Red Right Hand (6:11)

Red Right Hand is a 1994 song and single from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The title comes from a line in the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton.

It first appeared on the album Let Love In, where it ran at 6:10. It was later released as a single at the condensed length of 4:48. It has since become one of Cave’s signature tunes, performed at most of his concerts.

It has appeared in several films and TV shows, such as the 1994 comedy, Dumb and Dumber. The song featured in a seminal second-season episode in The X-Files television series, whose producer Chris Carter explained in the liner notes for the compilation album Songs in the Key of X: Music From and Inspired by the X-Files that the song was the direct inspiration for the anthology. It has also been used in all three films in the Scream trilogy. The original version is featured on the soundtrack album for the first film while a remixed version by DJ Spooky appears on the Scream 2 album. Another version, sometimes referred to as Red Right Hand 2, was recorded by Nick Cave for Scream 3 and released on Cave’s B-Sides & Rarities album; composer Marco Beltrami also incorporates elements from the song into a track in his score for the third film. Most recently the song appears on the film soundtrack for Hellboy as Red Right Hand, a cover by Pete Yorn. It is also the main theme for 2004 surrealistic drama ”The Goddess” by russian actress and director Renata Litvinova.