Hurricane (1976)

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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

Dylan first recorded the song in late July 1975; it featured Scarlet Rivera on violin and Vinnie Bell on Danelectro Bellzouki 12-string guitar. Dylan was forced to re-record the song, with altered lyrics, in October 1975 after concerns were raised by Columbia's lawyers that references to Alfred Bello and Arthur Dexter Bradley (the two star witnesses of the case) as having "robbed the bodies" could result in a lawsuit. Bello and Bradley had never been accused of such acts. Because there was too much leakage on the multitracks to make a vocal "punch in," Dylan decided to re-record the entire song. At this time, he was already rehearsing for his upcoming tour, and the musicians from the Rolling Thunder Revue were still at his disposal. Dylan took violinist Rivera, guitarist Steven Soles, bassist Rob Rothstein, drummer Howie Wyeth, and percussionist Luther Rix back into the studio, and a new, faster version of "Hurricane" was recorded with Don DeVito again producing, and Ronee Blakley providing a harmony vocal. (There is a noticeable mistake in the 8-minute recording at 4:02 where the backing singer (Blakley) gets her line wrong. She sings: "Remember you saw (said) you saw the getaway car.") The final version of the song, which runs over eight minutes, was spliced together from two separate takes completed on October 24, 1975.[4]

Even though some offending lyrics were removed, the song still drew legal action from eyewitness Patricia Graham (Patty) Valentine, who believed that it portrayed her as part of a conspiracy to frame Carter. However, her lawsuit was dismissed by a federal district court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal.[5]

Reception

The song was one of Dylan’s few "protest songs" during the 1970s and proved to be his fourth most successful single of the decade, reaching #33 on the Billboard Hot 100.[6] Billboard declared that it was "probably the most powerful song Dylan has recorded in a decade, combining the 'sensible hate' he showed in 'Masters Of War' with a perfect expression of the kind of injustice heard in 'The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.'"[7]

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.
  4. Clinton Heylin. Still on the road : the songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006 (1st ed.). 2010. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-55652-844-6. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  5. Guy Blackman. "Freedom of expression comes out the winner when rock's in the dock". 6 May 2007. The Age.
  6. "Dylan on U.S. Charts". Expectingrain.com. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  7. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. November 15, 1975. p. 72. Retrieved February 2, 2021.