The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The Devil Went Down to Georgia is a popular song released in 1979 by the Charlie Daniels Band. It’s remained popular for nearly 30 years, and there’s no sign that people will ever grow tired of singing it.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The song’s roots are in a melody called “Lonesome Fiddle Blues.” Charlie raised the song an octave and put words to the melody. The Devil Went Down to Georgia Reached number three on the Billboard hot 100. It’s the top all-time seller for songs with the state in the name.

It goes a little like this. It’s been a slow year so the devil travels to Georgia in search of souls. He’s willing to make deals. He offers a deal to a young fiddler named Johnny. It takes the form of a fiddle contest. If Johnny wins he receives the golden fiddle upon which the devil plays. The assumption is that the fiddle is worth a fortune. If the devil wins he gets Johnny’s soul.

The Devil starts. He has a demonic backup band. It seems Johnny, a simple boy with a fiddle, is doomed. But Johnny’s simple and pure fiddle work is even better. Both Johnny and the Devil agree. Johnny wins the fiddle. Johnny brags that he’s open for a rematch. In the original version of the song, son of a gun was replaced by a more colorful phrase.

There have been countless remakes and parodies of the song. There’s a Spanish version called “El Diablo bajo a Georgia”. The cartoon Futurama features a contest between the main characters and the robot Devil. After the robot double plays he’s attacked with the Golden fiddle so the people can escape. There’s a very clever music video of the song on Youtube titled “Primus – The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. It’s an amazing animation. There was even a sequel by Charlie Daniels. “The Devil Comes Back to Georgia” was its name.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The Devil Went Down to Georgia was sung by Charlie Daniel’s band. And if you heard ‘em sing it when it was done you’d give them boys a hand.