Ballad of Hurricane

Was listening to this Dylan classic in the car while taking one of the kids somewhere when:
"And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger"
Anyway, the youngster expressed some surprise that 'nigger' wasn't bleeped or blanked out. (It was on an oldies station)
I commented on the context, and the time the son was written, and that in Australia it isn't that racially charged a word.
Then he asked if it would be beeped/blanked on the radio in America.

That got me wondering, so now I'm asking. When they play the Ballad of Hurricane in the US, do they beep/blank out 'nigger' 9th verse?

I haven't heard that song in years on the radio here...if I had to guess, the version played here simply deletes that verse and carries on.

The N-word (I never liked to use it, even before it became a no-go) has a bit of a dual history in current U.S. speech; white folks using it, especially in public and on-screen are looking for trouble or end up being embarrassed in public forums. Blacks, however, use the term among themselves rather freely, if what I here is true enough.

I have come to the conclusion that among African-Americans, "N" can mean any number of things and depends on the context of the conversation. However, when a white person (unless they are very much part a the 'black' scene and known and trusted) uses the word, it usually has only one (repellant) meaning.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Here is the whole lyrics for the Hurricane by Bob Dylan.




"Hurricane"


Pistols 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"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Three bodies lying there does Patty see
And another man named Bello moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it" he says and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbing the register I hope you understand
I saw them leaving" he says and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashing
In the hot New Jersey night.

Meanwhile far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Patterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not shown up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the corps
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
He said "I saw two men running out they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates"
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said "Wait a minute boys this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.

Four in the morning and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dying eye
Says "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"
Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar ?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law ?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter you saw running that night ?"
"Don't forget that you are white".

Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
Cops said "A boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talking to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail be a nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim".

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
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The DA said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers they all went along for the ride
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.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

Such words are given power by the listener. If enough people would choose not to get all puffed up with offense and indignation but just say "Well, aren't you an uncultured boor", those "hate words" would lose their power and that would just spoil all the bigots' fun.

Dylan said it - "And to the black folks he was just a crazy n*****".
The black folks were able to say it without causing offence.

In Australia our black folks (from different stock than African Negro) call themselves Murries or Koories, and don't find the terms offensive even when used by whites, although most whites don't use them just to be polite. We do have several offensive racist terms that I won't repeat here.

Our society is reasonably tolerant, for example the term Wog refers to those of Mediterranean extraction (Italian or Greek) and it is cheekily used in an affectionate way by both sides.

lol, no I think our local Koorie do take offense at the N word, but that's when they know the bastard using it is trying to be offensive.

Obliging people.


Not so much reasonable tolerant, but that Australians are so casually racist. An easy going racism, that plays no favorites, and is enjoyed by everyone.

Heard a story about an Army range sergeant, Vietnam vet, spouting off about the damn gooks then turns around to see a young recruit of Vietnamese extraction standing there. Sergeant starts to apologize to which the recruit responded: "That's OK sergeant, I can't stand those slanty eyed bastards either"



But the racism of the thing wasn't what I was interested in, but whether the word is beeped or not over there in this song.