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This is an official QUALITY TABS INC. TabFile
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This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation
of the song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship
or research.
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SONG TITLE: Hurricane
ARTIST/GROUP: Bob Dylan
ALBUM:
TRANSCRIBED BY: qualitytabs@qualitytabs.tk
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CHORDS:
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EADGBE EADGBE
Am (x02210) G (320003)
F (133211) Dm (xx0231)
C (x32010) Em (022000)
One of Bob Dylan's greatest songs. 8 minutes and 11 verses, this
song tells the true story of a black man who was wrongly accused
of murder. He was released in 1985 after spending 22 years in
prison. Dylan did this song in 1974 I think. Anyway, all this
is now a major movie with Denzel Washington. I haven't seen it
but I've heard they change things a bit, make it a bit more
Hollywood, like making him do a passionate speech at his retrial
which he never did in reality. Anyway, I'm not a movie critic,
just play the damn song!
INTRO:
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Am F Am F Am F Am F
[The only thing you might possibly have trouble with in this song
is the fast transiton from C to F to C in the verses. Here's
how you should play it:]
C F
E|--0---------------------------1----------1-1-1-0-0-0-0-----|
B|--1---------------------------1----------1-1-1-0-0-0-1-----|
G|--0---------------------------2----------2-2-2-0-0-0-0-----|
D|--2---------------------------3----------3-3-3-0-0-0-2-----|
A|--3---------------------------3----------3-3-3-0-0-0-3-----|
E|------------------------------1----------1-1-1-0-0-0-------|
Here comes the story of the Hurricane The man...
VERSE 1:
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Am F
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Am F
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
Am F
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Am F
Cries out "My God they've killed them all!"
C F
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
C F
The man the authorities came to blame
Dm C
for something that he never done
Dm C Em
Put in a prison cell but one time
Am F C G
he could have been the champion of the world
Am F Am F
VERSE 2: [play like VERSE 1]
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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 robbin' the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin," 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 flashin
In the hot New Jersey night
VERSE 3: [play like VERSE 1]
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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 kind of 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 just the ways things go
If you black you might as well not show up on the streets
Less you wanna draw the heat
VERSE 4: [play like VERSE 1]
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Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin around
He said "I saw two men runnin 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 although this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men
VERSE 5: [play like VERSE 1]
--------
Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
They take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up though his one dying eye
Says "why'd you bring him 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: [play like VERSE 1]
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Four months later the ghetto's 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 puttin' 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 have been that fighter that you saw running that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white"
VERSE 7: [play like VERSE 1]
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Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
The cops said "A poor boy like you could really use a break
We got you for the motel job and were talking to your friend Bello
Now you don't want to have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doin' society a favor
That son of a bitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in the stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim"
VERSE 8: [play like VERSE 1]
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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, 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 jail house
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse
VERSE 9: [play like VERSE 1]
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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
But 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: [play like VERSE 1]
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Rubin Carter was falsely tried
the crime was murder "one", guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and the both baldly lied
and the newspapers 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 make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game
VERSE 11: [play like VERSE 1]
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Now all the criminal 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
And innocent man in a living hell
Yes that's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear him 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
OUTRO:
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Am F Am F
C F C F
Dm C Dm C Em Am F C G
Am F Am F
Am F Am F fade out...
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