If you know how to play the banjo, you’ve probably learned how to play “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” The same goes for students of guitar, violin, mandolin, and more—the song has become a standard for the bluegrass genre, no matter what instrument you’re playing.
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“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” had a long history before becoming the essential bluegrass tune it is today. It was composed and recorded by banjo player Earl Scruggs in 1949. But it had its roots back in Scruggs’ childhood in North Carolina. There, he saw the local “picking” style of banjo playing as a child and spent many years trying to replicate it.
Scruggs’ career has been as essential to American bluegrass as none other. Having introduced his signature “Scruggs style,” which combined finger-picking with syncopation, his work with Lester Flatt helped popularize bluegrass as mainstream music. The duo is remembered for tracks such as “Play Me No Sad Songs,” “Cabin In The Hills,” and “The Ballad of Jed Clampett.”
By his death in 2012, Scruggs had countless awards to his name. He had been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award — to name just a few. But it was undoubtedly the instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” that turned him into a bluegrass legend.
How “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” Came To Be
Scruggs composed “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” in 1949, never expecting it to be a massive hit. Its first form came about four years earlier, in 1945, when Scruggs was still playing with the Bluegrass Boys band. The initial version was called the “Bluegrass Breakdown,” but the song never belonged to Scruggs. Instead, it was played on the mandolin by the leader of the Bluegrass Boys, Bill Monroe.
Four years later, Scruggs had left the band and started his own, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Now able to explore his unique style, he reworked “Bluegrass Breakdown” into “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”
Scruggs credited his mother for his simple, evocative method of playing.
“I was playing so much stuff,” Scruggs told NPR. “I knew what I was trying to do, but mother …said, ‘Earl, if you’re going to play, play something that’s got a tune to it.’ And I thought, ‘I’m doing the wrong thing if she can’t tell what I’m playing.’ So I cut back on trying to play it so much.”
What Does “Breakdown” Mean?
In bluegrass, a breakdown is an instrumental interlude where each player plays for a few minutes as a solo. This lets them stand out and provide a unique variation on the song’s main melody. It was a fitting name for the music that Scruggs reworked to make his own. Today, “breakdown” is more associated with bluegrass than any other musical genre, largely thanks to Scruggs and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”
Making History
The Foggy Mountain Boys released “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” in 1950. It stood out because of Scruggs’ simple composition combined with his frantic playing, using a five-string banjo and the then-largely-unknown picking style. Scruggs wasn’t the first to use picking, but his distinctive style superimposed with a syncopated beat became irretrievably entwined with the bluegrass genre. Today, the style of banjo playing is known as Scruggs style, and “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” helped popularize it.
Seventeen years after the track’s release, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” experienced a massive resurgence in popularity when it was included on the soundtrack of the 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. The inclusion sent the song to the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 55.
The film performance also earned Scruggs his first Grammy Award. “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” would eventually be put in the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
The Legacy Of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”
“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” resulted from an afternoon’s idle composing. Scruggs could have never known how huge it would become, shaping not just a hit but an entire genre. Today, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is a basic of any banjo player’s repertoire and has been adapted for various other instruments. But it was Scruggs’ musical vision and one-of-a-kind playing style that made it possible.
The importance of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” is evident in its inclusion in the National Recording Registry. But more importantly, it has influenced the generations of bluegrass players who have come after it, not just banjo players but violinists, mandolin players, and many more.
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