“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Charlie Daniels
This song features an easy-to-follow, fable-like storyline. The Devil, i.e. the master of hell, is frustrated because he has not been capturing enough souls to meet his quota. So he heads “down to Georgia… looking for a soul to steal”. And while there he comes across a boy named Johnny whom he would like to capture and who also happens to be very-skilled on the fiddler. So he makes a bet with the boy. If the Devil is able to outplay him, then he will take his soul. Or if Johnny is actually victorious, then the Devil will give him “a fiddle of gold”.
So to make a long story short, Johnny does outperform the Devil and receives the “golden fiddle”. And whereas it is not abundantly evident in the lyrics, Charlie Daniels actually intended this to be sort of a religious song. In other words, the overall implication is supposed to read like Johnny was able to best the Devil due to the former having God on his side.
“If you lose, the devil gets your soul”
Facts about “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”
This song was written by Charlie Daniels along with his bandmates, who are as follows:
- Taz DiGregorio
- Fred Edwards
- Charles Hayward
- James Marshall
And the producer of the track is John Boylan.
Epic Records released this track on 21 May 1979. It came out as part of The Charlie Daniels Band’s album “Million Mile Reflections”.
“The Devil Went to Georgia” is the signature song of Charlie Daniels’ mutli-decades’ career. It topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs as well as the Canada Country Tracks listing. Additionally on the Hot 100, it peaked at impressive position of 3. It was also a top -5 hit on the Canada Top Singles. In Britain (UK Singles Chart), it made it tot number 14.
Moreover in 2003, CMT ranked this as one of the “100 Greatest Songs in Country Music”. And in 1979 it earned The Charlie Daniels Band a Grammy. It won said award in the category of “Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal“.
Charlie Daniels also wrote a book entitled “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.
In 1993, Daniels, in conjunction with other artists including Mark O’Connor and Johnny Cash, put together a sequel song entitled “The Devil Came Back to Georgia”.
According to Daniels, his conception of this song may be traced back to a poem by early 20th century writer Stephen Vincent Benet entitled “The Mountain Whippoorwill”.
This track is featured on the 2007 videogame “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock”, in fact as the final challenge the player has to face. However Charlie Daniels, let it be known that he strongly disapproved of the imagery associated with his song’s usage in the game.
It is Daniels who plays the fiddle throughout this track, on behalf of both Johnny and the Devil.
In the fourth verse, Johnny refers to the Devil as “you son of a bi**h”. However, the radio version of this song replaces the word the offensive word with “gun”.
This song’s allusions to God can actually be found in the second chorus. Here, Johnny references a couple of folk songs, “House of the Rising Sun” and “Fire on the Mountain”, when battling against the Devil. And the lyrics to both of these tunes have overt religious references.
