Let’s talk about what happens in the song “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” by Charlie Daniels and a travesty of justice.
The accepted story in the logic of the song has Johnny winning his battle with the Devil about who’s the better fiddle player. It’s presented as a clear victory. Huh???
Have you listened to their actual two parts in the song? The Devil was robbed; he was the clear winner.
Just Listen
Listen for yourself to the two performances.
The Devil’s part is better; it just is. Music is usually subjective, but not in this case.
Check out the clavinet, the intense guitar, the excitement. For starters, the Devil lets his band members shine for a moment. It’s funky country.
Then wait, what’s that? The Devil comes in hot with speed-bowing like nobody’s ever heard and it explodes into an orgasm of country rock fiddle.
Fine, let’s hear what Johnny’s got. “The chicken in the bread-pan pickin’ out dough
Granny, does your dog bite? No, child, no.” What the fuck? That simple fiddle two-step crap sounds like something on a lesser episode of The Andy Griffith Show.
So Many Questions
Johnny won? Are you kidding me? Says who? Why does the Devil roll over for this unpopular judges’ decision. It’s a disgrace.
You want to hear how limited Johnny is as a fiddler? In the song after Johnny is somehow declared the winner, he pops off to the Devil after the Devil paid up: “Devil, come on back if you ever wanna try again / I done told you once, you son of a gun, I’m the best there’s ever been.”
First of all, the balls on this guy. We’re talking about Satan here and the threat of eternal damnation but never mind that.
But then listen to his reprise or victory lap. He plays the exact same solo with the exact same corny lyrics. Zero range on this guy.
And the last question: How much is a golden fiddle worth in today’s gold market and is it worth risking your soul over?
I’m Not the Only Lunatic
For decades, I’ve felt this way about the song. It turns out, I’m not the only one. In 2013 on my second date with my girlfriend, I learned that she had always felt the same way. How did it come up? When I took her around the corner from the burger joint where we were eating to meet a local moonshiner I knew. Yup.
Years later, I heard Chuck Klosterman posit the same opinion on the Bill Simmons podcast.
The point is: people were having cultural thoughts like these independently for years, and the internet eventually revealed common theories like this and urban legends like Richard Gere’s gerbil or Rod Stewart getting his stomach pumped.
Charlie Daniels
It was Daniels’ biggest hit, big enough to land him a Skoal smokeless chewing tobacco commercial with it. He’s had a long career and kept him in the public eye long enough to pop off with the usual uber-right conspiracy stuff like comparing abortion laws with Auschwitz or gems like, “In the future, Darwinism will be looked upon as we now look upon the flat earth theory.”
But let’s separate the kick-ass art from the deranged artist and remember what’s important:
Johnny won the fiddle contest but the Devil won the song.
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