According to conventional wisdom, Johnny damned himself by accepting the bet in the first place. The devil “loses”, but that just cements Johnny’s sin of pride.
The devil might not have gotten Johnny’s soul the day of the contest, but make no mistake, he does eventually get the soul.
Well if you’re religious. There’s a whole class of individuals in the South that get off on showing the religious just how little they care for the tenets of Christianity. In addition to playing a mean fiddle, Johnny probably swears like a sailor and has extramarital sex whenever he can.
The song came out in 1979. The Southern Rebel was a big concept in the culture.
Nah. Conventional wisdom says he can either
- the the priest all about it and do some chants
- find himself a baptizer and spend the rest of his time Jesusing real hard.
Johnny’s options will depend on his local wise man, but I suspect either way he’ll also be strongly encouraged to buy some merch.
Yes and no. While the rules are all made up, and different people can just make up more rules, the standard rules say that any deal with the devil, even this bet, is a sin, an unforgivable sin. Adding in the sin of pride, which means Johnny is unlikely to ever repent, and the devil got a soul.
Also, there’s a sequel song with a bunch of big names on the project, Johnny went down due to the sin of pride.
Christianity’s whole thing is that no sin is unforgivable (except deliberate rejection of the Holy Spirit’s work/testimony about Jesus (Mark 3:20-28))
Again, the rules are made up, but there are a dozen listed sins that are unforgivable. You just have to look for them.
However, a deal with the devil is automatically considered blasphemy against God, and thus an unforgivable sin. Add in the sin of Pride, and Johnny is damned.
there are a dozen listed sins that are unforgivable. You just have to look for them.
Both Matthew 12:30-32 and Mark 3:20-29 clearly state otherwise. Idk what Bible you’re reading.
a deal with the devil is automatically considered blasphemy against God, and thus an unforgivable sin.
While making a deal with the devil is often viewed as a form of blasphemy, the unforgivable sin- blasphemy against the Holy Spirit- involves an ultimate rejection of God’s truth and grace, which isn’t necessarily inherent to making a deal with the devil.
Add in the sin of Pride, and Johnny is damned.
Pride is a forgivable sin
Pride might be forgivable, but the prideful rarely ask.
And again, a deal with the devil is by definition, a rejection of God.
Also murder is on the list of unforgivable sins.
Because there are five or six places in the new testament alone that list unforgivable sins.
again, a deal with the devil is by definition, a rejection of God.
Again, not inherently.
murder is on the list of unforgivable sins.
Literally King David himself is a stark example to the contrary. Paul too. Are you just saying things and hoping they’re true? What do you think unforgivable means?
there are five or six places in the new testament alone that list unforgivable sins.
Care to cite the scripture you’re referencing? I’m not aware of such passages. Regardless, if they do exist, I assume they’re effectively overwritten by Jesus later doing the whole forgiving everyone’s sins by dying thing
I’m not even religious anymore, I don’t know why I’m so invested in this
The devil came to JOHNNY, not the other way around. The moral of the story is not that it is possible to beat the devil out of ego or for glory, but that even the devil could not defeat a man completely dedicated to his pure, uncorrupted love for a craft. It’s not a story about Johnny’s hubris winning out, it’s a story about the respect one should have for genuine passion when it is lovingly applied to creativity. It is a story about the indomitable human spirit.
But okay, America bad or whatever, sure.
I think the underlying realization for The Devil Went Down to Georgia is more that Americans will listen to good music even if they don’t agree with the lyrics.
The same goes for Imagine by John Lennon, for example.
There’s plenty of stories from other countries about the cunning hero outsmarting the fae or similar. Just that in America, the hero always wins vs other countries where there are also many stories where the hero gets killed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe, two of America’s most famous writers, both based their bodies of work on people paying the price of losing to temptation/sin. Although to be fair I couldn’t think of any popular songs about that.
I know it’s not a popular take, but I don’t like Poe or Hawthorne. I always felt like their shallow exploration of death/edgy topics really only appealed to the immature or unintelligent reader.
I can see their work on a shelf between The Nightmare Before Christmas and a Dashboard Confessional CD- maybe a Jr High textbook as well.
I wouldn’t use them as an example.
Well, the problem isn’t that your take is unpopular, it’s that it’s confusing. You say they only appeal to the unintelligent or immature but you also say you don’t like them. I’m sure you can see the contradiction.
Oh no. Some terminally online brainrot poster wants to be a prick. Lol. You’re such a loser.
You’re immune to irony. It’s impressive.
It looks like there are some perks to being so far up ones own arse after all. His bum cheeks muffle all sorts of things.
Im sure they can’t hold a candle to your own peerless prose, king.
Thats only because they write with emotion in mind, in my opinion. They are trying to evoke feelings and cause dissonance, not lay out an intellectual thesis on the subject.
I’m saying they didn’t do a good job of conveying mature emotions. Anyone who can relate to their work has the emotional intelligence of a pre teen. A lot of Americans are stuck in that phase.
What would you consider to be mature emotions?
It’s unpopular because instead of just saying you don’t like them or personally think they lack depth you go straight to insulting their readers and fans.
I don’t like them, but they’re also bad and unintelligent. Those are objective. Sorry if someone not liking a vapid old guys who can’t write their way out of a paper bag makes you feel attacked.
That’s subjective not objective…
No. It’s objective. Objectively they are unimpressive. “Well that’s just your opinion man” isn’t a defence.
You clearly don’t know what the words mean. Someone is being impressed or unimpressed.
It’s rooted in the tradition of American machismo and braggadocio. Hyperbole is a huge part of the American oral tradition. You go to any small town in the Southern US and the old timers will have some tall tales that beggar belief and they will tell them too you as if it were the gospel with no winks or nods.
I think Devil Went Down to Georgia is supposed to be viewed as a boast by Johnny himself. “I’m a really good fiddle player.” “Oh yeah?” “Yeah, this one time I beat the Devil himself.” “I told you once you sonofabitch, I’m the best there’s ever been.”
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Point kinda holds, though. Ignoring the long-term consequences for short-term gain seems to also feature heavily in America.
The county was founded by generations of people who came here with little thought to long term consequences, so it tracks
ah yes, that short term Constitution that never held up /s
Johnny admits to knowing that taking the bet was a sin and commits it anyway.
No, he admits that it might be a sin.
The boy said, “My name’s Johnny and it might be a sin
But I’m gon’ take your bet, you’re gonna regret, I’m the best there’s ever been”That means he’s acknowledging its a sin but he will do it anyways. You are thinking it says it might be a sin or might not, but thats not how the sentence goes.
The sentence can be interpreted either way.
I definitely read it as an acknowledgement of a risk rather than an admission of wrong.
Either way he’s saying it doesnt make a difference, if it was a sin or not he’d still do it.
There’s a big difference between saying “I understand this is a sin, but I’m doing it anyway” versus “I think this might be a sin, but I’m doing it anyway.”
I dont see a difference in intent at all. Can you explain that? Theres not some loophole left in the word might, context matters.
I don’t know how to explain it more clearly. “It might snow tomorrow” doesn’t mean it will snow tomorrow, it means there is a possibility. It isn’t a loophole lol.
Eh? The wager was Johnny either gets the fiddle or loses his soul, why would he go to hell anyway?
No human is without sin, after all.
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Well, Daniels wrote a sequel in which the devil comes back to try again. That pretty much negates this theory.
Also, Daniels wrote it in the middle of a recording session for the sole reason that he realized they forgot to write a fiddle song for the album they were recording. So I wouldn’t ascribe too much intention to anything.
It’s not a protestant belief that a single sin makes you irredeemable and sends you to hell.
They didnt say that. Do we still call these strawmen?
Yes they did.
Win or lose, taking the bet at all is a sin, and Johnny aknowleges this in the song. Plenty of protestants (the target audience) see this as reason enough to go to hell.
[…]
“Here’s your fiddle. See you in 80 years”.
The devil in the song is in a bind and ready to make a deal, which is a little different from other Faustian tales.
Maybe the lesson is that you don’t make good music when you’re under pressure.
Or that gold fiddles sound bad.
The devils part sounded better IMO.
If you ignore all the folk tales about people one upping the devil or the local equivalent… everywhere, yes, it’s a uniquely American trait.
Don’t those involve creative approaches and tricking or otherwise outsmarting the devil or local equivalent?
This is just Johnny being better than the devil and having a massive ego about it. That specific situation tends to be punished.
Johnny having a massive ego about it is a great sin of Pride, and so the devil ends up getting his soul anyway.
It’s not pride if you give fair warning that you just actually are that good. The devil was the boastful one challenging someone and not being able to back it up
The boy said, “My name’s Johnny and it might be a sin
But I’m gon’ take your bet and you’re gonna regret
I’m the best there’s ever been”He’s boasting about it before, and gloating about it after. But the devil is expected to sin, so it doesn’t matter. Johnny on the other hand knows he’s being boastful, and goes and does it anyway.
