MARKS BEST MOVIE SONGS EVER (1955-99) COUNTDOWN ... NO. 28 DUELING BANJOS–ERIC WEISSBERG & STEVE MANDELL (#2, 1973, Deliverance) The original composition was called Fightin Banjos, written in 1955 by Arthur Gutiar Boogie Smith and first performed nationally by a bluegrass act called The Dillards on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show in 1963. In 1972, two musicians, banjo player Eric Weissberg (born August 16, 1939) and guitarist Steve Mandell, picked up the song via movie director/producer John Boorman for the motion picture Deliverance, the story of four buddies (Jon Voight, Ronnie Cox, Ned Beatty and Burt Reynolds) who go on a canoeing trip on a river in northern Georgia and find that theres a whoooooole different life lived by the natives there. And by the middle of the movie, it is clear that the object of the trip becomes surviving for the friends, one already surviving the now-infamous Squeal like a pig rape administered to him. Even though the song became a smash hit, spending four weeks at No. 2 behind Roberta Flacks Killing Me Softly With His Song in February and March 1973 (it would hit No. 1 on the other charts, Cashbox and Record World), all was not good. Smith never got permission for his song to be remade and released and sued Warner Brothers, the record label linked to the song. Smith (1921-2014) won the lawsuit and was rewarded royalties along with having his name in the credits of the movie at the end and on the record itself. The song is used famously early in the movie when Coxs character has a duel on guitar/banjo with a young boy named Lonnie, a mentally challenged inbred with a knack for banjo playing. He was played by 16-year-old Billy Redden, who was far from his casted character in real life. The song has become both a country music and bluegrass music classic and helped to define the movie it came from. Thoughts, memories? Enjoy!
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 03:07:28 +0000
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