taxman Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Man, I just learned this. I have seen this movie a billion times over the decades and never realized it was an Epiphone that was the star of this most famous movie scene. The movie -- DELIVERANCE. The scene -- the incredibly famous "Dueling Banjos" scene. The star -- an Epiphone! Anyone know what model it might be? Movie came out in 1972. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N40d047u-L8[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenrirlupus Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 I noticed that, but i didn't think it was really important... They weren't some cheapo chinese brand when Deliverance was made... I've noticed an old epiphone archtop in a Marx Brothers movie once, forget which one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwalin Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 that scares me just watching it..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el capitan Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Cheapo Japanese with bolt-on neck.Squeal Piggie,Squeal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larens Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Cheapo Japanese with bolt-on neck.Squeal Piggie' date='Squeal![/quote'] Double post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larens Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Cheapo Japanese with bolt-on neck.Squeal Piggie' date='Squeal![/quote'] A/K/A an Epiphone 6730E (made by Matsumoku in Japan c.1971)...street price: about a hundred bucks in 1972. The cheapest Epiphone dread probably for ever....and the film was far from being a classic but some scenes were ermm... memorable. Larens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted November 10, 2009 Author Share Posted November 10, 2009 A/K/A an Epiphone 6730E (made by Matsumoku in Japan c.1971)...street price: about a hundred bucks in 1972. The cheapest Epiphone dread probably for ever....and the film was far from being a classic but some scenes were ermm... memorable. Larens Thanks for that info. Well done. I suppose it makes sense that an el-cheapo guitar would be taken on a canoe trip. Would you take a Martin D-28 down the rapids with you? And I know this isn't a film site, but DELIVERANCE is quite a classic film. A seminal '70s film. DELIVERANCE is among the best of the '70s films and that means a lot because the '70s are considered a golden age of film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak show Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 And I know this isn't a film site' date=' but DELIVERANCE is quite a classic film. A seminal '70s film. DELIVERANCE is among the best of the '70s films and that means a lot because the '70s are considered a golden age of film.[/quote'] You're not the only one who thinks that. From Wikipedia: "Widely acclaimed as a landmark picture, the film is noted for the memorable music scene near the beginning that sets the tone for what lies ahead: a trip into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. [...] The song won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The film was selected by the New York Times as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", while the viewers of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom voted it #45 in a list of The 100 Greatest Films." Deliverance was nominated for: * Academy Award for Best Picture (The Godfather won.) * Academy Award for Directing - John Boorman (Bob Fosse won for Cabaret) * Academy Award for Film Editing - Tom Priestley * New York Film Critics Circle for Best Film and Best Director * Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama * Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture - John Boorman * Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama - Jon Voight * Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song - Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel * Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - James Dickey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike54 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Yeah, I like that scene, like the movie too. It was on TV within the last 3 or 4 months and I watched the whole thing again for the first time in many years. I was even able to keep up with the guitar part for about half the song. I play a little bluegrass in a few informal jams around town, and one of the best T-Shirt messages I've seen is inspired by that scene and that movie. "Paddle faster! I hear banjo music!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickeyNJ Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Yes, an absolute classic and great movie. Other recent Epi sightings: Season Premere of Saterday Night Live - Edge from U2 I beleive a current Black Berry commercial featuring "All you need is love" Kid playing accoustic Epi. I was in Atantic City a few weeks ago - a the bar band at the Borgata - Zakk Wylde Epi Palladia - on cable HD - Kings of Leon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMcClane5000 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 for the fact that it's an 'el cheapo' guitar it sounded quite good! Full and bassy (well, not THAT bassy, but still.... bassy)... Dunno why one always has to spend thousands and thousands for a guitar to be considered 'good'.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMcClane5000 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 ohhh and.... "b-b-b-but the guy in the movie h-h-h-has one too!" =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDx Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 ......the incredibly famous "Dueling Banjos" scene. Never understood why it's called dueling banjos' date=' when there's only one banjo[confused'] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Buffalo Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Never understood why it's called dueling banjos' date=' when there's only one banjo[confused'] Based on an old tune called "Feudin' Banjos", which featured a tenor & a 5 string. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EpiSheriMan Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 that scares me just watching it..... + 1 ' date='..nightmarish!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Summerisle Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 In the novel, the character Drew takes a Martin acoustic with him... James Dickey was a wonderful American writer, and a hugely important one, too. It's a great shame he didn't write more prose but then, if you are going to produce only one novel in your lifetime, Deliverance would seem to be enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDx Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Based on an old tune called "Feudin' Banjos"' date=' which featured a tenor & a 5 string.[/quote']Thank you, kind sir... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Buffalo Posted November 15, 2009 Share Posted November 15, 2009 Based on an old tune called "Feudin' Banjos"' date=' which featured a tenor & a 5 string.[/quote'] ...or not. I remember when it came out in'72 or '73 seeing an interview with Eric Weissberg, and that's the answer he gave. Wikipedia says it was Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith on 4 string plectrum and Don Reno on 5 string. ( A plectrum banjo is exactly the same as a 5 string banjo, minus the 5th string, & usually tuned CGBD). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Deliverance is a great film. People tend to focus just on the dueling banjo scene and also the "squeal piggie" bit, but that's selling the film WAY short, it's a great film with a great subtext that few people pick up on because they get carried away with the superficial aspects of it. I don't like many films from the 70s but Deliverance is one that hasn't really dated at all, and the underlying message of the movie is more relevant today than ever. No surprise that it was nominated for all those awards. The cheapo Epi in the duel scene sounds great and is testament to the fact that people make far too much fuss about the finnicky details of acoustic instruments and if you know how to play a guitar you can squeeze a damn good sound out of just about anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan1281734152 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Thanks for posting this. I always loved that film. Great scene. It's been quite awhile since I've seen it. Thanks again. Dylan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 333 Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 The cheapo Epi in the duel scene sounds great and is testament to the fact that people make far too much fuss about the finnicky details of acoustic instruments and if you know how to play a guitar you can squeeze a damn good sound out of just about anything. While I agree with you for the most part, I do want to point out that just because the Epi is shown in the scene doesn't mean it made the sound you hear. As is often the case when instruments appear on screen in movies, the actors (Ronnie Cox, Billy Redden, and a hand double for Billy) are miming to prerecorded track. It's not certain which specific instruments were used by the men who actually played the track, Steve Mandell and Eric Weissberg. Here's something intersting about Dueling Banjos. As one of the people who influenced the song's chart success after the movie was released, the film's director, John Boorman, was presented with a gold record. It was later stolen out of his house in Ireland by gangster Martin Cahill. Years after that, Boorman made a film about Cahill ("The General", which also features Jon Voight from "Deliverance"), and he includes that incident. Cahill is disapointed to learn that gold records are not made of real gold. If you liked "Deliverance," you should check out "The General." Red 333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 It's a great shame he didn't write more prose but then' date=' if you are going to produce only one novel in your lifetime, [i']Deliverance[/i] would seem to be enough. Dickey actually wrote three novels: "Deliverance" "Alnilam" "To The White Sea" I've read them all (or to be precise, two and a half of them). "Deliverance" is one of the great American novels. A deep, thought provoking work that actually has action and adventure! You really get what Dickey was after in the novel more than the film. An outstanding work of art. "To The White Sea" has similarities to "Deliverance." It is a harrowing, at time gruesome book to read. It is a simple story of a WWII pilot who crashes onto a snowy Japanese island and must make his way across the island to safety. Brutal and shocking to say the least. Supposed to have been made into a movie years and years ago. Jon Voight actually had the rights to the book. "Alnilam" I never finished. A very experimental work (half the pages on one side of the book is the story as a blind character "sees" it, the opposite page is the sight version) that was just too ambitious to pull off even for a man of Dickey's talents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted November 18, 2009 Author Share Posted November 18, 2009 Here's something intersting about Dueling Banjos... That was damn interesting and funny. Never heard that before. Thanks. Always wanted to see THE GENERAL; now I definitely will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 While I agree with you for the most part' date=' I do want to point out that just because the Epi is shown in the scene doesn't mean it made the sound you hear. As is often the case when instruments appear on screen in movies, the actors (Ronnie Cox, Billy Redden, and a hand double for Billy) are miming to prerecorded track. It's not certain which specific instruments were used by the men who actually played the track, Steve Mandell and Eric Weissberg.[/quote'] The actors in that scene have been overdubbed, absolutely no doubt about it, you can tell just by looking at the banjo player's fingers which are just doing nonsense movements during the faster sections. In fact pretty much ALL sound is overdubbed in film, including things like footsteps, ambient sound etc. However, when recording sound in film studios later it's standard practice to mimic the same elements that were present in the film as much as possible. So in a high-budget film the same banjo and guitar would have been used simply because it doesn't make good sense NOT to use them, it's in the interests of the film to make the sound match the image as authentically as possible. Something else would only be substituted if the logistics of film sound dictacted that for some reason it had to be that way, but it's so easy to cart a guitar into a foley studio that there's no reason not to use the same one. It's a much easier task than recording gravel footsteps by digging up a chunk of dirt from the exact location and dragging it into the sound booth and resetting it, for example - easier to just have someone walk on the spot in a dirt-filled tray in the recording booth and mic it up (bigger film studios have a "dirt tray room" for this purpose, with all different types of dirt in separate trays). Authenticity in film sound is based on what is easy to replicate, and a guitar is self-contained sound box so that's dead easy to do. A studio enginner will look at the film, see a guitar and their first question will be "can we use THAT exact guitar?". On a low-budget film the answer might be no because nobody cares, but for something big like Deliverance, will they get the guitar? You bet. They'll even ask that the same capo and guitar strap is used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Summerisle Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Dickey actually wrote three novels: "Deliverance" "Alnilam" "To The White Sea" Thanks for correcting my mistake... I overlooked "To the White Sea" (which is strange' date=' as I have a copy somewhere on my shelves...) "Alnilam" I had not heard of before. "Deliverance" had such a profound affect on me that I bought a first edition some time back for my small collection of rare books, (although I have a paperback which I probably read at least once every two to three years). But the original has a wonderful eerie dustwrapper, as per: [img']http://madhurij.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/dickey_deliverance_l1.jpg[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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