Johnny Beat the Devil Fair and Square
I Don't Want to See His Infernal Face in these Parts Ever Again
One of the big arguments of country music is whether Johnny’s solo in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” deserved to win. In the song, the Devil needs to harvest a soul, he challenges an arrogant kid named Johnny to a fiddling contest, and loses the battle. To a lot of people, the Devil’s solo seems cooler. That is wrong and I am here to explain why.
First, it is very obvious that the Devil is not prepared for a top-level fiddling duel. The lyrics state that the Devil is “looking for a soul to steal.” In some versions of the song, the Devil was in a “bind” because he was behind in his soul collecting. Doesn’t sound like he was practicing much that day. Then, after Johnny agrees to the challenge, the Devil summons a “band of demons.” Think about it. In a normal cutting contest, you just stand up and play. You don’t summon all your friends to back you up. In fact, asking your friends to help you in a cutting contest is an obvious sign of weakness.
And what does this “band of demons” play? Underwhelming city slicker rock, not real country music. The demonic solo seems to have two parts. First, there is a nice short electric guitar solo. That’s also a sign of weakness: the Devil needs an assist from his guitar player. The guitar solo is based on a simple rhythmic figure and has a pleasant melody. Another demon plays a simple walking bass line on piano.
The Devil’s solo is slick but unimpressive as fiddle playing. We just walks up and down a scale with a tremolo (vibrating between notes). The fiddle is electrified so it sounds cool. But that’s it. There’s barely a melody, the solo shows no skill except extreme vibrato, and, most importantly, doesn’t sound country at all.
This is why Johnny tells the Devil to sit his unholy ass down to “see how it’s done.” Without the need for electric gimmicks or a backup group, he plays a really well constructed solo. If you listen, he does many things that the Devil doesn’t: the style is country, not rock; it’s acoustic rather than electric; he hits chord changes rather than that just run up and down scales; he plays it by himself; and the ending is a sophisticated and technically challenging resolution to the melodic theme that started the solo.
Johnny won, you dweebs!
Bottom line: If you go down to Georgia, you had better practice first.
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