Hurricane (song)

"Hurricane" is a protest song by Bob Dylan about the imprisonment of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. It compiles acts of racism and profiling against Carter, which Dylan describes as leading to a false trial and conviction. Carter's indictment was dismissed in 1988, 20 years after his imprisonment.

"Hurricane" is attributed to harvesting popular support against Carter's conviction, although it is often criticized for sugar-coating and glorifying Carter himself. Particularly the lyrics, "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" seem at odds with Carter's 1957 conviction and imprisonment for robbing and brutally beating three people, including a middle-aged woman.