Hurricane (1976)

From blackwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
A735DF42-A50C-48F4-9A8B-DEBA1BE8EF50.jpg

Hurricane" is a protest song by Bob Dylan co-written with Jacques Levy and released on the 1976 album Desire. The song is about the imprisonment of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. It compiles acts of racism and profiling against Carter, which Dylan describes as leading to a false trial and conviction.[1]

Key Lyrics

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

Background

Carter and a man named John Artis had been charged with a triple murder at the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966. The following year Carter and Artis were found guilty of the murders, which were widely reported as racially motivated. In the years that followed, a substantial amount of controversy emerged over the case, ranging from allegations of faulty evidence and questionable eyewitness testimony to an unfair trial.[2]

In his autobiography, Carter maintained his innocence, and after reading it, Dylan visited him in Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey and wrote the song right after the visit.[3]

Controversy

Reference

  1. "Judge Drops Murder Charges In the Hurricane Carter Case". 27 February 1988. The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  2. Eric Boehlert. "Dylan's "Hurricane": A Look Back". 21 January 2000. Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  3. Clinton Heylin. Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. 2003. It Books. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-06-052569-9. Retrieved from Wikipedia, February 2, 2021.