| The Devil Went Down To Georgia |
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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. 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. 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. The song's verses are closer to being spoken rather than sung. Satan's and Johnny's performances are played as instrumental bridges during the song. PARODIES AND SONGS INSPIRED BY THIS ONE 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 down the years, including versions by Sublime , Primus , and Pomeroy . A Hip-hop adaptation entitled "The Devil Came Up to Michigan" was released in 1991 by KMC Kru . Toy Dolls did their version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia (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. The song was parodied in 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. Another parody of the song, titled "Cledus Went Down to Florida," was recorded by country music Parodist Cledus T. Judd . 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 . '''' has a minigame called Soul Music, and the dialogue that happens the first time you play it goes with: 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! 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. 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. The Devil's bargain was adopted by the Robot Devil in TV's '' Futurama '', in the episode " Hell Is Other Robots ." 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 {Link without Title} heads" and it is indeed the greatest song ever played. He then askes them if they "be angels". SEE ALSO |
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