When Lin-Manuel Miranda initially wrote "Ben Franklin's Song" for his theatrical juggernaut Hamilton, he “imagined the songs being Decemberist-y.”
Miranda didn't end up using the song in the production, but as a longtime fan of The Decemberists, he later asked the band to record a version of the tune as the first installment in his “Hamildrops” series of Hamilton-related content in 2017.
Since then The Decemberists have often played the tune in concert, so it probably wasn't a surprise when the band launched into "Ben Franklin's Song" (with a warning to the parents with kids in attendance about the profanity) at their show in New York City's Central Park.
But to the crowd's delight, The Decemberists then invited Miranda to perform the song with them, as you can see in the fun video below...
