Red Right Hand
The song has since become best known for its use as the theme song to the British period crime drama TV series Peaky Blinders, which resulted in the song receiving a re-release single in 2014. It has been covered by ex-partner PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, Iggy Pop, Jarvis Cocker and Snoop Dogg, among others.
The liner notes for Murder Ballads state 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."
Take a little walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms
Like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires, in the humming wires
Hey man, you know you’re never coming back
Past this square, past the bridge, past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with a red right hand
He’ll wrap you in his arms, tell you that you’ve been a good boy
He’ll rekindle all those dreams it took you a lifetime to destroy
He’ll reach deep into the hole, heal your shrinking soul
Hey buddy, you know you’re never ever coming back
He’s a ghost, he’s a god, he’s a man, he’s a guru
They’re whispering his name across this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat is a red right hand
You ain’t got no money?
He’ll get you some
You ain’t got no car?
He’ll get you one
You ain’t got no self-respect, you feel like an insect
Well don’t you worry buddy, cause here he comes
Through the ghetto and the barrio and the Bowery and the slum
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his red right hand
You’ll see him in your nightmares, you’ll see him in your dreams
He’ll appear out of nowhere but he ain’t what he seems
You’ll see him in your head, on the TV screen
And hey buddy, I’m warning you to turn it off
He’s a ghost, he’s a god, he’s a man, he’s a guru
You’re one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by his red right hand