In popular media the idea of besting the devil to like, win something cool, is pretty common and a hallmark of the trope is that the devil always wins. You know, to teach people a lesson or whatever. A fact that makes the song, The Devil Went Down to Georgia kind of unique, given that in that song the devil gets his shiny red arse handed to him by a bona fide fiddling genius who not only doesn’t learn a lesson, but spent a decade calling the devil a cloven-hoofed bitch. Something we know thanks to the fact the song has a sequel where the exact same thing happened again.
For anybody who needs a refresher on exactly what happens in the song, the devil, who is way behind on, soul collecting, we guess? Heads to Georgia and encounters a young man called Johnny who is absolutely shredding the shit out of some fiddle. The devil, spying an opportunity to do some devilin’ and exploit a young man’s hubris, challenges Johnny to a contest of skill.
Now in pretty much any other story Johnny would noodle away, try his best but ultimately lose due to Devil engaging in shenanigans of some kind. We mean, that is the sort of thing the devil does in pretty much every other piece of media in which this trope appears.
In this song though the Devil not only loses, very handily we might add because Johnny kicks the Devil’s arse so hard the devil probably spent the next month shitting shoelaces, but hands over the golden fiddle he promised Johnny if he won. The devil doesn’t trick him, he doesn’t use his devil magic to steal his soul anyway, hell, he doesn’t even command his backing band to beat Johnny with their instruments for insulting him.
Because oh yeah, not only does Johnny win, he mocks the devil’s skill, proclaims himself to be the best there’s ever been and even tells the Devil that he’ll kick his ass a second time if he ever wants to try again. Like we cannot overstate how little Johnny learns from his encounter with the Devil. He couldn’t have been more prideful and arrogant if he’d picked up the golden fiddle he just won and started sliding his dick up and down the neck.
Which is, fine, the song doesn’t need to have a message, though fun aside here, Charlie Daniels reportedly fucking hated the version featured in Guitar Hero 3 because it’s possible for the Devil to win. Which he felt was against the spirit of the song. The song in which Johnny repeatedly mocks the devil and even pridefully challenges him again.
Anyway, about 10 years after the song was released musician, Mark O’Connor recorded a sequel in which the Devil actually takes Johnny up on his offer to challenge him again and he returns to Georgia intent on getting both his golden fiddle and Johnny’s soul.
So this is probably where you expect that Johnny learns some kind of lesson, right? That after years of boasting that he best the devil in a contest of skill and proudly displaying the golden fiddle he snatched from his gnarled claws, Johnny’s hubris would have resulted in him getting lazy or something.
Well, oddly enough that is sort of what happens, with Johnny telling the devil that he hasn’t played the fiddle in years. Which is fair, after beating the literal personification of all evil in a fiddle contest, we can’t imagine there’d be much reason to keep playing.
Here’s the thing though, despite not having played the fiddle in a decade Johnny takes the Devil up on his offer, albeit after having a minute or two to warm up. In another unusual display of fairness, the devil agrees to this and Johnny proceeds to whomp his ass again, even harder this time. Playing an even radder solo, with the music video for the song showing that Johnny, (played by the aforementioned O’Connor) chasing the Devil back to hell on a skateboard.
Sadly a third song where we get to see Johnny go all the way to hell to headbutt the devil and shit on his throne as a final insult before moonwalking to heaven whilst playing an even cooler solo never materialised. So instead we’ll just have to imagine one.
