devil went down to georgia

Plot

The song is a narrative about the devil, who comes to Georgia in desperation and "willin' to make a deal." He spies a young fiddle player named Johnny, who calls himself "the best that's ever been", and challenges him to a fiddle-playing contest. The terms are that if Johnny should win the contest, he will get a fiddle made of gold, but should he lose, he will forfeit his soul. Confident in his talent with the fiddle, Johnny accepts the challenge. The devil performs with the backing of a demon band, but is squarely beaten by the more talented Johnny. In the end, Johnny gets his golden fiddle, and with cocky bravado, even dares the Devil to return for a rematch.

The narrative is a derivative of the traditional "deal with the devil" motif, perhaps best known through the story of Faust. While Faust sees through the folly of Mephistopheles' contract, however, Johnny squarely defeats his foe, introducing a uniquely American twist on the traditional morality lesson.

Covers and other versions

A sequel to the song, "The Devil Comes Back to Georgia," was recorded by Daniels and fiddle player Mark O'Connor in 1993, featuring guest performances by Travis Tritt, Marty Stuart and Johnny Cash. In the sequel, Johnny has grown into a man, who is married and has a child. Hoping to take advantage of Johnny's sinful pride, the Devil challenges him to a rematch. Unlike the original song, at the end it is not clear whether Johnny or the Devil emerged victorious.

The song has been covered many times throughout the years, including versions by Sublime, Jerry Reed,Blues Traveler,Primus, and Pomeroy. Toy Dolls did their version of "The Devil Went Down to Scunthorpe" in 1997, with the fiddles exchanged for guitars, and Those Darn Accordions released a cover in which Johnny was replaced with a girl named "Big Lou" and the fiddles replaced with accordions.

In the season four episode of The Muppet Show guest starring Alan Arkin, the Muppets performed their own rendition of the song with a Muppet Devil.

The Urbz has a minigame called Soul Music, and the dialogue that happens the first time you play it references the song: Red Man: Hey there pipsqueek! You think you can beat the Red man? Character: Rosin up your bow, Red man! ~after defeating him in a fiddle contest~ Red Man: Dang, I have to admit, you only won from that gold fiddle. Character: Come on back whenever you want, Red man, but I tell you what you son of a gun, I'm the best there's ever been!~

Adaptations

On the Alabama 3 album Power in the Blood, there is a song called "The Devil Came Down to Ibiza", a dark song about the dangers of drugtaking in dance culture.

A hip-hop adaptation entitled "The Devil Came Up to Michigan" was released in 1991 by KMC Kru.

The Clamdiggers released a song titled "The Devil Went Down to Newport", which relates the story of a surfing contest with the Devil. This song was covered in 1996 by Mono Puff.

Filk singer and fiddler Heather Alexander does a song called "Faerie Queen" (music by Heather Alexander, lyrics by Philip R. Obermarck) which she describes as her response as a Celtic fiddle player to the many requests she gets to play "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". In this variation, a fiddler girl plays off against the Faerie Queen to win back her husband-to-be from the Faerie Queen's spell.

American Comedy-Rock band Tenacious D's song "Tribute", which is a cross between "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and "Stairway to Heaven", chronicles a late-night encounter with a demon (played in the music video by Dave Grohl). He appears and tells them to "play the best song in the world/or I'll eat your souls". The demon is "done" when he hears them play "the first thing that came to [their] heads" and it is indeed the greatest song ever played. He then asks them if they "be angels".

Parodies

In 2005 a punk band by the name of "A Human and His Stds" composed a cover of the song by the name of "The Devil Went Down to Santa Maria". In the song, the band has to play a punk rock show better than the devil to win a lifetime of beer or lose their souls. In the end, they lose a 6 day, 6 hour, and 6 minute long show, but have no souls to give the devil.

The song was parodied in Fort Wayne, IN radio DJ, Travis Meyer's "The Devil Went to Jamaica" (often miscredited to David Allen Coe or "Weird Al" Yankovic). In this version, The Devil and Johnny engage in a marijuana-smoking contest, with the Devil betting $1 million against Johnny's marijuana.

Another parody of the song, titled "Cledus Went Down to Florida," was recorded by country music parodist Cledus T. Judd.

The Devil's bargain was forced on the Robot Devil by the Fairness In Hell Act of 2275, in the episode "Hell Is Other Robots" of the Futurama TV series. In the same episode, Fry, one of the main characters, comments "Wouldn't a solid gold fiddle weigh hundreds of pounds and sound crummy?", to which the Devil responds "Well, it's mostly for show."

Another parody, "Devil Went Down to Dundalk," was performed on Baltimore radio station 98 Rock. In it, The devil challenges Johnny to a race, with the prize being a local strip club.

A parody from 2005 entitled "Sadako Came to the Arcade" was recorded by DJ Particle for her album Shiny Round Thing Inside, and featured The Ring villain Sadako Yamamura in place of The Devil. Sadako's challenge in this parody is a game of Dance Dance Revolution against a man who claims to be the best player of the game. There is no material prize in this parody, the winner simply gets to live. This parody also features drastically different instrumentals than the original. The instrumentals are an amalgam remix of songs appearing in Dance Dance Revolution.

Camper Van Beethoven's third album simply titled "Camper Van Beethoven" contains a song called "We love you" in which they "travel down to Georgia, we were lookin' for some fun; instead we met the Devil with a fiddle and a gun". The Devil joins the band.

In Stephen Lynch's song Beelz, the Devil says "Screw Charlie Daniels, I don't need to play a fiddle" and then later in the song states "I would never be caught dead in Georgia".

There is also a techno-dance cover of this song performed by the Rednex, the techno-country band become famous with the single "Cotton eyed Joe".

See also

• Charlie Daniels Band
• Crossroads (song)
• "The Devil and Daniel Webster"

External links

• "Thirty-Nine Questions for Charlie Daniels Upon Hearing 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' for the First Time in 25 Years." from McSweeney's