           Fa
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
Do                             Fa           Sol
  When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Do                             Fa
  Just like the time before and the time before that
   Rem                                  Do
In Paterson that’s just the way things go
       Rem                         Do        Mim        Lam
If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
          Fa              Do     Sol
’Less you wanna draw the heat

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       Lam                               Fa
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
        Lam                                  Fa
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin’ around
   Lam                                     Fa
He said, “I saw two men runnin’ out, they looked like middleweights
Lam                           Fa
Jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates”
Do                         Fa          Sol
  And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Do                        Fa
Cop said, “Wait a minute, boys, this one’s not dead”
        Rem                      Do
So they took him to the infirmary
Rem                                 Do
  And though this man could hardly see
     Mim                Lam     Fa            Do    Sol
They told him he could identify the guilty men

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Lam                             Fa
  Four in the mornin’ and they haul Rubin in
     Lam                                Fa
They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
    Lam                               Fa
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin’ eye
      Lam                                   Fa
"Say, why’d you bring him in here for?  He ain’t the guy!”
Do                        Fa    Sol
  Yes, here’s the story of the Hurricane
Do                   Fa
  The man the authorities came to blame
Rem                            Do
  For somethin’ that he never done
Rem                          Do   Mim              Lam
  Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
    Fa               Do      Sol
The champion of the world

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Lam                       Fa
  Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Lam                       Fa
Rubin’s in South America fightin’ for his name
      Lam                                   Fa
While Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still in the robbery game
        Lam                                             Fa
And the cops are puttin’ the screws to him lookin’ for somebody to blame
Do                      Fa             Sol
  “Remember that murder that happened in a bar?
Do                         Fa
  Remember you said you saw the getaway car?
    Rem                                     Do
You think you’d like to play ball with the law?
Rem                                          Do   Mim           Lam
Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin’ that night?
         Fa                Do        Sol
Don’t forget that you are white.”

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Lam                               Fa
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, “I’m really not sure”
    Lam                                   Fa
The cop said, “A poor boy like you could use a break
   Lam                                  Fa
We got you for the motel job and we’re talkin’ to your friend Bello
Lam                                       Fa
You don’t wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
Do                     Fa  Sol
  You’ll be doin’ society a favor
Do               Fa
  That sonofabitch is brave and gettin’ braver
Rem                           Do
  We want to put his ass in stir
Rem                           Do  Mim     Lam
  We want to pin this triple murder on him
   Fa                  Do     Sol
He ain’t no Gentleman Jim”

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Lam                              Fa
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
       Lam                              Fa
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
        Lam                Fa
It’s my work, he’d say, I do it for pay
    Lam                         Fa
And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way
Do      Fa   Sol
  Up to some paradise
Do                                Fa
  Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
Rem                         Do
  And ride a horse along a trail
Rem                              Do   Mim
  But then they took him to the jailhouse
           Lam            Fa          Do      Sol
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse

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Lam                        Fa
All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance
    Lam                         Fa
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
    Lam                           Fa
The judge made Rubin’s witnesses drunkards from the slums
       Lam                               Fa
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
Do                                Fa       Sol
  And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
Do                  Fa
  No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
Rem                                      Do
  And though they could not produce the gun
    Rem                   Do       Mim      Lam
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
        Fa               Do      Sol
And the all-white jury agreed

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Lam                 Fa
  Rubin Carter was falsely tried
    Lam                       Fa
The crime was murder “one.”  Guess who testified?
Lam                           Fa
  Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
Lam                             Fa
And the papers, they all went along for the ride
Do               Fa     Sol
  How can the life of such a man
Do             Fa
  Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
Rem                     Do
  To see him obviously framed
Rem                                Do         Mim        Lam
  Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
      Fa            Do     Sol
Where justice is a game

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    Lam                         Fa
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
    Lam                         Fa
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
      Lam                          Fa
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
   Lam                Fa
An innocent man in a living hell
Do                        Fa    Sol
  Yes, that’s the story of the Hurricane
Do                          Fa
  But it won’t be over till they clear his name
Rem                              Do
And give him back the time he’s done
Rem                          Do   Mim              Lam
  Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
    Fa               Do      Sol
The champion of the world

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