Don Reno and Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith recorded "Feuding Banjos"
(written by Smith) in 1955. Smith later re-recorded the song, and it
appeared on his LP "Battling Banjos." In 1963, the tune was a hit on
country-western radio stations for The Dillards, under the name
"Duelin' Banjo" (available on The Dillards' "Back Porch Bluegrass"
album). The Dillards' version featured a banjo versus a mandolin. It
has been said that the melody resembles that of an 1889 bluegrass tune
called "Banjo Reel," but the resemblance is a distant one.
"In 1955, Reno again paired up with Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith, his
former mentor. Together they did Feuding Banjos, a tune later used
without their permission in the movie Deliverance. Reno and Smith sued
the film company for rights infringement and won. Feuding Banjos, also
known from the movie as Dueling Banjos, is still one of the most
recognizable bluegrass tunes today."
Don Reno: Reno and Smiley
http://www.donreno.com/renoandsmiley.htm
"This was written and recorded in 1955 as 'Feuding Banjos' by Country
star Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith. When the song became a hit, he had
to file a lawsuit to get credit for writing it.
A group called The Dillards popularized this in the mid '60s on the
folk circuit. It was their version that author James Dickey heard and
thought would fit nicely in the film version of his novel
Deliverance."
SongFacts: Dueling Banjos
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=2292
"A movie was being made of Southern poet James Dickey's best-selling
novel -Deliverance, about a group of suburbanites who go for a hunting
trip in the woods that has unexpected consequences. Dickey, who wrote
the screenplay, had heard an old banjo tune on the radio and gotten
the idea of using it in a scene in which one of the characters
encounters a mute country boy and communicates with him by playing a
banjo/guitar duet. [Eric] Weissberg called fellow musician Steve
Mandell, and the two traveled to Atlanta to attend the shooting and
coach the actors in miming their performance of the song. That was the
last Weissberg heard of it until the fall of 1972, when Warner Bros.
released the film and 'Dueling Banjos,' as the track had been dubbed,
began to get such a reaction that Warner Bros. issued the
Weissberg/Mandell recording as a single. The label did not bother to
inform Weissberg of its action, and some early copies of the disc were
even credited to Deliverance. (It also turned out that, far from being
a traditional song, the tune was actually 'Feuding Banjos,' written by
Arthur Smith and first recorded by him for MGM Records in 1955.)"
MP3.com: Eric Weissberg
http://www.mp3.com/eric-weissberg/artists/17417/biography.html
"The collection's most (in)famous cut may well be 'Dueling Banjos,' by
Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell, from the 1972 film 'Deliverance.'
For better or worse, Weissberg and Mandell's calculatedly commercial,
radio-friendly guitar vs. banjo arrangement remains the best known one
in the song's storied history. The tune has been around, in various
forms, since 1889, when it was known as 'Banjo Reel.' By the 1950s,
the tune had metamorphosed into 'Feudin' Banjos' (a dual banjo duel
between Don Reno and Arthur Smith) and Carl Story's 'Mockin' Banjo.'
An exceptional banjo vs. MANDOLIN version of the song, 'Duelin'
Banjo,' appeared on 1963's 'Back Porch Bluegrass,' The Dillards' debut
album, and later became the basis of a frivolous lawsuit by Arthur
Smith, who claimed the band had ripped off 'his' song."
Amazon.com: Appalachian Stomp: Bluegrass Classics
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000033GO
Here's a MIDI audio version of "Banjo Reel" for comparison:
Banjo Reel
http://www.mortalwombat.com/Audio/banjo.mid
My Google search strategy:
Google Web Search: "feuding banjos" "dueling OR duelling OR duelin' banjos"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22feuding+banjos%22+%22dueling+OR+duelling+OR+duelin%27+banjos%22
I hope this gives you sufficient ammo to shoot down your brother's
theories about the song. Please let me know if anything more is
needed; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you rate my
answer.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
Clarification of Answer by
pinkfreud-ga
on
01 Jan 2005 13:16 PST
Yes, there is an old tradition in bluegrass music that is sometimes
called a "banjo battle." This doesn't necessarily involve the tune
from "Dueling Banjos," though. It's a little bit like jazz musicians
jamming: two or more performers engage in a back-and-forth elaboration
of a simple melody. Sometimes this is done as part of a competition,
with judges choosing a winner of the "battle." In a small town in the
Ozarks, I once saw a banjo battle that involved five participants,
playing two banjos, a fiddle, a mandolin, and a guitar. That was some
fine pickin'.
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