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08/04/16 - NNHS Newsletter Dueling Banjos “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder blades.” - Boris Pasternak (10 Feb 1890 - 30 May 1960)

Dear Friends and Schoolmates,

    We're having a little break from the heat here in Fayetteville this week; I hope you're not dueling the heat and humidity today...

   Personally, I've never seen the movie.  The descriptions alone always struck me as - well, strongly disturbing.....

   And if you thought THAT was strange.....

"Dueling Banjos" is an instrumental composition by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. The song was composed in 1955 by Smith as a banjo instrumental he called "Feudin' Banjos", which contained riffs from "Yankee Doodle". Smith recorded it playing a four-string plectrum banjo and accompanied by five-string bluegrass banjo player Don Reno. The composition's first wide scale airing was on the 1963 television episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" featuring the music of "The Darlings", otherwise known as "The Dillards", a bluegrass group. The show was aired in season four, production number 96 which aired in 1963, "Brisco Declares For Aunt Bee". A brief version was played by the parents of Mindy, in the pilot of Mork and Mindy.

The version by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell went to #2 for four weeks on the Hot 100 in 1973, all four weeks behind Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song", and topped the adult contemporary chart for two weeks the same year.^[1] The song also reached No. 5 on the Hot Country Singles chart at the same time it was on the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary Singles charts.

The song was made famous by the 1972 film Deliverance, which also led to a successful lawsuit by the song's composer, as it was used in the film without his permission. A cover of the song by Steve Ouimette (using electric guitars, bass, and drums) was released as downloadable content for the video game Guitar Hero World Tour. The Toy Dolls also covered the song on their album Absurd-Ditties.

In Deliverance, a scene depicts Billy Redden playing it opposite Ronny Cox, who joins him on guitar. Redden plays "Lonnie"—a mentally challenged inbred but extremely gifted banjo player. (Redden could not actually play the banjo. A local musician, Mike Addis, disguised using careful camera angles, reached around from behind Redden.^[2]) Two young musicians, Ron Brentano and Mike Russo, had originally been signed to play their adaptation for the film, but instead it was performed by the others.^[3]

"Dueling Banjos" was arranged and performed for the film by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell and was included on its soundtrack.^[4] When Smith was not acknowledged as the composer by the filmmakers, he sued and eventually won, receiving songwriting credit as well as royalties.

For corrections, see entry   from Terry Haney on www.nnhs65.com-08-07-14-NNHS-Once-There-Were-Greenfields.html. Thanks, Terry!

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THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS:

Happy Birthday today to The United States Coast Guard - 1790 AND Colleen Luke Barton ('57) of England AND Buzzy Blanchard (Kecoughtan HS - '68) of LA!    Happy Birthday tomorrow to   The late Barbara Kemp Bostwick ('57) (deceased  04/22/12) AND   Frank Friedland ('60) of VA!    Happy Birthday this week to: 06 -   Susan Whitcomb Harlin ('72) of TX; 07 - Elaine Ferrell Taylor ('57) AND  Kenny Branch ('62) of AR AND  Alice Menin Daniels ('62) of Northern VA AND Judy Fertitta Gibson (Hampton HS - '62) of VA AND The late Anne Davidson Matthis ('64) (deceased 02/08/13);; 08 -   Virginia Deuell DeBerry ('46) AND Kathy Presgraves Whitt ('71) of VA; 09 - Katherine Adams Barbrey ('57) AND     Hunter Todd  ('57) of TX; 10 - Marshall Conley ('63) of VA!    Many Happy Returns, One and All! http://www.nnhs65.com/Happy-Birthday.html

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THIS DAY IN WWII: August 04, 1944 - The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they found Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and others. Anne, a teenager at the time, was one of the eight people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death. The last entry in the diary was on this day.