Anatomy of a Song: "Hurricane" Quiz

Answer: The upper hall

"Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall"

Rather cautiously, one would imagine...

Answer: My God, they killed them all

"She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"

As it turns out, Patty wasn't quite right about that. Later in the song we hear:

"Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men"

Answer: Three

"Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see".

Answer: New Jersey

This fact gets revealed at the end of the second verse:

"And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night".

Answer: Alfred Bello

"Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously".

Aha! He did it! He did it!

Answer: Robbing the register

"I didn't do it, he says, and he throws up his hands
I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand".

Answer: Patty

Says Bello near the end of the second verse:

"I saw them leavin'" he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"

As a consequence:

"And so Patty calls the cops".

Answer: Drivin' around

"Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around"

Taken from www.songfacts.com: "Carter was sentenced...for the murder of 3 white people who were gunned down at a bar in Paterson, New Jersey on June 16, 1967. Police were looking for 2 black men and pulled over Carter and his friend John Artis. They were sentenced to life in prison".

Answer: Middleweight

"Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around
The number one contender for the middleweight crown"

That statement seems to be in dispute on a number of websites, particularly those opposed to Carter's innocence or more specifically, that wish to de-bunk what they consider to be the many myths from the 1999 film starring Denzil Washington. They argue that Carter's career had been in decline for some years.

Answer: Dexter

"Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around".

Aha! They did it! They did it!

Answer: White

"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".

And so, the scene is set for the later arrest...

Answer: Four

The song states:

"Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in
They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs".

Answer: Yes

"Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name".

Answer: The motel job

"Arthur Dexter Bradley said, I'm really not sure
Cops said, a poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
You don't wanna have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow".

Some none-too-subtle hints being thrown into the conversation by the detectives there!

Answer: "It's my work"

"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, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way".

Rubin Carter's story was told in the 1999 movie "Hurricane", starring Denzel Washington.

Answer: A pig circus

"All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance".

I guess by this stage he had already realised there was only going to be one outcome.

Answer: All white

"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".

Yep. Only one outcome...

Answer: Murder one

"Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder "one", guess who testified?"

Yeah. Guess who?

"Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride".

Answer: Martini

"Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise"

An interesting analogy to corporate crime:

"While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell".

Answer: 1967 - 1985

Rubin Carter was not freed until 1985, when his conviction was finally overturned. According to www.songfacts.com: "Dylan's efforts brought new publicity to Carter's case, getting him a new trial in 1976, where he was again convicted, with prosecutors claiming he killed the men in retaliation for a murder of a black man earlier that night".