Hurricane

Hurricane's harmonic power lies in its deliberate simplicity. The song uses an extremely limited chord palette — primarily the Am–F shuttle — as a compositional strategy rather than a limitation. By refusing harmonic resolution for over eight minutes, Dylan and the band create a musical analogue for the injustice at the song's heart: the harmony, like Carter, is trapped. The violin ostinato by Scarlet Rivera adds melodic complexity above the static harmony, and the brief harmonic excursions in the refrain sections provide just enough contrast to reset the listener's ear before the next narrative barrage.

Dylan became involved in the case of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter after reading Carter's autobiography, 'The Sixteenth Round,' and visiting him in Rahway State Prison in New Jersey. Moved by Carter's account of being framed for a 1966 triple murder in Paterson, New Jersey, Dylan teamed up with playwright and lyricist Jacques Levy to craft a song that would function as both journalism and poetry. The two wrote the song together during intense writing sessions, constructing the narrative from court transcripts, Carter's memoir, and their own research into the case.

Released in 1976 on the album Desire, 'Hurricane' is one of Dylan's most powerful narrative songs — a sweeping, violin-driven folk-rock epic co-written with Jacques Levy that rails against the racist injustice behind boxer Rubin Carter's murder conviction. Its urgency and storytelling ambition helped reignite Dylan's activist reputation in the mid-1970s and drew national attention to Carter's case.