Bob Dylan and the night in 1975 that ‘Hurricane’ came alive
The first night an artist introduces a new song can be a nervy affair, even for a songwriter as staunchly beloved as Bob Dylan.
Famously tough on what and when he will play his songs on tour, Dylan has rarely been afraid to upset his fans. Right from the moment he ditched the acoustic guitar, was labelled a “Judas” of folk music and found himself performing one of the most punk acts in music history by rejecting success and ending his longstanding positon as folk’s golden hero, Dylan has refused to be shoved into a box.
But even he, the great man himself, must have nerves whe debuting a new song. Add to this feeling that fact that your song deals with a real life murder case and those trepidations likely feel more like earthquake tremors. In 1975 he did just that.
The track, a protest song written by Dylan alongside Jacques Levy, details the imprisonment of middleweight boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. In the song, Dylan sings about the acts of racism against Carter and the subsequent false trial and conviction.
Convicted twice of a triple murder, Carter served almost 20 years in prison until he was released after a judge subsequently granted a petition of habeas corpus on procedural grounds in 1985.
While in prison, Carter was visited by Dylan and was inspired to write his autobiography in which he maintained his innocence. After their meeting in Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, Dylan was inspired to write his song about Hurricane but initially struggled to put his emotions onto paper when the time arrived.
“Bob wasn’t sure that he could write a song [about Carter]… He was just filled with all these feelings about Hurricane,” it was detailed about Dylan’s approach to the song. “He couldn’t make the first step. I think the first step was putting the song in a total storytelling mode. I don’t remember whose idea it was to do that.
“But really, the beginning of the song is like stage directions, like what you would read in a script: ‘Pistol shots ring out in a barroom night… Here comes the story of the Hurricane.’ Boom! Titles.”
Once Dylan had cracked that approach, everything else seemed to fall into place, at least on paper. But bringing ‘Hurricane’ to life in front of an audience for the first time was an entirely different prospect, especially given the weight of the story he was about to tell and the very real consequences tied to it.
When the song finally made its debut, it wasn’t just another addition to the setlist; it felt like a moment where Dylan was drawing a line in the sand. He premiered the track shortly after it was written an on television for at least a section of America to view, as he took to the stage of WTTW-TV studios to delivr a spellbinding moment.
Opening the performance with the track was a statement of intent. This wasn’t just a flash in the pan, or another Dylan protest anthem about hypothetical or theoretical social change. This was a song about a man whom hebelueve had been wrongly convicted. It was potent and personal and it pulsated across the airwaves.
The night ‘Hurricane’ came alive, the nerves gave way to something far more urgent, turning a new song into a statement and proving that even after all those years, Dylan still knew how to shake a room when it mattered most.
Here it is, Dylan’s first live performance of the song:
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