Eric Weissberg of Dueling Banjos Fame Has Died
Whether you’re a fan of the banjo, or bluegrass and folk in general, or even if you’re not, nearly everyone recognizes the opening riff of the iconic instrumental “Dueling Banjos” made famous in the 1972 film Deliverance. And now guy who actually played the banjo on the song (despite the name, it features only one banjo dueling with a guitar), has passed away.
Multi-instrumentalist and folk music icon Eric Weissberg died on Sunday, March 22nd at the age of 80 due to Alzheimer’s disease. Highly proficient on the fiddle, guitar, mandolin, dobro, and bass as well, Weissberg was a much-renown and highly prolific musician in both the live and studio space, along with being responsible for arguably the best known banjo song in history, with all due respect to “The Ballad of Jed Clampett.” “Dueling Banjos” was not just a novelty. It became a #2 all genre song in both the United States and Canada in 1973.
A banjo song made him famous, but it was much of Eric Weissberg’s work behind the scenes that would earn him the respect of his peers worldwide. Recordings from Doc Watson, Billy Joel, Frankie Valli, Bob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright III, Talking Heads, Jim Croce, Art Garfunkel, John Denver, The Clancy Brothers, and Tom Paxton who Weissberg would regularly tour with all featured the instrumentalist’s work. For all you old school hip hop fans, it was Eric Weissberg you heard being sampled on their song “5-Piece Chicken Dinner” from the legendary Beastie Boys album Paul’s Boutique.
Eric Weissberg interfaced often with the bluegrass world, but the majority of his career was spent in the folk realm. He was a big part of the Greenwich Village scene early in his career, born in New York City and graduating from the New York School of Music & Art before attending the University of Wisconsin and eventually the world-renown Julliard School of Music. He played in folk groups such as The Greenbriar Boys and The Terriers early in his career.
Weissberg served in the National Guard in 1964, and as folk music began to fall out of fashion, he started working more as a session musician, which later led to “Dueling Banjos.” Though his 1963 album New Dimensions in Banjos and Bluegrass did not go far, he took his “Dueling Banjos” to an album release of the same name for Warner Bros. that eventually went Gold. Some of that money would ultimately be shared with Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith whose song “Feudin’ Banjos” helped inspire the track.
Eric Weissberg remained a mainstay of many folk music festivals and gatherings, and was a favorite of fans up until his death.
March 23, 2020 @ 9:01 pm
It should be added that this instrumental (originally “Feudin’ Banjos”) first found its way in a big way when the Dillards did it on The Andy Griffith Show in 1962 as “The Darlings” and then recorded it on their 1963 debut album BACK PORCH BLUEGRASS. But yes, Weissberg’s version (Steve Mandell did the guitar part) really took off because of the huge critical and box office success of DELIVERANCE, which, in my opinion, is one of the scariest horror films of modern times, not as a slap against mountain or rural Southern folks, but as a reminder of how thin the line between what we think of as “civilization” and what we think of as “barbarism” really is.
And while it is tempting to mention “Dueling Banjos” in conjunction with “The Ballad Of Jed Clampett”, I think the real parallel is with the use of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” in the equally subversive 1967 classic BONNIE AND CLYDE in the way bluegrass found its way into the popular imagination beyond traditional country and folk music circles.
March 23, 2020 @ 11:23 pm
Sad to keep losing the greats. Such is life I suppose I just wish there a plethora of talent in the wings waiting to take the torch.
March 25, 2020 @ 4:23 am
Very nice obit Trig.
I was thinking the other day of songs (of all varieties) with the best known lead-ins.
Dueling Banjos would be in everyone’s Top10.
March 25, 2020 @ 3:00 pm
It’s kind of amazing the number of things that “Deliverance” contributed to American culture (some of which cannot really be said in polite company).
Even the name “Banjo Boy,” which was really only coined decades later by Don Imus as a perverse nickname for Joe Scarborough, seems to have gained a life of its own.