Hurricane (song)

Hurricane is a Protest song of Bob Dylan about the imprisonment of Rubin " Hurricane" Casing. It summarizes the alleged acts of racism towards Carter, that Dylan describes as the main reason of the judgment in what he regards as a false lawsuit. This song was one of some Protest song S which Dylan in the Années 1970 wrote, and it was one of its individual having had the most success of this decade, reaching the 31e row of the Billboard.

Origin

The album of Bob Dylan Desire opens with the title Hurricane , undoubtedly its song left in 1976 the most popular. Entitled thus according to the nickname " Hurricane" of Rubin Casing, this song tells the history of this Boxeur black American, former applicant under the average weights, shown murder of three people in 1966.

Dylan wanted to write this song after having read the Autobiographie of Casing the Sixteenth Round ( The Sixteenth Round ), that this one had sent to him “because of its former engagements in the combat for the civic rights”.

In its autobiography, Carter continued to protest its innocence and its history pushed Dylan with going to visit him to the prison of state of Rahway in Woodbridge (New Jersey). Dylan had written ballades of topicality before, for example The Lonesome Death off Hattie Carroll or Emmett Till , but according to Jacques Levy, it “was not sure to be able to write a song… it was just filled of all these feelings towards Hurricane. It did not manage to start. I think that the first stage was to write the song in a purely narrative mode. I do not remember any more who had the idea to do that. But honestly, the beginning of the song is like a Didascalie, as what you would read in a script: Of the shots resounds in a bar of night… Here history of Hurricane. Bang! It is the title. You know, Bob likes the cinema, and it can write these films from 8 to 10 minutes, which however seem as long or more as usual films. ”.

Polemic

Dylan must re-record the song by modifying the words relative to Alfred Bello and Arthur Dexter Bradley who “stripped the bodies” ( " robbed the bodies" ). The lawyers of Columbia prevented it that it risks a lawsuit for slandering. Neither Bello, nor Bradley were never shown such acts. Because there is too much loss on the multitrack ones to give an “accusing” effect, Dylan decides to entirely re-record the song. At that time, it is already in full repetition for its next round, and the musicians of the Rolling Thunder Revue are still at its disposal. Dylan recalls them in studio, and a new faster version of Hurricane is mixed with two new catches, with Ronee Blakley with the choruses. Although offensive words were rewritten, the song is prosecuted by the eyewitness Patricia “Patty” Valentine.

Even with these revised words, the controversy continues to grow around Hurricane . Criticisms of the time reproach him for telling only one version of the facts, the legal past of Casing being ignored in the history that Dylan tells, and to miss objectivity. There are other inaccuracies, such as for example the description of Casing like applicant n°1 with the championship of the average weights ( " Number one contender for the middleweight crown" ) whereas the classification of May 1966 of Ring Magazine located it only at the ninth rank at the time of its arrest. Mike Cleveland of Herald-News, Robert Christgau, and of many others critical question the objectivity of Bob Dylan at the time of the exit of the song. Cal Deal, journalist in Herald-News which covers the Carter business between 1975 and 1976, interviewing Carter in August and December 1975, shows Dylan later to have a strong party taken for Carter while using artistic effects enormously.

During the round preceding the exit by Desired , Dylan and Rolling Thunder Revue take part in the Night of Hurricane I in the honor of Casing to the Madison Square Garden of New York, on August 12th, 1975. Many high-speed motorboats, whose Mohammed Ali, is present at this caritative concert where a 20 minutes talk explains the situation of the imprisoned boxer.

The following year, they set up the Nuit of Hurricane II , this time at the Astrodome of Houston. This super-concert, organized on January 25th, 1976 is nevertheless a fiasco in spite of the presence of Stevie Wonder, Stephen Stills, Ringo Starr or Santana. Thirty thousand people attend the spectacle but the organization envisaged more of the double.

In the final analysis, Hurricane brings back enough funds and publicity to help Carter to launch a recourse. In November 75 initially, the Supreme court announces that it intends to revise the call. One month later, Casing and Artis withdraws their request for forgiveness, wishing a complete rehabilitation. In March 1976, they are even released in bond and gain the right to a new lawsuit. But Carter is again condemned to two successive custodial sentences with life in December 1976. Neither Dylan, nor no other famous defender attends the lawsuit. Casing is finally released on word in November 1985.

Dylan did not interpret this song any more since the January 25th 1976.

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