I just watched Deliverance on dvd… I haven’t seen it in a while, and for a 30 year old movie, it still holds up very well.
The question I have is about the song Dueling Banjos… Why is it called Dueling Banjos when in the movie, Ronny Cox is playing a guitar? I have also heard this song on an album, and it is clearly a guitar and a banjo (the picture on the album cover is a guitar and a banjo, for crissakes.)
Was this song written for two banjos? If so, how did it sound? I can’t imagine this song without the guitar. The song was originally titled Feuding Banjos, so I figure that there is a version out there with 2 banjos. Is there a banjo out there that sounds like a guitar? I’ve never been aware of any other type of banjo other than the standard instrument that popped up on classic music shows like Hee Haw.
Well, besides the standard five-string banjo, you’re got the four-string, the tenor banjo, the banjolin (banjo + mandolin), the banjolele (banjo + ukulele), and probably some other bastard instruments.
But according to Mr. S, certfied banjo freak, yes, it was originally written for two banjos. You can get fun effects by playing pieces on instruments other than those for which they were written. Just this weekend my friend was playing (in public, mind you) such classics as “Stairway to Heaven” and “A Hard Day’s Night” on her Celtic folk harp. :eek:
So, Mr. S can give us a cite for his opinion?
Even though the song was co-written by Don Reno, that doesn’t mean that two banjo’s were on the original record or that it was written for for two banjos. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything on the internet which would confirm his(Mr. S’s) opinion.
The first time I heard this tune, the group Huun Huur Tu, Tuvan Throat singers, played this on the string instruments they had (can’t remember what they were called).
I might point out that “Duelling Banjos” does not necessarily imply two banjos duking it out. It could also mean, “A Banjo that Duels”. In other words, a Duelling Banjo takes on a guitar.
I haven’t been able to find too much either. What I did find was that it was written by Arthur Smith and Don Reno in 1955, as Feudin’ Banjos. I still can’t confirm that it was written for 2 banjos, or that it was ever recorded and released with 2 banjos. It was around for about 18 years before it resurfaced in Deliverance with its new name.
The following was found in a bluegrass newsgroup:
So perhaps there is a version out there with a five-string and a tenor banjo.
Well, this afternoon he had only an hour between the time he got up and the time he had to go to work, so I didn’t make him spend it surfing the Net for a cite. But he’s been interested in banjo music for about 30 years and has a memory like a steel trap, and I thought his knowledge might be useful here, so I asked him and reported what he told me. OK? Of course, it’s possible that he’s wrong, and if someone finds an official cite to the contrary I’ll share it with him.
In the meantime, here’s a supporting cite that I found on this page, quoted from Bluegrass-L:
You can also look here,here, and here for cites (found, after about ten minutes of preliminary research, by Googling (“Arthur Smith” “tenor banjo” “Don Reno”). Granted, these are anecdotal, but they’re also pretty specific.
Sam Stone: But that would be “Dueling BANJO” – singular.
Somewhere in my CD collection I haveThe Original Dueling Banjos. A quick search did not turn it up (my CD’s tend to migrate around the house and sometimes to my office) but I seem to recall the liner notes discussing the history of the original song. The version on the CD is two banjos.
I will see if I can find it and see if it sheds any more light on the issue.
Ah, but it could be talking about the guitar, which travels around the country, picking fights with any banjo it comes across. In other words, the guitar goes around DUELING BANJOS!
Scarlett Thanks for the comeback. Your link/cite says it was recorded “around” 1952. The writer was obviously talking from memory, as it was 1955.
Yes, I read all of the Google sites before I posted. The only thing that will help here is to hear the original 1955 recording. Unless someone comes up with an interview with Reno or Smith which discusses it in depth.
This page indicates that Arthur Smith was alive and kicking at age 80 as of April 2002. There’s a contact e-mail address at the bottom. Anyone feeling bold?
I have done the following for a couple of “talent” shows:
Dueling Nostrils
Get two people, four penlights (you want the squeeze on/release off type), a copy of Duelling Banjos and a darkened room.
Have each person shove a penlight up each nostril (not so far up as to cause injury–dueling frontal lobes is to be avoided).
One person mimics the banjo the other the guitar by alternating each penlight in sync with the music.
Practice helps to get the lighting in sync with the music.
Some of you may be interested in a modern variant, “Dueling Techno,” which was by far the highlight of some otherwise forgettable compilation album about ten years ago.
If I may be allowed a mild hijack, I’d like to recommend the novel Deliverance by James Dickey. It’s a masterpiece of the sick fear that the movie portrays in a much more limited way. In the book, the men are tortured by guilt over their killing. There is a lot more insight into the Burt Reynolds character, too. It was named one of the top English-language novels of the century by the editorial board of the Modern Library. Dickey was a really interesting man, too. I heard him speak while I was in college and later, when hearing what his son said about those lecture tours, I was highly amused!
