Does anyone else feel a deep sadness when they watch the music video for Nick Cave’s ‘Henry Lee’? The image of he and PJ Harvey, who were an item at the time, dancing as lovers to a murder ballad is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking *sigh* what could have been…
One person’s yearning for the past aside, PJ Harvey has kicked up the dust of the 1990s, releasing a cover of Cave’s infamous ‘Red Right Hand’, a fan-favourite from 1994’s Let Love In, as noted by Fasterlouder.
Harvey has taken the Cave-classic apart, removing the signature tempo of the track as she morphs it into a gloomy piano driven song that is utterly haunting.
The 45-year old’s vocals are hoarse, hovering between the bone-chilling key progressions, rising slowly to the echoing chorus “on a gathering storm comes/a tall handsome man/in a dusty black coat with/a red right hand.”
If there was ever a person who could cover Nick Cave the right, it’s Polly-Jean Harvey. This truly is amazing.
PJ’s rendition of ‘Red Right Hand’ is for the BBC series gangster series Peaky Blinders which is set in 1920s Birmingham.
Bare witness to this incredible cover right here:
