Foggy Mountain Breakdown
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"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a famous bluegrass music instrumental by the seminal bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. It is used as background music in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, especially in the car chase scenes, and has been used in a similar manner in many other pictures and television programs, particularly when depicting a pursuit scene in a rural setting.
It was written by Earl Scruggs and recorded in 1949 by Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, with Scruggs playing a Gibson Granada 5-string banjo. It is closely related to Bill Monroe's "Bluegrass Breakdown" which Earl helped to write. It featured the same opening double hammer on, but "Bluegrass Breakdown" goes to an F chord whereas Foggy Mountain Breakdown goes to the G chord's relative minor, an E Minor.
Many 5-string banjo players consider Foggy Mountain Breakdown one of the instrument's fastest and most rhythmically challenging pieces. Only very skilled 5-string banjo players can play it at the same speed and beat that Scruggs can.
In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.