Bob Dylan's "Desire": The Story Of The "Hurricane", Part 1

Cover of Desire

by Garrett Sawyer

One day in 1975 Bob Dylan went to Rahway State Prison in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey to visit a prisoner.

But this was no ordinary prisoner. This was Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.

Carter had once been ranked as the #3 contender for the middleweight title.

That was, however, before.

Before three people were murdered during a robbery at the Lafayette Grill in Carter's hometown of Patterson, New Jersey.

Before he and an acquaintance named John Artis were arrested for the crime. Before they were convicted. Before he was given two consecutive terms and one concurrent life term.

After visiting with Carter Dylan became convinced of Carter's innocence (something that Carter himself had always maintained). The result was "Hurricane", the leadoff song from Dylan's bestselling 1976 release "Desire".

Co-written with Jacques Levy, the song is a furious plea for Carter's exoneration for crimes Dylan claimed Carter never committed. Was the "Hurricane" really innocent of the felonies for which he was accused?

"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!"

Let's start with the crime itself. On June 17, 1966 at about 2:30 in the morning two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill and opened fire. Two men were killed immediately: the bartender, James Oliver, and a customer named Fred Nauyoks.

A third customer named Hazel Tanis sustained numerous injuries from multiple gunshots and initially survived but died a month afterward. A fourth patron named Willie Marins lived even though he had taken a bullet to the head which rendered him blind in one eye.

The police questioned both Tanis and Marins, who told them that the culprits were black males, but didn't identify Carter or Artis as the criminals.

Patty Valentine was a resident who lived on the second floor above the bar and was one of the first people on the scene after the shooting. She allegedly told police that she witnessed two black men get into a white car and drive away from the bar.

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

Another person who was on the scene early was a criminal named Alfred Bello. He was in the neighborhood that night to commit a felony of his own, that of a burglary at a factory near the bar.

Initially Bello claimed that as he neared the Lafayette two black men rounded the corner and approached him, one carrying a pistol, the other a shotgun. Bello fled but also claimed to see the pair get into a white car that was double parked near the bar.

Valentine and Bello both described the car to the police. Both descriptions would change after Carter's first trial. Valentine also provided a description of the car's lights which didn't match Carter's car.

You'll soon see that the word of two felons would eventually be enough to send Carter to prison for life. Bello would change his story but Carter would stay in his prison cell.

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Bob Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks", Part 3: The Scandalous Affairs of Poets

Dylan at St. Lawrence Uni (Wikipedia)

by Garrett Sawyer

When you think about it you'll realize very few lyricists are well read enough to make reference to other poets in their own lyrics and make it sound so natural, so appropriate.

Only Paul Simon immediately comes to mind when he wrote in "The Dangling Conversation", "And you read your Emily Dickinson and I my Robert Frost".

In one of his songs from "Blood on the Tracks", however, Bob Dylan equals Simon, poet for poet.

Let's keep going:

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

In complete contrast to the venom that was "Idiot Wind" this song is wistful and loving. It's as if Dylan is saying simply in his own inimitable way, "We should be together but you're leaving and I will be lonely when you do".

The most powerful image in the song is the reference to the poets Verlaine and Rimbaud (sample lyric: "Situations have ended sad. Relationships have all been bad. Mine've been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud. But there's no way I can compare all those scenes to this affair").

The soap opera referred to was a torrid, volatile relationship between Frenchman Paul Verlaine and the much younger Jean Rimbaud, whom Victor Hugo once described as "an infant Shakespeare".

The elder Verlaine was already married to a young wife who was pregnant when the two poets met. The two men began a scandalous affair, subsequently moving to London where they later broke up.

Verlaine returned to Paris but missed the younger man and eventually invited the younger Rimbaud to a Brussels Hotel. The reunion went poorly, marked by arguments and alcohol.

Finally Verlaine bought a revolver and ammunition and shot Rimbaud in a drunken rage, one shot missing, the other wounding a wrist (when Dylan sings in the very first verse "I've been shooting in the dark too long" he might have been referring to this incident). Verlaine was arrested and, despite the withdrawal of charges by Rimbaud, sentenced to two years in prison.

Dylan is comparing the previous loves of his life to the volcanic ill-fated passion that existed between the two men. Then he declares that his current love completely out-shadows all the previous ones. How much more lyrical power can you concentrate into so few words? That's why Dylan is Dylan.

Meet Me in the Morning

Standard twelve bar blues. In this simple but heartfelt tune Dylan and the subject of the song have been separated.

He has been morose since her departure (sample Lyric: "They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn. But you wouldn't know it by me. Every day's been darkness since you been gone").

Now he is imploring his love to join him for a new morning, not only of the day but hopefully for their relationship.

The Gentleman from Stratford-on-Avon once wrote "Brevity is the soul of wit". It's still true 400 years later. And Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" is proof. Dylan can express in a few well-chosen lines what might take another artist or band an entire album to get around to saying.

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