If you’ve watched Inside Llewyn Davis, you probably can’t shake that opening scene. The lighting is dim, the air in the Gaslight Cafe looks thick enough to chew, and Oscar Isaac—playing the titular, perpetually unlucky folk singer—leans into the microphone. He starts picking a steady, rhythmic pattern on his acoustic guitar. Then he sings those first words: "Hang me, oh hang me, I’ll be dead and gone."
It is a brutal way to start a movie. It’s also the perfect way to introduce a character who is, for all intents and purposes, a ghost in his own life. But where did llewyn davis hang me actually come from? Is it a real song? Why does it feel so heavy, like it’s weighing down the entire film?
Honestly, the story behind this tune is just as layered and weary as the man singing it in the movie.
The Real Man Behind the Movie Song
A lot of folks assume the Coen Brothers just made up Llewyn Davis out of thin air. They didn't. The character is a very loose, much more miserable version of Dave Van Ronk. Van Ronk was a giant of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. They called him the "Mayor of MacDougal Street."
While Llewyn is a guy who burns every bridge he crosses, the real Van Ronk was actually pretty well-liked. He was a mentor to a young Bob Dylan and a master of the "Travis picking" guitar style. But the movie borrows heavily from Van Ronk’s repertoire. Llewyn davis hang me is essentially a note-for-note recreation of Van Ronk’s arrangement of a traditional folk song usually titled "Been All Around This World."
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Van Ronk recorded it for his 1962 album Folksinger. If you look at the cover of that album, it looks almost identical to the fictional Inside Llewyn Davis record shown in the movie—right down to the pose and the orange-tinted lighting.
Where Did "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" Actually Come From?
Folk music is basically one giant game of "telephone" that’s been going on for two hundred years. Nobody really "owns" these songs. They just borrow them, change a lyric here and there, and pass them on.
"Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" (or "Been All Around This World") likely dates back to the late 19th century. Historians and folklorists have tracked it through various versions:
- The 1870s Connection: Some believe the song was inspired by a real hanging in Fort Smith, Arkansas, during the era of the infamous "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker.
- The Missouri Link: There’s a specific lyric about being "all around Cape Girardeau" (or "Cape Jerdo" in some dialects). This points to the song's roots in the Ozarks or Missouri river towns.
- The Gambler Narrative: Early versions often carried titles like "The Gambler" or "The New Railroad." The narrator is usually a man who’s lived a hard, traveling life and finally got caught for a crime—sometimes murder, sometimes just being in the wrong place.
The version we hear as llewyn davis hang me is stripped down. It’s not a celebration of a wild life; it’s a tired acknowledgment of the end. When Isaac sings, "I wouldn't mind the hanging, but the layin' in the grave so long," he’s capturing that specific brand of folk nihilism. It’s not death that scares the narrator; it’s the boredom and the permanence of it.
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Why the Song Matters to the Movie’s Plot
In the context of the film, the song acts as a "bookend." We hear it at the very beginning, and we hear it again at the very end.
This is classic Coen Brothers. The movie is a circle. Llewyn starts at the Gaslight, gets beaten up in the alley, goes on a miserable road trip, fails to find success, and ends up right back at the Gaslight, getting beaten up in the same alley.
When he sings llewyn davis hang me the second time, the meaning has shifted. At the start, it’s just a beautiful, sad song he’s good at playing. By the end, the song feels like his biography. He has been all around this world (or at least to Chicago and back in a beat-up car). He is hungry enough to "hide behind a straw." He is culturally and professionally being "hanged" by the arrival of a new era.
The irony? Right after he finishes his set at the end of the movie, a young, scrawny kid with a harmonica around his neck takes the stage. That kid is Bob Dylan. The "pure" folk tradition Llewyn clings to is about to be steamrolled by the singer-songwriter movement.
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The Technical Brilliance of the Performance
You’ve gotta give credit to Oscar Isaac here. He didn’t just lip-sync. He actually learned to play these complex arrangements.
The guitar work in llewyn davis hang me uses a steady, alternating thumb-bass pattern. It sounds simple, but keeping that "thump" going while singing those high, strained notes is incredibly difficult. T-Bone Burnett, the legendary music producer who worked on the film, insisted that the performances be recorded live on set.
This gives the song an "unpolished" feel. You can hear the fingers sliding on the strings. You can hear the slight catch in his throat. It feels human. It doesn't sound like a studio track; it sounds like a guy who slept on a couch and hasn't had a decent meal in three days.
Actionable Insights for Folk Fans
If you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of llewyn davis hang me, there are a few things you should do to really appreciate the history of this music:
- Listen to Dave Van Ronk's "Folksinger" (1962): This is the blueprint. Compare his growling, gravelly voice to Oscar Isaac’s smoother, more melodic take. It’s a completely different vibe.
- Check out the Grateful Dead version: They often played this under the title "I've Been All Around This World." It’s much more upbeat and "bluegrassy," which shows how much a song can change depending on the performer's mood.
- Read "The Mayor of MacDougal Street": This is Van Ronk’s memoir. It’s hilarious, cynical, and gives you a real look at the 1960s Village scene that the Coens captured so well.
- Watch the "Another Day, Another Time" concert: This was a live concert held at Town Hall in NYC to celebrate the movie's music. It features Marcus Mumford, Gillian Welch, and even the Punch Brothers doing these songs.
The beauty of a song like this is that it doesn't belong to the Coen Brothers, and it doesn't really belong to Llewyn Davis. It’s been floating around for over a century, waiting for the next person to pick up a guitar and feel a little bit sorry for themselves.
If you're looking to learn the song yourself, focus on the "thumb" first. If you can't get that steady 4/4 beat with your thumb, the rest of the melody will just fall apart. It’s the heartbeat of the song—relentless and steady, just like the bad luck that follows Llewyn Davis throughout the film.