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.
A famous legend in my culture is of a humpbacked man stumbling across some magical fuckers and they take pity on him and take away the hump in his back. He is so happy and chirpy he sings their praises and jumps with glee, so they give him a worse hump for being an annoying cunt.
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.
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.
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.
Johnny admits to knowing that taking the bet was a sin and commits it anyway. Johnny gets the golden fiddle, but the devil gets his soul in the end anyway. What’s 60 more years to an eternal being? The song can still be a cautionary tale you just need to finish it.
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.
I definitely read it as an acknowledgement of a risk rather than an admission of wrong.
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.
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.
Now you could argue about forgiveness or confession or whatever the fuck but the stage has been set for Johnny to go to hell even though he won.
“Here’s your fiddle. See you in 80 years”.
I think its a cautionary tale about using evil even when you think you’re good and right. The devil doesnt play fair, and always wins.
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.
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
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.”
American machismo and braggadocio
machismo and braggadocio
machismo
braggadocio
Do you know where these words came from? Americans have neither when compared.
I heard this song playing in a restaurant at lunch today then I come home to find this. Freakin’ weird.
