Golden Oldies

Eric and Steve supported them selves as session musicians, working with such leading lights as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins and John Denver – until a request arrived one day for the pair to record a track for the upcoming Burt Reynolds movie “Deliverance,” a horrific tale of four Atlanta businessmen who canoe down an isolated Georgia river (that’s about to become dammed and made into a lake), with dangerous, churning rapids and mayhem and murder awaiting downstream.

Five minutes into the film, at a dilapidated backwoods gas station, we experience a spontaneous jam session between city slicker Drew (former stage actor Ronny Cox) and a provincial lad — apparently mute — named Lonnie (local highschooler Billy Redden).

“Dueling Banjos” unfolds be - tween the pair as a musical conversation.

Lonnie, initially reticent, slowly picks up the tune, tosses in a bit of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” then, much to Drew’s delight, shifts into high gear.

The musical pace builds to a highoctane finish as a grinning local man dances an adlibbed jig.

Cox was a good guitarist, but Redden couldn’t play a note.

During the filming, Billy had to wear a customized shirt that allowed a local musician named Mike Addis to play the banjo while hiding his own arms in Redden’s sleeves.

Weissberg and Mandell didn’t write “Dueling Banjos.” That honor went to ace instrumentalist Arthur Smith in 1954 when he composed “Feudin’ Banjos,” which he recorded later with fellow banjoist Don Reno.

Smith’s original work — a forerunner of the rapid-fire rock ‘n’ roll instrumental - was appropriately named because the track seemed to be just that: an argument of sorts between two banjos. (The 1973 hit single, though, featured not two banjos but a banjo and a guitar.)

“Dueling Banjos” on Warner Records rose next to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and reached Number Five on the country charts.

Its placement in the latter might have been the impetus that helped Eric and Steve garner a Grammy

Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance the following year.

But not everybody appreciated the success of “Dueling Banjos.” Arthur Smith had not given permission for the usage of his creation nor the credit for writing the hit. (Eric Weissberg was listed as the sole creator.) Smith filed a lawsuit, which was settled two years later in his favor when he received the abundant royalties that were due him.

(Just how abundant? The first thing Arthur purchased was a 42foot yacht.)

Smith’s creation was parodied when comedian Martin Mull released his own instrumental argument called “Dueling Tubas.”

The silly single sold enough copies to send it soaring to Number 92 on the Hot 100 chart.