Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell - Dueling Banjos (Deliverance 1972)

I put this together a long time ago, but did not upload it because (1) I was embarrassed that I misspelled "Dueling" (actually my third finger twitched and I failed to notice, TWICE), after I deleted the setup and didn't want to start from scratch again; (2) the video quality is lousy because it came from a poor broadcast of DVD quality; (3) there are already plenty of versions of it available. However, I decided today to upload it because some of my 20,000 subscribers may not have heard/seen it and will enjoy it. At least the aspect ratio is correct, as you can see by observing that the banjo head, or pot, is round, as is the guitar sound hole. That's not the case for some you might see. BTW, the banjo music is NOT coming from the junker that the kid pretended to play. I love the part where the local fellow overhears the comment about low-IQ people, walks up to the offender and rhetorically says, "Who's playin' the banjer?" That's funny on two levels: (1) the wise guy gets a comeuppance because the kid can play banjo and the wise guy can't (he was guessing, but most people can't), and (2) the answer to his question is "Eric Weissberg," not the kid holding the junker.

[timothyhenegar]

This really goes to show why folk music, bluegrass, and much more is entertaining in Appalachia.

When there was little radio, or TV, no internet. This is how folks threw down for a good time.

[michaelwoodrow]

I don't care what he looks like. Just love his musical skills! Bless him!!!

[Feral_Wolverine]

as a music teacher, this scene brings tears of joy iam gonna watch this movie along with my students 🥲

[gorn]

"🪕...that creep can roll, man." - Lebowski

[MJTx]

This video is proof that music, too, is a universal language 😅😊

[emmawylde]

Well when I wasn't a miner 49er and driving a big rig I used to play a mean banjo.
True story man

[titteryenot]

Many years ago, I saw *Straw Dogs* and *Deliverance* weeks apart and they instantly became linked forevermore in my mind, not just because of their temporal proximity of release, but because of the similar feel and overlapping themes of the two movies. It was only much later that I discovered that Peckinpah was slated to direct the Duelling Banjos classic, before Boorman took the reins of that film. Whatever, both great films and both starkly showing to humanity just how thin that crispy veneer of ‘civilisation’ really is.

[BBC]

One of the greatest American films ever made.

[gypsynick]

Steve Mandell was a great bluegrass banjo player along with Eric Weissberg who played dueling banjos in the movie Deliverance, Steve was in a band that loved bluegrass music and played it in the park at the end of 5th ave in New York called Union Square. They called themselves the "Jewgrass Boys". I met him in a recording studio in Nashville and they all went to dinner but excluded Steve because he was Jewish, I took him home for supper and we became lifelong friends. I understand there is now no more prejudice againstjewish musicians in Nashville. In New York I started with a comic strip I worote for and ended up on Wall Steet. That is another story for another time.
Niki Shrode

[PHJimY]

Warner Brothers changed the name of this tune to "Dueling Banjos" without permission of the composers, Don Reno & Arthur Smith,  or the players, Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell.  The tune is called "Feuding Banjos".

[bosautomotiveservice]

I actually cried watching this, what a great movie !!

[drevakelemenn]

Thank You for this masterpiece.... I already learned what happened... God bless you And sorry ..

[ManuelAntolinBaigorr]

Cabanilles, one of his "Tiento de Batalla" pieces, XVIII century.

[brianwarner]

"Who's playin' the banjer?" hahahahahahahahaha love that part

[PHJimY]

Eric Weissberg wrote; I hope to set the record straight concerning incorrect/incomplete writer credits on records I’ve made: the “soundtrack” recording of “Dueling Banjos”, and the incorrectly labeled “Deliverance Soundtrack” album, originally recorded as the album “New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass” by Marshall Brickman and myself in 1962, and released in 1963.

A number of truly wrong things happened here. The new company, WB, which should have known better, perpetuated incorrect credits. They had eliminated Marshall’s great liner notes (in them he does mention that “Shuckin’ the Corn” is by Scruggs), and not corrected the credits. In fact they added “Dueling Banjos” (where did that title come from?) and “End of a Dream” to the list of incorrect credits.

Also gone was the information about which of us was playing lead banjo on which tunes, who took which banjo breaks on the double banjo tunes and who was playing what when not playing banjo. The two tunes removed were “No Title Yet Blues” written by me, and “Black Rock Turnpike” by Marshall. They chose to leave on two public domain tunes for which they would not have to pay royalties., and remove two for which they would have had to pay us royalties for thirty years and a couple million albums.

[satishchandra]

This took very long for me to find.

Came back here after the Oscars
0:55

[Crazycoyote-weey]

the most terror inducing music for yuppies

[ricklee]

That oldtimer dances just like Jed Clampett. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they's cousins! 🤠

[marksneddon]

I don’t think I’ve seen this movie for about 20 years

[arturomorones]

Me parece que son un banjo y una guitarra clasica y no dos banjos?