"Red Right Hand" is a song by Australian rock bandNick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was released as a single from their eighth studio album, Let Love In, on 24 October 1994. A condensed version was included in the single, while the longer version was included with the album. The title comes from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, in which it refers to the vengeful hand of God. The song has become one of Cave's signature songs, being performed at most of his concerts; only "The Mercy Seat" has appeared in more of his live sets since 1984. It has since become best known as the theme song to the British crime drama series Peaky Blinders, which resulted in the song receiving a re-release single in 2014. It has been covered by Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey, Iggy Pop, Jarvis Cocker and Snoop Dogg, among others.
Background
The liner notes for Murder Ballads point out that the phrase "red right hand" is from a line in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost that refers to divine vengeance. The opening song on the album, "Song of Joy," states of a murderer: "It seems he has done many, many more, / quotes John Milton on the walls in the victim's blood. / The police are investigating at tremendous cost. / In my house he wrote 'his red right hand'. / That, I'm told, is from Paradise Lost." The aforementioned appearance in Paradise Lost is: "What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, / Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, / And plunge us in the flames; or from above / Should intermitted vengeance arm again / His red right hand to plague us?". The term itself appears to be Milton's translation of the term "rubente dextera" in Horace's Ode i.2,2-3 In 2004 researcher Kim Beissel claimed that "Red Right Hand" was loosely based on the 1987 Tom Waits song "Way Down in the Hole".
Film and television
Advertising
The song was used in the South Australian Tourism Board's Barossa Valley television commercial campaign, Barossa, Be Consumed, directed by Jeffrey Darling.
The song was used by New York design firm GrandArmy in a promotional clip for the Mexican tequila company El Jimador.
Hellboy, the song appears on the soundtrack in a cover version by Pete Yorn
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Peaky Blinders, title track of the show - the album version and several cover versions have been played
Wentworth
''Scream'' franchise
The song was used in the first three films in the Scream franchise. The original version appeared on the soundtrack album for the first film in 1996, while a remixed version by DJ Spooky appears on the Scream 2 album.
Nick Cave recorded another version, sometimes referred to as "Red Right Hand 2", for Scream 3 and released it on his B-Sides & Rarities album.
Television
The song was used in the 1994 The X-Files episode "Ascension", playing during Duane Barry's car ride, with Dana Scully in the trunk. In the liner notes for the compilation album, The X-Files producer Chris Carter explained that the song was the direct inspiration for the anthology.
The song was used in promos for the UK television showHollyoaks, during "Fire Week" in 2010.
English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys performed a cover of "Red Right Hand" during their tour of Australia in early 2009, their performance in the Reading and Leeds Festival in August 2009, as well as in their North American tour in December 2009. A recorded version of the song appears on the Japanese version of their third album, Humbug and as a b-side on the single "Crying Lightning".
Australian jazz musician Frank Bennett recorded a lounge version of the song for his album, Five O'Clock Shadow
Giant Sand covered the song on their album Cover Magazine.
:de:Ernst Molden |Ernst Molden covered the song in Austrian German on his album Weida Foan.
Various artists have covered the track for the television seriesPeaky Blinders, including PJ Harvey, Laura Marling, Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker and Snoop Dogg.
