"My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L.
Wears a wedding band that's G.O.O.D.
Tis a long-suffering shackle
Collaring all that rebel blood"
"Kill-hand" may be a poker reference - under some rulesets in which the game is short but the stakes are high - but here I think it's simply a colourful name for his right hand, the one which would wield a weapon.
The E.V.I.L. / G.O.O.D. probably refers to knuckle tattoos, often sported by prisoners. That he's on death row would indicate he's had these applied during a former stretch in general population.
Wedding band would mean good and evil are inextricably linked, and the good balances the evil & somehow restrains it from getting (excuse the pun) out of hand. The lines following would support this idea.
A point about those tattoos. They are directly influenced by the 1955 film 'Night Of The Hunter', which was the only film ever directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. In this film, Robert Mitchum plays a psychotic preacher who has 'LOVE' and 'HATE' tattooed on his knuckles. He uses the tattoos to illustrate the constant fight that good and evil are engaged in in every soul. By extension, the tattoos also reveal the struggle between the pious Christian preacher and the callous killer that both reside within his own soul. The film disturbingly notes...
A point about those tattoos. They are directly influenced by the 1955 film 'Night Of The Hunter', which was the only film ever directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. In this film, Robert Mitchum plays a psychotic preacher who has 'LOVE' and 'HATE' tattooed on his knuckles. He uses the tattoos to illustrate the constant fight that good and evil are engaged in in every soul. By extension, the tattoos also reveal the struggle between the pious Christian preacher and the callous killer that both reside within his own soul. The film disturbingly notes that these two sides may not be as far apart as they initially seem....
Cave is very culturally literate, and has scripted a number of films himself. I'm sure he had this film in mind when he wrote these lines.
"My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L. Wears a wedding band that's G.O.O.D. Tis a long-suffering shackle Collaring all that rebel blood"
"Kill-hand" may be a poker reference - under some rulesets in which the game is short but the stakes are high - but here I think it's simply a colourful name for his right hand, the one which would wield a weapon.
The E.V.I.L. / G.O.O.D. probably refers to knuckle tattoos, often sported by prisoners. That he's on death row would indicate he's had these applied during a former stretch in general population.
Wedding band would mean good and evil are inextricably linked, and the good balances the evil & somehow restrains it from getting (excuse the pun) out of hand. The lines following would support this idea.
A point about those tattoos. They are directly influenced by the 1955 film 'Night Of The Hunter', which was the only film ever directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. In this film, Robert Mitchum plays a psychotic preacher who has 'LOVE' and 'HATE' tattooed on his knuckles. He uses the tattoos to illustrate the constant fight that good and evil are engaged in in every soul. By extension, the tattoos also reveal the struggle between the pious Christian preacher and the callous killer that both reside within his own soul. The film disturbingly notes...
A point about those tattoos. They are directly influenced by the 1955 film 'Night Of The Hunter', which was the only film ever directed by the great actor Charles Laughton. In this film, Robert Mitchum plays a psychotic preacher who has 'LOVE' and 'HATE' tattooed on his knuckles. He uses the tattoos to illustrate the constant fight that good and evil are engaged in in every soul. By extension, the tattoos also reveal the struggle between the pious Christian preacher and the callous killer that both reside within his own soul. The film disturbingly notes that these two sides may not be as far apart as they initially seem....
Cave is very culturally literate, and has scripted a number of films himself. I'm sure he had this film in mind when he wrote these lines.