Hurricane (Bob Dylan song)

Hurricane (Bob Dylan song)

“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. Carter and a man named John Artis had been charged with a triple murder at the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966.

About Hurricane (Bob Dylan song) in brief

Summary Hurricane (Bob Dylan song)“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. 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 his autobiography, Carter maintained his innocence, and after reading it, Dylan visited him in Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township. After meeting with Carter in prison and later with a group of his supporters, Dylan began to write \”Hurricane” The song was one of his 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.

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 as having ‘robbed the bodies’ could result in a lawsuit. Even though some offending lyrics were removed, the song still drew legal action from eyewitness Patricia Graham 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.