20 Things You Didn't Know About O Brother, Where Art Thou?
9. The Prison Chain Gang Uses A Genuine Vintage Recording Of Real Prisoners Singing
O Brother, Where Art Thou? makes great use of contemporary artists performing classic bluegrass, gospel, folk and country songs in brand new recordings. The song that begins the movie, however, isn't a new recording at all.
The film opens on a chain gang singing the traditional African-American worksong Po' Lazarus (whose lyrics foreshadow part of the movie's plot, given that they tell the story of a relentless sheriff hunting down a convict). Rather than record the song afresh, however, the Coens and their music producer T-Bone Burnett chose to use a genuine recording of the song performed by an actual prison gang.
The version of Po' Lazarus used in the movie was recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax in the 1950s at Mississippi State Penitentiary, credited to James Carter And The Prisoners.
Carter was a Mississippi sharecropper and frequent prison inmate. On deciding to use the song in the movie, the Coens enlisted the help of the Alan Lomax Archive to track Carter down to his new home in Chicago and offer the now-74 year-old $20,000 to use a recording that he could not even remember making.
On being told that the movie soundtrack with his version of Po' Lazarus on was outselling the new Michael Jackson album, Invincible, Carter reportedly responded with: "You tell Michael that I'll slow down so that he can catch up with me."