Zac Kaiser
English 102 Kate Brady
Due: 2/10/2009
“Here comes the story of the Hurricane, the one the authorities came to blame” is the most well know line from the song Hurricane written and performed by Bob Dylan. This perfectly sums up the entire eight minute epic song. This song not only touches racial issues by lyrics, but it also uses what is considered not heavy rock instruments to create an extremely heavy song. The argument that Dylan is trying to make is that middleweight boxer Rubin Carter was falsely charged and convicted of a triple murder crime. The eleven verse song walks through the unsolved murder of three people in a bar. In a lyrical sense this song is extremely descriptive. The listener can vision every word of the story that the song is portraying.
Dylan’s voice plays a major role for the tone of the song. He uses a very strong voice that grabs your attention. The instruments used for this song is also very unique, but they work perfectly. This song is very heavy, but in a different way than how distorted the guitar sounds are in the song. The instrumental section follows the same structure throughout the entire song, but the words and rhyme change every verse. The screeching violin breaks between the verses are just as heavy as a fast guitar solo. These things give two sides to the song. The song is a political protest, as well as an enjoyable melodic song to listen to.
Not only was Hurricane a nick name of Rubin Carter, but it is also used to represent the craziness and madness of this entire ordeal. Just like a hurricane, one bit of destruction led to another. There are many words and lines in the song that have second meanings. “Think it might have been that fighter that you saw running that night? Don’t forget that you are White” is a great example of this. This is the officer basically saying to the witness “even if you’re not sure of what you know here is the chance to convict a black man.”
The video for this song uses clips of a court trial, and clips of Rubin Carter boxing. Both of these tie directly to the lyrics of the song. “Rubin could take a man out with just one punch” is a line form the song, and this is portrayed in the music video. The video shows people being against Rubin, this is evident in the quote “To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum, and to the black folks, he was a crazy nigger.”
This song is a huge political protest for the time that it was written. “Four months later, the ghettos are in flame” is a quote from the song, and it greatly describes the state of racial issues that still existed in the early nineteen seventies in cities. African Americans destroyed cities in political outrage. This causes a double edge sword.
The entire song revolves around the logo that Rubin was an innocent man. Dylan is very clear about this point. The pathos in this song is to make you feel bad for the boxer. Dylan used a way to hit a nerve with the listener.
Hurricane is a song that is considered a cult classic. Being an eight minute song with a racial background doesn’t make it very radio friendly. But, this song with a large message did in fact become a favorite of many people. This song makes a strong argument that is still relevant today.
Song Lyrics:
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom nightEnter 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 blameFor somethin' that he never done.Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a beenThe champion of the world.Three bodies lyin' there does Patty seeAnd another man named Bello, movin' 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 copsAnd they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'In the hot New Jersey night.Meanwhile, far away in another part of townRubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.Number one contender for the middleweight crownHad no idea what kinda shit was about to go downWhen a cop pulled him over to the side of the roadJust like the time before and the time before that.In Paterson that's just the way things go.If you're black you might as well not show up on the street'Less you wanna draw the heat.Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' aroundHe said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweightsThey 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 infirmaryAnd though this man could hardly seeThey told him that he could identify the guilty men.Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eyeSays, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,The man the authorities came to blameFor somethin' that he never done.Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a beenThe champion of the world.Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his nameWhile Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery gameAnd the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' 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 that you saw runnin' that night?""Don't forget that you are white."Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a breakWe got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend BelloNow you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.You'll be doin' society a favor.That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.We want to put his ass in stirWe want to pin this triple murder on himHe ain't no Gentleman Jim."Rubin could take a man out with just one punchBut he never did like to talk about it all that much.It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for payAnd when it's over I'd just as soon go on my wayUp to some paradiseWhere the trout streams flow and the air is niceAnd ride a horse along a trail.But then they took him to the jailhouseWhere they try to turn a man into a mouse.All of Rubin's cards were marked in advanceThe trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slumsTo the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bumAnd 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 deedAnd 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 liedAnd the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.How can the life of such a manBe in the palm of some fool's hand?To see him obviously framedCouldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a landWhere justice is a game.Now all the criminals in their coats and their tiesAre free to drink martinis and watch the sun riseWhile Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cellAn innocent man in a living hell.That's the story of the Hurricane,But it won't be over till they clear his nameAnd give him back the time he's done.Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a beenThe champion of the world.
Video Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=few4kiKjNzw
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The writer makes the thesis pretty clear. The thesis is that the song is a protest song with pathos and ethos views. The line “The argument that Dylan is trying to make is that middleweight boxer Rubin Carter was falsely charged and convicted of a triple murder crime” shows this. It deals with both rhetoric and subject matter. Dylan uses a lot of rhetoric in how he writes this song with giving things dual meanings, as the writer points out ““There are many words and lines in the song that have second meanings. “Think it might have been that fighter that you saw running that night? Don’t forget that you are White” is a great example of this. This is the officer basically saying to the witness “even if you’re not sure of what you know here is the chance to convict a black man.”” The writer identifies the argument of the text throughout the paper but doesn’t touch on the video much. The argument is that Rubin Carter was falsely accused of a triple homicide.
ReplyDeleteThe writer provides a lot of specific ideas of the argument in the paper. Almost all of these come from the text and not too much from the video.
“Here comes the story of the Hurricane, the one the authorities came to blame”
“Think it might have been that fighter that you saw running that night? Don’t forget that you are White”
There are more, but as of right now my computer will not let me paste them. The writer could be more descriptive when talking about Rubin’s jail sentence and how he was in jail for 22 years before he was found innocent and released.
The writer analyzed his examples very well. There isn’t one argument that doesn’t back up the thesis. Near the end of the paper he touches on pathos and how you feel bad for the boxer. Indirectly he touches on ethos. The examples of this would be how Dylan uses logic to argue his case that Rubin Carter is innocent. The only this that could use more analysis is the video. The writer doesn’t touch on that too much and with more analysis he would have a great argument.
The thing that sticks with me the most in the whole paper is the line “To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum, and the black folks he was a crazy nigger.” This is the most vivid to me because it is after segregation ended and he only being accused because he is black. The whites thought he was just a bum trying to make a name for himself, and to the black folks he was crazy because he was trying to get ahead in a white man’s world. Nobody thought he could prove his innocence so they just assumed that he killed the people.