Pistols 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"
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Here comes the story of the Hurricane
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The man the authorities came to blame
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For something that he never done
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Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
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The champion of the world.
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Three bodies lying there does Patty see
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And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
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"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands
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"I was only robbing the register I hope you understand
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I saw them leaving" he says and he stops
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"One of us had better call up the cops"
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And so Patty calls the cops
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And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing
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In the hot New Jersey night.
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Meanwhile far away in another part of town
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Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
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Number one contender for the middleweight crown
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Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
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When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
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Just like the time before and the time before that
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In Patterson that's just the way things go
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If you're black you might as well not shown up on the street
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'Less you wanna draw the heat.
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Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the corps
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Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
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He said "I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights
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They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"
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And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
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Cop said "Wait a minute boys this one's not dead"
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So they took him to the infirmary
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And though this man could hardly see
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They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
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Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
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Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
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The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
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Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"
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Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane
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The man the authorities came to blame
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For something that he never done
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Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
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The champion of the world.
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Four months later the ghettos are in flame
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Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
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While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
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And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame
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"Remember that murder that happened in a bar ?"
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"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
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"You think you'd like to play ball with the law ?"
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"Think it might-a been that fighter you saw running that night ?"
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"Don't forget that you are white".
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Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
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Cops said "A boy like you could use a break
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We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello
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Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow
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You'll be doing society a favor
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That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver
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We want to put his ass in stir
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We want to pin this triple murder on him
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He ain't no Gentleman Jim".
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Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
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But he never did like to talk about it all that much
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It's my work he'd say and I do it for pay
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And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
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Up to some paradise
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Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
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And ride a horse along a trail
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But then they took him to the jailhouse
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Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
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All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
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The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance
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The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
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To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
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And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
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No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
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And though they could not produce the gun
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The DA said he was the one who did the deed
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And the all-white jury agreed.
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Rubin Carter was falsely tried
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The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified
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Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
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And the newspapers they all went along for the ride
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How can the life of such a man
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Be in the palm of some fool's hand ?
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To see him obviously framed
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Couldn't help but |