Peaky Blinders Finally Replaced Red Right Hand With Something Better

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the finale of Peaky Blinders.

”Red Right Hand” has been an essential part of Peaky Blinders ever since its first episode, but the show’s finale finally replaced it, and here’s why it’s much better for who Tommy is now. When Tommy Shelby first appeared riding a black horse around Small Heath, accompanied by the low vocals of Nick Cave, it was immediately known that this was the man in charge. ”Red Right Hand” has become almost synonymous with Peaky Blinders after the show’s extensive use of the song in opening credits and key scenes, but the long-awaited finale closed not with Nick Cave, but with something else.

The song has been absent from all the opening credits scenes of Peaky Blinders season 6, and has only been used once in the season as a whole. In episode five, as it draws to a close, a cover of ”Red Right Hand” by Patti Smith plays. The song’s lacking presence marked a change in pace and tone for Peaky Blinders, with season 6 being noticeably slower and less bloody than the show has previously been. This stems from Tommy planning to retire and leave his criminal doings behind, leading the show to find a new song to play him out.

With ”Red Right Hand” being such an iconic part of Peaky Blinders, it was expected that the show would close its final scene with it, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, the show avoids it and uses ”All the Tired Horses,” originally by Bob Dylan but in this instance covered by Lisa O’Neill, for Peaky Blinders‘ season 6 ending. Formerly, the show has used different cover versions of ”Red Right Hand” to fit with the ambience of certain episodes, for example, covers by Arctic Monkeys or Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker. Therefore, they could have forgone using Patti Smith’s sad and solemn cover in episode five and perhaps used it to close episode 6 to match Tommy’s ending, but they chose to replace it entirely, and it was a much better match for Tommy’s character.

”Red Right Hand” stood to represent Tommy in earlier seasons, and includes references to Gods, fallen angels and dark deeds. He ruled over his home city of Birmingham and was known for miles around, and was able to twist things in the way that he wanted to, either with violence, threats or money. He has even been directly referred to as ”the devil” in Peaky Blinders season 6 by Gina and Michael. However, his character arc started to lead him down a different path in season six, as he strove to be a better man. He quit drinking, stopped his needless murdering, and had a hand in trying to stop the rise of fascism in Britain. Therefore, he started to distance himself from ”Red Right Hand”, which had defined him up until this point.

”All the Tired Horses” is a Bob Dylan song, but even in the original version he doesn’t sing it, it’s sung by a female choir. This works to decentralize the leading man, in this case Dylan, but which also now represents Tommy and his redemption. In witnessing his own funeral pyre, he kills Tommy Shelby and removes himself from the narrative that has prioritized him for so many years, essentially shifting away from total control, much like Dylan himself, who can be seen to have removed himself from his own song by instead having the female choir take the central role. The song is unique in that it only features two lines, which are repeated throughout: ”All the tired horses in the sun/How am I supposed to get any riding done?” Tommy has gone from doing the deeds of the devil to finally becoming an ordinary man who has no other plights apart from worrying about his horses, which much better fits how Tommy’s Peaky Blinders story ends and who he has grown to be – potentially also making him metaphorically one of the “tired horses” spoken about in the song.

Despite his vast empire, Tommy in many ways has always wished to be an ordinary man in Peaky Blinders. Only being ‘dead’ now is he finally free to leave his past and live unencumbered. Though ”Red Right Hand” will always be special to the show, its replacement is a worthy successor.

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