Comments on: We're waiting on your answers, Mr. Daniels

By: Pam W.

Pam W. — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:24:11 +0000

I love that song! My husband sings it quite well.

By: Jaybird

Jaybird — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:59:51 +0000

That's how I feel about Columbus and points south–the weather sucks right out loud, but that isn't anyone's fault. How people here ACT, now, that is their fault, and they need to shape up. Especially with the crappy driving.

By: Sars

Sars — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:27:10 +0000

Erin and I had a conversation once about how the song obviously didn't take place in Augusta or Johnny would have handed over his soul no questions asked in exchange for a ride out of town.

I broke down in Augusta once, made friends with a whole auto-repair waiting room, and thought everyone couldn't have been nicer, so I'm not sure why everyone says it's such a hole. The weather was gross but that wasn't Augusta's fault.

By: Jaybird

Jaybird — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:29:33 +0000

Eh, I've lived in Georgia for the past year, and I agree with Beelz, especially regarding southern Georgia. Blech.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:24:27 +0000

My delightful and entertaining friend, Bill, explained it to me years ago. Sadly, his stories are no longer online to entertain me when I get bored.

The summary is this:
The devil realized halfway through the deal that he was going to have to explain to all the demons back in hell that he'd won Johnny's soul by playing fiddle, which would be horribly embarassing. Also, the devil knew that the '80s and all those hair bands were coming soon, so he'd soon have all the souls he could handle. So, he decided to throw Johnny a bone and get out of Georgia and away from the rednecks, grits, and good ole boy accent.

And then when goober got a little too mouthy, the devil incinerated him in a pillar of unholy flame. :-)

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:21:06 +0000

Whenever I asked about this in my youth (believing that the Devil's piece even in the song is better than Johnny's), my brother always informed me, with authority, that it was because the Devil had to have his band of demons join in to sound awesome, whereas Johnny fiddled by his onesies.

Now I believe it was an imposter, because as Stephen Lynch says in his song 'Beelz,' speaking as the devil, "Okay, that is bullshit, because I would not be caught dead in GEORGIA."

By: meimei

meimei — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:09:47 +0000

Not too long ago, ESPN's Page 2 published a picture of Lance Armstrong being chased by a guy in a devil costume... and ended up running not one, but TWO parodies of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" dedicated to Lance. And now I can't listen to the song without thinking about Lance making a deal with Satan over a yellow jersey.

By: Space Kitty

Space Kitty — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:18:59 +0000

And now it's stuck in my head!

*cries*

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:25:24 +0000

JulieT: Yeah, I'm pretty sure electic guitars are off-limits in Appalachian Standardized fiddle tournaments.

michelel: If Charlie Daniels thinks Johnny's part was better, I'm not sure I dare to argue with him. He'd know which was harder to play, of course, and if you ignore the sweet bass line, the Devil's song sounds kind of like when my dad started learning the fiddle.

Also: the phrases the band sings during Johnny's solo (fire on the mountain, et cetera) are all references to old, old standards from Appalachia and the South — squaredance calls, bluegrass and folk songs, children's rhymes. I think we're meant to infer that Johnny actually played more than we hear (this is just a tribute, you gotta believe me) and that his connection to his roots and respect for tradition is part of what saves him.

Live performances give a much better chance to do all this dueling-fiddle business, of course — you can have two guys up there sawing away and grinning like fools at each other, stretch it out to like seven minutes, it's a good time.

By: Sarah B.

Sarah B. — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:22:14 +0000

Heh. It's funny – I just wrote up a free jazz concert for an ethnomusicology seminar, and damn if the instruments didn't sound just like the Devil's fiddle.

"The Devil's just blowing smoke. If you listen to that, there's just a bunch of noise. There's no melody to it, there's no nothing, it's just a bunch of noise. Just confusion and stuff … If you dissect it and listen to it, that's the smoke and mirrors thing about the Devil. There's just nothing there. I mean, there's nothing. There's no music involved."

If by "music" you mean a bland line of perfectly predictable diatonic SNORE.

Good day, Mr. Daniels. I said good day!