My favorite part is how the devil is judging the contest himself, and even with that huge advantage he’s still like “nah he’s just better rip”
There’s a subtext that you guys are missing. The devil wins whether he says Johnny won or lost.
- If the devil wins, he gets Johnny’s soul per the terms of the bet.
- If Johnny wins, the devil gets Johnny’s soul because he’s committing multiple deadly sins purely by boasting and challenging the devil for a golden fiddle: pride, greed, vanity.
If he deems Johnny the winner, Johnny is less likely to challenge the decision, and he’s also more likely to continue committing the sins of pride and vanity (by boasting of his victory over the Devil Himself).
Johnny’s only chance to avoid his fate (per most strains of the Christian faith) is to acknowledge and repent/confess/absolve his sins by seeking divine mercy. The devil knows this is unlikely.
Johnny lost as soon as he uttered his first line.
It’s okay Johnny’s Protestant he just has to repent
The boy said “My name’s Johnny,”
“And it might be a sin”
“So I’d uh… I’d better not”
“I’m actually gonna go.”
Except everyone is a sinner by default, so what’s the downside? That’s the problem with these “temptation” parables. Nothing Johnny could do himself would ever avoid that fate, so why act like it?
I’m just pointing out that within the constructs of the predominant Christian mythologies… Johnny’s fucked himself over unless he recognizes he’s being a shit and atones for it.
Whether you assign any validity to the underlying dogma is an individual choice. People have a tendency to overlook logical inconsistencies in their faith frameworks, in any case.
A solid gold fiddle would weigh hundreds of pounds and sound awful. Maybe he just wanted to get rid of it.
Like Johnny wouldn’t immediately melt it down or sell it.
and he even cheated by having a band.
So there’s three schools of thought about the Devil v. Johnny match:
The First: America wins, as is also informed by The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936)
The Second: Rock and Roll wins, as is informed by The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978) also Rock & Rule (1983) also Crossroads (1986)†
The Third: Johnny’s victory against the devil may be the start of Johnny’s story, in which he gets noted by the labels, performs for three albums, makes it to the top of the radio charts and goes on tour during which he has sex with an uncountable number of groupies, tries out all the drugs, does a Tonight Show interview on Heroin, and dies before thirty, either to an overdose, an assassination by a crazed fan, suicide without any clear cause or an equally mysterious mob hit. (Id est, is a 20th century music GOAT)
† The devil’s been tightly involved in music since time immemorial, not only being credited (blamed) for Rock & Roll but also its predecessor, blues. Also ragtime and romanticism. And then there’s Niccolò Paganini, who, according to the Church, sold his soul to the devil to gain his violin superpowers, and denied him a proper burial for fifty years after his death (and a lot of pressure from his family estate). Paganini developed modern violin techniques and his Caprices 1-24 are used in violin bravura competitions. (Yes, I digress. I know. I like to talk about it.)
All that said, the Devil in stories seems to be a sucker for musician virtuosos who perform their best for him, and he may secretly just love a good jam.
Robert Johnson likewise has the devil-soul-exchange legend
I thought it was: 1. The devil defeats Johnny, 2. Johnny defeats the devil but disappears after, and 3. Johnny defeats the devil and returns as a child to warn the Pope.
Going down to Georgia implies that Georgia is under hell.
I have lived in Georgia, and I can confirm that this is true…
well it’s technically lower than Hell, Michigan on the map
It’s under Russia, so yeah.
I don’t want no stupid stories about hubris I just want the bard version of doom
That comes in 4 parts. ;)
I prefer the Tribute version of this story.
It’s pretty good. But it isn’t the greatest song in the world.
It’s just a tribute.
Isn’t there a second song where Johnny loses his soul because of the arrogance?
Mark O’Conner did a sequel with Johnny Cash as the narrator, Travis Tritt as the devil, and Marty Stuart as Johnny. It’s called “The Devil Comes Back to Georgia” and Johnny wins the that one again, this time with even more hubris than before. Good song though, if you like the fiddle Mark O’Conner is incredibly talented.
Reminds me of Arachne
