Pistols 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"
  Here comes the story of the Hurricane
  The man the authorities came to blame
  For something that he never done
  Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
  The champion of the world.
    Three bodies lying there does Patty see
  And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
  "I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands
  "I was only robbing the register I hope you understand
  I saw them leaving" 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 flashing
  In the hot New Jersey night.
    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 Patterson that's just the way things go
  If you're black you might as well not shown up on the street
  'Less you wanna draw the heat.
    Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the corps
  Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
  He said "I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights
  They 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 that he could identify the guilty men.
    Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
  Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
  The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
  Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"
  Yes 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-a been
  The champion of the world.
    Four months later the ghettos are in flame
  Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
  While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
  And the cops are putting the screws to him looking 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 you saw running that night ?"
  "Don't forget that you are white".
    Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
  Cops said "A boy like you could use a break
  We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello
  Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow
  You'll be doing society a favor
  That sonofabitch 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".
    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.
    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 DA said he was the one who did the deed
  And the all-white jury agreed.
    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
  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.
    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 him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
  The champion of the world.