What is the Peaky Blinders theme song? Lyrics for Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds song explained
AUSTRALIAN rockers Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds performed the original Peaky Blinders soundtrack.
Here’s everything you need to know about who will be singing Nick Cave’s moody classic for the current run…
What is the Peaky Blinders theme song?
Red Right Hand was originally penned and performed by Australian rockers Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.
It was written by Nick and his Bad Seeds bandmates Mick Harvey and Thomas Wydler.
Although it seems a perfect fit for the gloomy BBC series, it was actually written in 1994.
Co-writer Harvey said: “It’s a song that has fairly humble beginnings.
“Much of it came from a jam we were working on when we writing songs for our album Let Love In.”
He added that he had to plead with Nick to write lyrics to go with the song, and the results left him seriously creeped out.
What cover versions have appeared in the show?
The late Helen McCrory, who played the Shelbys’ Aunt Polly, was a guest on The One Show when she revealed that some very famous singers had been asked to record a version of the song for the fourth series.
She said: “Every year, [the producers] look out for different singers, and who’s going to do the cover music.
“One of the Red Right Hand covers will be from the duet of Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker.”
The duo’s cover featured in episode five of season four, with Laura Marling providing the voice for a version of the same song in episode six.
Series two featured a cover from the Arctic Monkeys.
In series three, PJ Harvey was heard singing the Bad Seeds’ track.
What do the lyrics of Red Right Hand mean?
The song is about a man who is part demon part God who stalks the land scaring and impressing wherever he goes, but no one knows who the idea is based on – although the description sort of fits with Peaky leader Tommy Shelby.
Mick said: ““I don’t want to know the details, and I’d never ask Nick.
“Sometimes it’s better to think ‘what the hell’s that all about?’
“It’s better that it’s unknowable and spooky. The song has its own life, now.”
The phrase Red Right Hand derives from the John Milton poem Paradise Lost.
What are the lyrics to Red Right Hand?
Take a little walk to the edge of town
and 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 the 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 the dreams
it took you a lifetime to destroy
He’ll reach deep into the hole,
heal your shrinking soul,
but there won’t be a single thing
that you can do
He’s a god, he’s a man,
he’s a ghost, he’s a guru
They’re whispering his name
through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
is a red right hand
You don’t have no money?
He’ll get you some
You don’t have no car?
He’ll get you one
You don’t have no self-respect,
you feel like an insect
Well don’t you worry buddy,
’cause here he comes
Through the ghettos 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