Taking Sides in "The Devil Went Down To Georgia": The Devil or Johnny?

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Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Great song, possibly the best marriage of country and disco.

But something bothers me. The fix was in on that fiddle contest. To my ears, The Devil blew Johnny's ass off the hickory stump. The Devil is getting all Tony Conrad on that fucking thing, throwing in these dissonant shrieks and contrasting them with the wa-wa guitars of the Band of Demons, and he scores major points in terms of visual style with fire flying from his fingertips (anyone who says that visual part of a sound battle doesn't matter needs to check out a DMC event.) Johnny pretty much just plays the same scales every fiddle player learned in Squaredancing 101 (competently, sure, but still...). You can't tell me that both parties knew right away who the clear winner was. A rematch seems in order.

What about you? Devil or Johnny?

― Mark, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you need to give it another listen you can find it on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack.

― Mark, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh I agree, though in fairness to Johnny you have to take into account that the demons really raise the devil's game. But surely REDNEX is the best marriage of country and disco!

― Ian, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The implication in this song that disco is the devil was something I wondered about for a long time when I first heard the song, during my seventh-grade discomania year. It almost put me off the stuff forever. During this time, I also determined that Wind of Change, by the Bee Gees, is another demonic disco song, but I didn't reach this conclusion through any other facts than a) it spooked me, and b) Charlie Daniels Band is clearly onto something, so possession must be the case with "WoT."

― matthew m., Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But Johnnys Fiddle Playing is Pure and The Devils is flashy, the lord likes simple men.

― anthony, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

But Satan doesn't.

Yeah, the Devil kicked Johnny's ass hand's down. But I'm a Yankee so whudda I know?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Lyrics you will never get to say in real life #1179: "I'll take your bet/You're gonna regret/Cuz I'm the best there's ever been"

There's a big hole in the story as to who's meant to judge the contest. But fortunately the devil, humble and fair gentleman that he is, and already "in a bind", just gives in, with apparently no witnesses but the devil's own band of demons. And he challenges someone he already realises is "hot", when he's looking for a soul to steal.

I didn't realise picking holes in pop records was so much fun.

A: Johnny

― Graham, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yr all wrong - the fiddle wins, and that's the moral of the story.

― Queen G, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the Devil lost points strictly for starting out with a long chromatic passage, which while sounding 'dramatic' and 'impressive' to the layman is really kind of a cheap trick according to the people who adjudicate this kind of thing.

― dave q, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave Q has the best answer. He is the CLEAR winner.

― Alex in SF, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd have to pitch my vote on the side of Satan.

The devil has all the best tunes.

Kris.

― Kris England, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No satan has the best tunes about evil, according to medival legend the only one who can save the world form Satan is an innocent night , liek johnny .

― anthony, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And what about that card game between Our Lord and the Devil in the Chris de Burgh song. That's not a very impressive variety of omniscience really is it?

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave, what else would you expect from the devil? If he's not a disco version of Rick Wakeman, I don't know what he is.

― matthew m., Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven months pass...

The Devil really one. He just got bored and didn't want that cracker's soul that night.

This is one of the most important threads on ILM.

― Wooly Reaper, Monday, 24 March 2003 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

The Devil really won. He just got bored and didn't want that cracker's soul that night.

This is one of the most important threads on ILM.

― Wooly Reaper, Monday, 24 March 2003 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

This is like that dead cat in the box thing no?

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Monday, 24 March 2003 07:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Told you once, you son of a bitch...

― dave q, Monday, 24 March 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

That Bee Gees song IS sppoky, and so was "Diamonds" by Robin Gibb. Just thought I'd weigh in on peripherals.

― matt riedl (veal), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Yep. The Devil Won for orchestration and atmosphere, but Johnny won for knee-slappin', line-dancin', cotton-eye-joe-dancin' party in the horseshit-scented hayloft fun.
I think this shows the difference between playin' the fiddle and playing the violin.
The Devil wasn't playin' fiddle at all.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i love camper van beethoven's "we love you," which is a sort of weird cover version of the charlie daniels classic.

― j fail (cenotaph), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Johnny's is a cop-out b/c he sings along to it.

Unless that's his fiddle singing, in which case he wins.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

eight years pass...

Really think there should have been some sort of comeuppance to Johnny for willing to put his own Godforsaken soul on the line for what? A shiny fiddle made of gold.

The devil's part is much better, but having had the band of demons joining in should have disqualified him.

Boy let me tell you what.

― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 27 April 2011 16:42 (fourteen years ago)

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