Red Right Hand

Red Right Hand is a creepy song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and appears on the album Murder Ballads. It was featured in the horror movie Scream and in one episode of the X-Files. The lyrics are downright creepy and the story they tell seems to concern an evil individual who wanders the earth controlling the lives of human beings and spreading destruction in his wake. But who is he? Is he a false preacher, a serial killer, a demon or the devil himself?

Red Right Hand

Take a litle 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
Hey buddy, you know you’re never ever coming back
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 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 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
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