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This is a classic from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a disturbing little ditty about a tall handsome man with a red right hand. I didn’t even know there was a video for this one until today, but it’s as unsettling as the song.

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 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 don’t own 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 a 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