dougzbanjo - Posted - 11/10/2011:  07:31:23

Just wondering, how many people out there besides me, wanted to learn how to play the banjo, after watching The Beverly Hillbillies?I've heard alot of people say that they would like to be like Jed, and play like earl. After breaking my back I watched reruns for ten years. I woke up one morning wanting to play like Earl. Hell, it looked easy. ha ha. I been playing for a year now and I probably sound more like Jethro than I do Earl. ha ha

T-18 - Posted - 11/10/2011:  07:41:43

Count me in the group. The first time I ever saw Earl and Lester was on the that show. It not only got me interested in the Banjo, but in Bluegrass music too. I was a youngster in the sixties and I liked everything the show stood for. I believe it had deep social commentary masked as comedy, and on par with shows such as All in the Family, Jeffersons, etc.

earlsgranada - Posted - 11/10/2011:  07:43:57

Yes, I did! Earl's picking was definitely something to hear. Bela Fleck wanted to play banjo from watching the Beverly Hillbillies, too, I believe when he was 16.

I can't play "The Balled Of Jed" as good as Earl, though! I'm still studying some variations on the melody that Earl used.

 ~Craig

John Allison - Posted - 11/10/2011:  07:44:18

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Beverly Hillbillies but it was Dave Guard and the Kingston Trio that triggered my interest in the banjo.

robbie93 - Posted - 11/10/2011:  08:09:40

Count me in! I was about 8 years old the first time I saw Earl on the Beverly Hillbillies. I immediately wanted to play and asked my mother for banjo lessons. She called every music studio in town and eventually found me a teacher as well as a beginner banjo. I took lessons and played every day for about 5 years until unfortunately my teacher who was an older gentleman passed away.

I continued to play for a while until my friends convinced me I should be a rock star and I traded by banjo for an electric guitar. Played the guitar for a few years but I never really got into it. 

A couple of years ago I read Steve Martin's bio and it made me remember how much I loved to play the banjo. My wife bought me a banjo for my birthday and I have played every day since. Never going to give it up again.

yopasjim - Posted - 11/10/2011:  08:27:49

Yep!  Actually I was picking that very song....reading the posts and I came across this thread.  Even Bela Fleck was inspired this way..."He was drawn to the banjo when he first heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for the television show Beverly Hillbillies. "

Hoss - Posted - 11/10/2011:  09:02:15

I loved the Beverly hillbillies theme song  but being the stupid kid I was decided the banjo sounded like an impossibly difficult instrument to play. I took up guitar instead. It wasn't until about 30 years later that I finally picked up a banjo. Doh!

RioStat - Posted - 11/10/2011:  10:06:09

growing up in West Virginia in the early 60's, we watched the Beverly Hillbillies because we KNEW that Flatt & Scruggs might be on there. I'd seen them live 2-3 yrs before the Hillbillies started on TV. Either way, I knew I wanted to "play like Earl"!! (still want to play like Earl!)

banjonz - Posted - 11/10/2011:  10:49:41

That show and the theme was responsible for me wanting to learn.

banjonz - Posted - 11/10/2011:  10:52:42

That show and the theme was responsible for me wanting to learn.

un5trung - Posted - 11/10/2011:  11:59:19

I had a chat with Bela about that.  I attended the debut his Africa movie here in NYC and during the talk afterwards he brought up the BH, citing that program (as he did in the documentary) as the source of his interest in the banjo.  For me it was Pete Seeger and the general folk scare.  This was about a week before Pete's 90th birthday bash -- which both Bela and I attended -- and I said I thought that he (Bela) was underestimating the influence of the folk scare, and Pete in particular.  I was not persuasive, and I really do usually win arguments.  Didn't win this one; Bela didn't back down an inch.  On one hand he is far deeper in the music scene than I am, but on the other hand he hangs about with bluegrassy players, so yes, he is going to hear from them that Scruggs was the big influence.  He chewed on that and said, essentially, "No, I'm right."  I guess Bela usually wins arguments too, eh?

Rooster59 - Posted - 11/10/2011:  13:37:21

You bet!  The banjo in the theme song to the Hillbillies and also Petticoat Junction was what put the banjo bug in me.

Where I grew up, alot of people don't know what bluegrass is and for years, those two songs were pretty much the only banjo I was exposed to.

kmwaters - Posted - 11/10/2011:  14:24:30

RioStat - how large is the group you are in that want to play like Earl? Or, I suppose I could as this: Does anybody play the banjo who does NOT want to play like Earl? I just want to see him retire with dignity, and not play poorly in public. The time is coming soon from all indications. What a legend.

GWRdriver - Posted - 11/10/2011:  15:12:59

I can't recall any one person or thing planting the seed, but what first got my attention was the work of The Greenbriar Boys with Bob Yellin on banjo. By 1961 I was big into the folk scene playing guitar and bass. Yeah I knew about Lester & Earl, I was at their Vanderbilt "folk" concert (1964), but they were "country" and outside the realm of folk and for me the Greenbriars, and their banjo, blew the wheels off the instrumental sound of all the other folk groups. Then in 1964 someone gave me a 45 of Jimmy Martin's You Don't Know My Mind with "Bear Tracks" (by you-know-who) on the B-side. That drove the nails in tighter, but like another poster I played along on guitar for a while before I finally succumbed and the final shove over the edge was a direct result of wearing out an LP of Old and In the Way. For the erudite and banjo connoisseur Yellin and Jerry Garcia aren't what you might call supernovae in the universe of banjo players, but then that doesn't matter does it.

flintlock54 - Posted - 11/10/2011:  17:13:40

The same for me, they even had a couple shows were flat and Scruggs came back to visit and Granny tried to teach there trophy wives to cook possum and make soap. also loved seeing the "Darlings", play on Andy Griffith.

BanjoHawk202020 - Posted - 11/10/2011:  18:21:43

Heard a recording of Earl play Dear Old Dixie, what a sound, and what he played on the back up was better than the lead!!! Doug Dillard also on the Andy Griffith show was inspiring also.

oettingm - Posted - 11/10/2011:  19:26:06

For me it was Doug Dillard too. Andy Griffith Show.  I was familiar with Beverly Hillbillies and yes liked that theme song. I also was drawn to Dueling Banjos because of the fast drive of the five string when they hit the ground running half way through the song. But what really made me want to learn the banjo was hearing Dooley and Doug's Tune by the Dillards.

RB-1 - Posted - 11/10/2011:  20:24:30

quote:

---

Originally posted by dougzbanjo

Just wondering, how many people out there besides me, wanted to learn how to play the banjo, after watching The Beverly Hillbillies?

---

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by robbie93

Count me in! I was about 8 years old the first time I saw Earl on the Beverly Hillbillies. I immediately wanted to play and asked my mother for banjo lessons. She called every music studio in town and eventually found me a teacher as well as a beginner banjo.

---

Me too. The shows were aired here ( The Netherlands) round 1962, I was 8 at that time.

Trying to copy what I heard, using my dad's mandolin banjo, left me puzzled how to play so many notes in such a short time....

When Lester & Earl made their personal appearance, I first realized Earl picked with his fingers and his banjo had a very long neck. I didn't even notice the 5th string.....

'That's what I want to play!'  'Shure boy, but we can't afford one.'

And gradually I kind of forgot. And at the age of 10 I could play the mandolin banjo fairly decent for a self taught kid.

It took another band to get me hooked on the 5 string.

In 1972 The Flying Burrito Brothers made a European tour, and Alan Munde played banjo for them....

The recording 'Live in Amsterdam' contained 'Dixie Breakdown' and when that track was aired in a Sunday afternoon sports show, late 1973, I hit the recording button of our (hard wired) cassette recorder only seconds after the start. Replayed it for the rest of the afternoon and evening.....

Suddenly I remembered what I'd wanted so badly about 10 years earlier.

But being 18, I made some money from work experience school project and my first pay all went to a Framus 5 string.

Country Gazette visited Amsterdam twice that year. At the first gig, Alan kindly explained me how to tune up and some more basics.

At the second he let me show my progress and gave me some crucial tips on using the 5th string as a melody note in Sally Goodin.

And now I'm 40 years older, playing a lovely old Gibson and creating my own banjo music.

It would never have been without Lester, Earl, The Beverly Hillbillies & Alan...

Edited by - RB-1 on 11/10/2011 20:27:08

BNJOMAKR - Posted - 11/11/2011:  02:49:45

I wanted to play with Ellie Mae! That was the name of Earl's banjo, right?  

markdonc - Posted - 11/11/2011:  05:06:41

I was only a small child when I heard Earl on the Hillbillies. I told my mom that I wanted to do that, I was probably 6-8 years old. No one where we lived in PA. knew anything about bluegrass banjo so I took up the guitar at about 10. I made up my mind at 30 that I really was going to learn to play like Earl. For the past 25+ years I've been playing although not quite like Earl.

pjfolino - Posted - 11/11/2011:  05:17:04

It's funny how we're so similar. I too loved the sound from Bev Hill's but I played guitar for 20 years before taking up the banjo - I rarely pick up the guitar anymore!

robbie93 - Posted - 11/11/2011:  07:30:00

It's really cool learning that so many others were drawn to the banjo by the seeing show. Should we start a new group on the hangout?

Maybe call it Beverly Hillbilly Pickers?

dougzbanjo - Posted - 11/11/2011:  07:47:40

You start it and I'll join. Thanks everyone. This is just good stuff!!!

robbie93 - Posted - 11/11/2011:  08:32:53

The group is up. Here's the link:  banjohangout.org/group/...llypickers

RioStat - Posted - 11/11/2011:  12:39:57

quote:

---

Originally posted by kmwaters

RioStat - how large is the group you are in that want to play like Earl? Or, I suppose I could as this: Does anybody play the banjo who does NOT want to play like Earl? I just want to see him retire with dignity, and not play poorly in public. The time is coming soon from all indications. What a legend.

---

 kmwaters,  I think that group is the largest group of laser-focused people engaged in any activity on earth!!! I want to see Earl retire with dignity, also.  The Banjo kingdom is going to lose 2 legends in the near future (Scruggs & Stanley) and the world will be a poorer place when this happens. As I get older, I dread the day when even my memory won't recall seeing and hearing Earl (and Ralph) playing.   Tempus Fugit

robbif - Posted - 11/11/2011:  12:44:29

For me it went from Dave Guard to Pete Seeger to John Stewart to Earl to Bill Keith.

Each one great in their own right, IMHO.

iSteve - Posted - 11/13/2011:  21:40:39

I loved the Beverley Hillbillies theme song, watching almost every episode.  I really enjoyed the Flatt and Scruggs appearances.  I really became passionate when I started attending the Carter Family Fold.  The banjo just fascinated me.  A later influence was Pete Seeger and his use of the banjo in folk music.

lethegoodtimesroll - Posted - 11/14/2011:  08:47:16

Earls recorded break from the show theme with Jerry Scoggins singing and his recorded break with lester singing are different....The syncopation on the F& S recording is fantastic and I never get tired of hearing it.

f5loar - Posted - 11/14/2011:  09:47:53

I remember it like it was yesterday, Weds night Sept. 26, 1962 at 9PM the family was glued to the Zenith Space Command 24 inch TV set.  As soon as the opening roll of Earl's banjo hit my brother in the head it changed his and my life forever.   From there it has been a life of bluegrass music.  When performing live I still sing the theme song and add the rare 4th verse about the banker.  I guess they left that out of the theme song due to time.  2 verses at the start and last verse at the end.  The problem with performing the song is do you do it slow or fast since they did it both ways.  I like a good medium speed.  I will add that I am such a die hard BH collector of the 100's of toys and collectibles that came out from the show that I drink my coffee in a BH full sized latte mug and the 1963 Ideal plastic car/truck with figures sits on my mantel.  If anyone is looking for original vintage collectibles from the show contact me off list.  I have everything for sale from the Ideal Car in the box to the lunchbox and thermos.  Puzzles, boardgames, EllyMay Kellogg's dolls, F&S Pearl 45 picture sleeves, paperbacks, hardbacks, comic books, colorforms, jewlery to name a few.