favorite song friday: an unlikely hit

In the popular young adult movie franchise Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, a reluctant symbol of a revolution. in one of the strongest (and most quiet) moments in the film the haunted Katniss sings an old folk song as she and her rebel crew are relaxing by a riverside. The song has a folk music sound to it, which is appropriate, as Katniss is supposed to hail from a part of her post-apocalyptic country of Panem that closely resembles Appalachia.

The lyrics to the song were written by The author of The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins, and were included in her original Mockingjay novel. The music was composed by Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz of American indie folk band The Lumineers.

Katniss's song was one of the film's most powerful moments, so it is interesting that it is now climbing the charts as a dance remix. When I first heard it, the EDM beat spliced in seemed more than a little jarring. But the simple power of the song and its mood still shines through. "The Hanging Tree" seems to be the latest in a growing number of folk-inspired music. Neo folk?

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man
They say murdered three.
Strange things have happened here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree ...

this is my curse ...

... and maybe my gift. To look for meaning in things, even the most inane of pop culture offerings.

Case in point. I found myself listening more closely to a song that I don't particularly like on the car radio the other day because its contradictory messages were driving me crazy.


It was Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again." It's just a silly dance song, the usual seduction scene on the dance floor. But it suffers from a number of problems. First and foremost, the way Usher sings the title line, "DJ" sounds a lot more like "Danger," which might make a bit more sense, if he is trying to impress a girl that he indicates later in the song that he hardly remembers. Bad boy.

Ain't I seen you before?
I think I remember those eyes, eyes, eyes

I'm not sure what Usher has been indulging in while at the club, but he seems to be suffering from some memory impairment. He keeps going back and forth, from reminiscing about doing this before, to not being sure if he remembers the object of his seduction or not.

Swear I've seen you before
I think I remember those eyes, eyes, eyes

I'm not sure how successful his repetitive "Don't I know you?" approach turns out to be, because the song never really gives us a clue as to how things turn out. It's just all persuasion.

So dance dance
like its the last last night
of your life life
won't get you right

I'm really not sure what he means by "Won't get you right," but it sounds like he might be losing ground.

To add insult to injury, Usher doesn't seem to be able to close the deal on his own, but enlists his buddy Pitbull to come to his aid. Unfortunately, Pitbull's idea of a seductive line ranges from the gross to idiotic to purely clinical.

If Erykah Badu can get naked then baby I'm sure that you can 

Let him know how I'ma jump through your fruit loops 

I wanna be your gyno not your doctor

I will give Usher this — he ends the song by at least thanking the DJ. So maybe things turned out OK after all.  A little threat of post-apocalyptic devastation may have ended up being the way to a girl's heart after all.

So dance dance
like its the last last night
of your life life
don't get you right