Dylan Song by Song: "Hurricane" Quiz

Answer: Rubin Carter

The middleweight boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, was arrested in 1966 for a triple homicide at Lafayette Bar and Grill in New Jersey. After much public protest over the injustice and racism involved in his case, Carter won a new trail in 1976, but was again found guilty.

In 1985, however, a federal judge ruled that the boxer did not receive a fair trial. The conviction was overturned and Rubin Carter was released, and the prosecution declined to seek another trial. Sometime after his release from prison, Rubin Carter moved to Toronto, Canada, where he became a Canadian citizen and served twelve years as the executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted, which is now known as Innocence Canada.

Answer: Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night.

"In medias res" is a term used in literature to mean that the story starts in the midst of the action, without an introduction. The song "Hurricane" begins that way, jumping right into the action in the barroom:

"Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, 'My God, they killed them all!'"

Only after that action-packed scene, in the midst of the happenings, does Dylan tell us who the story is about: "Here comes the story of the Hurricane..."

Answer: blame

This verse continues:

"Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world."

In this song, Dylan may have taken some poetic license with Rubin Carter's place in the boxing world. At one point, the song calls Rubin "number one contender for the middleweight crown," when, in fact, his highest ever ranking was third.

Answer: Paterson

"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 want to draw the heat."

"Hurricane" was recorded on Bob Dylan's seventeenth studio album, "Desire," which was released on January 5, 1976. Scarlet Rivera played violin on the song, while Vinnie Bell played twelve-string guitar.

Answer: false

Bob Dylan wrote this song with Jacques Levy, who also wrote the lyrics to "Joey," another biographical song on this album. Jacques Levy was the director of the play "Almost an Eagle," the musical, "Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy," and an off-Broadway revue, "Oh! Calcutta!" He also wrote several songs with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.

Answer: false

"Hurricane" was one of Dylan's most successful singles of the 1970s. The song was broken down into Parts I and II, with II on the B side, and both parts combined totaled over eight minutes. "Hurricane Part I" was the edit most often played on the radio. The single peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Top 100.

Answer: Patricia "Patty" Valentine

Bello and Bradley were two witnesses to the case, but it was Patricia Graham "Patty" Valentine who objected to the version of events portrayed in the song. She thought it painted her as part of a conspiracy to frame Rubin Carter. In the article "Freedom of Expression Comes out the Winner when Rock's in the Dock," Guy Blackman writes that her "case was quickly thrown out of court."

Answer: true

The concert, by Bob Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue, was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 8, 1975. Joan Baez and Robbie Robertson also participated. In 1976, "Rolling Stone" magazine reported, "Nothing much was revealed - except the undeniable fact that Dylan can still fill the 20,000-seat Garden at a top price of $12.50 for any activity he chooses . . .

But though it mostly attracted white middle-class youths who came out mainly to see Dylan, it may have been one more step on the road toward freeing Rubin Carter from prison."

Answer: white

The song repeatedly emphasizes the racism involved in the arrest and conviction of Rubin Carter, such as when "The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed / And the all-white jury agreed." The federal judge who overturned Rubin Carter's case, Judge H. Lee Sarokin, wrote that the prosecution was predicated on "racism rather than reason."

Answer: game

"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 but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game."

The alternative rock band duo Middle Class Rut covered Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" on a non-album single in 2011. Brazilian composer and musician Zé Ramalho recorded a Portuguese language version of the song on his twelfth solo album under the title "Frevoador."