this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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There’s plenty of stories from other countries about the cunning hero outsmarting the fae or similar. Just that in America, the hero always wins vs other countries where there are also many stories where the hero gets killed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe, two of America's most famous writers, both based their bodies of work on people paying the price of losing to temptation/sin. Although to be fair I couldn't think of any popular songs about that.
I know it's not a popular take, but I don't like Poe or Hawthorne. I always felt like their shallow exploration of death/edgy topics really only appealed to the immature or unintelligent reader.
I can see their work on a shelf between The Nightmare Before Christmas and a Dashboard Confessional CD- maybe a Jr High textbook as well.
I wouldn't use them as an example.
Thats only because they write with emotion in mind, in my opinion. They are trying to evoke feelings and cause dissonance, not lay out an intellectual thesis on the subject.
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Johnny admits to knowing that taking the bet was a sin and commits it anyway. Johnny gets the golden fiddle, but the devil gets his soul in the end anyway. What's 60 more years to an eternal being? The song can still be a cautionary tale you just need to finish it.
Johnny admits to knowing that taking the bet was a sin and commits it anyway.
No, he admits that it might be a sin.
The boy said, "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin
But I'm gon' take your bet, you're gonna regret, I'm the best there's ever been"
That means he's acknowledging its a sin but he will do it anyways. You are thinking it says it might be a sin or might not, but thats not how the sentence goes.
The sentence can be interpreted either way.
I definitely read it as an acknowledgement of a risk rather than an admission of wrong.
Point kinda holds, though. Ignoring the long-term consequences for short-term gain seems to also feature heavily in America.
The county was founded by generations of people who came here with little thought to long term consequences, so it tracks
ah yes, that short term Constitution that never held up /s
Yep only in America
🙄
Eh? The wager was Johnny either gets the fiddle or loses his soul, why would he go to hell anyway?
No human is without sin, after all.
Win or lose, taking the bet at all is a sin, and Johnny aknowleges this in the song. Plenty of protestants (the target audience) see this as reason enough to go to hell.
Now you could argue about forgiveness or confession or whatever the fuck but the stage has been set for Johnny to go to hell even though he won.
"Here's your fiddle. See you in 80 years".
I think its a cautionary tale about using evil even when you think you're good and right. The devil doesnt play fair, and always wins.
It's not a protestant belief that a single sin makes you irredeemable and sends you to hell.
They didnt say that. Do we still call these strawmen?
Yes they did.
Win or lose, taking the bet at all is a sin, and Johnny aknowleges this in the song. Plenty of protestants (the target audience) see this as reason enough to go to hell.
[...]
"Here's your fiddle. See you in 80 years".
Well, Daniels wrote a sequel in which the devil comes back to try again. That pretty much negates this theory.
Also, Daniels wrote it in the middle of a recording session for the sole reason that he realized they forgot to write a fiddle song for the album they were recording. So I wouldn’t ascribe too much intention to anything.
It's rooted in the tradition of American machismo and braggadocio. Hyperbole is a huge part of the American oral tradition. You go to any small town in the Southern US and the old timers will have some tall tales that beggar belief and they will tell them too you as if it were the gospel with no winks or nods.
I think Devil Went Down to Georgia is supposed to be viewed as a boast by Johnny himself. "I'm a really good fiddle player." "Oh yeah?" "Yeah, this one time I beat the Devil himself." "I told you once you sonofabitch, I'm the best there's ever been."
American machismo and braggadocio
machismo and braggadocio
machismo
braggadocio
Do you know where these words came from? Americans have neither when compared.
The devil in the song is in a bind and ready to make a deal, which is a little different from other Faustian tales.
Maybe the lesson is that you don’t make good music when you’re under pressure.
Or that gold fiddles sound bad.
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According to conventional wisdom, Johnny damned himself by accepting the bet in the first place. The devil "loses", but that just cements Johnny's sin of pride.
The devil might not have gotten Johnny's soul the day of the contest, but make no mistake, he does eventually get the soul.
Nah. Conventional wisdom says he can either
- the the priest all about it and do some chants
- find himself a baptizer and spend the rest of his time Jesusing real hard.
Johnny's options will depend on his local wise man, but I suspect either way he'll also be strongly encouraged to buy some merch.
he’ll also be strongly encouraged to buy some merch.
Eh, they usually don't see merch as much as ask you to subscribe to their crowdfunding (ideally for 10% of your total income) for performative Jesusing done bi-weekly.
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Well if you're religious. There's a whole class of individuals in the South that get off on showing the religious just how little they care for the tenets of Christianity. In addition to playing a mean fiddle, Johnny probably swears like a sailor and has extramarital sex whenever he can.
The song came out in 1979. The Southern Rebel was a big concept in the culture.
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If you ignore all the folk tales about people one upping the devil or the local equivalent... everywhere, yes, it's a uniquely American trait.
Don't those involve creative approaches and tricking or otherwise outsmarting the devil or local equivalent?
This is just Johnny being better than the devil and having a massive ego about it. That specific situation tends to be punished.
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Reminds me of when Bobby Newport stole Knope's heartwarming tale of support in the face of failure, but changed it and said "...And I won!"
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Says the person with the Superman profile pic.
It's a cautionary tale of the Devil's hubris. 😌
I think the underlying realization for The Devil Went Down to Georgia is more that Americans will listen to good music even if they don't agree with the lyrics.
The same goes for Imagine by John Lennon, for example.
What part of the lyrics of Devil Went Down to Georgia do you think people are disagreeing with?
the same part that OP is complaining about
I don't understand your point. People don't agree with the song because they believe the lyrics would be different if it were written somewhere else? I'm confused what you're trying to say.
The hero of the song bets his soul against a golden fiddle that he can beat the devil in a fiddling contest because of his pride. People wouldn't agree that this is a good thing. For example, most people wouldn't teach their children this story as if Johnny was a hero, but that's how he's portrayed in the song.
This is the best I can explain it. If you keep asking the same questions past this point, I'm going to assume you're just trolling me.
If you keep asking the same questions past this point, I'm going to assume you're just trolling me.
Goodness gracious. I literally just didn't understand your point. 🙄
I love lyrics but i've found that most people I talk to about lyrics have no idea or don't pay attention
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