20 Things You Didn't Know About O Brother, Where Art Thou?
8. "Man Of Constant Sorrow" Was Almost On The Big Lebowski Soundtrack Instead
As much as what makes O Brother, Where Art Thou? great comes from the Coens unique filmmaking approach, the soundtrack producer and composer T-Bone Burnett must also be praised for making the movie a truly memorable musical experience.
This was actually the second time that the Coens had worked with the guitarist and producer, and that nearly meant that O Brother's breakout hit (both on and off-screen) could easily have been given to a completely different character: Jeff Bridges's The Dude.
Burnett had long been an admirer of Man Of Constant Sorrow, a traditional American folk song by blind Kentucky fiddler Dick Burnett (no relation), and sought to find a place for it in a movie. So, when the Coens asked him for songs to use on the soundtrack to their cult comedy The Big Lebowski, he suggested this one.
It's probably for the best that the Coens couldn't fit Man Of Constant Sorrow into their previous film, though, because it is a far better fit for Everett McGill than it ever would have been for The Dude. Hell, even Homer frequently refers to his Odysseus as a "man of woe" or "full of sorrows".
Even if they didn't get to record Man Of Constant Sorrow together, Burnett and Bridges would collaborate again when the former wrote the music for the latter's role as a fading country singer-songwriter in Crazy Heart. Both would win Oscars; Bridges for Best Actor and Burnett for Best Original Song.