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Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to this Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that belts out the greatest hits of history

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Speaker 1: one day at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today

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Speaker 1: we're exploring the story behind one of the most famous

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Speaker 1: songs in country rock history, including its unexpected ties to

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Speaker 1: classic literature. The day was June twenty three, nineteen seventy nine,

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Speaker 1: the Charlie Daniels Band released a hit single called The

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Speaker 1: Devil Went Down to Georgia. The song was the first

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Speaker 1: radio single from the band's nineteen seventy nine studio album

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Speaker 1: Million Mile Reflections. It proved to be a rare crossover

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Speaker 1: hit that summer, steadily climbing both country and pop music charts.

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Speaker 1: In late August, the song hit number one on Billboard's

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Speaker 1: Hot Country Songs chart, and in mid September, it peaked

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Speaker 1: at number three on Billboard's All Genre Hot one hundred,

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Speaker 1: just behind after The Love Is Gone by Earth Wind

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Speaker 1: and Fire and My Sharona by the Neck. The Fiery

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Speaker 1: Fiddle heavy ballad tells the story of a man named

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Speaker 1: Johnny who squares off in a musical contest against the

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Speaker 1: Devil himself. Let's take a listen the boys that my

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Speaker 1: name's Johnny, and it might be a sin, but I'll

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Speaker 1: take your bet. You're gonna regret because I'm the best.

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Speaker 1: Is every ben Johnny, up your phone and play your

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Speaker 1: fiddle hard because Hell's proclusive Georgia and the Devil deals

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Speaker 1: and hards and if you and you get the shiny

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Speaker 1: bit a little bit of gold, but if you get

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Speaker 1: your soul. As the song explains, the devil was in

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Speaker 1: a bind because he was way behind, presumably on the

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Speaker 1: voda of souls he needed to collect that month to

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Speaker 1: help make his numbers. The devil sets his sights on Johnny,

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Speaker 1: a brash young fiddle player from the Deep South who

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Speaker 1: seems like an easy mark. Satan proposes a fiddle contest

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Speaker 1: between the two of them, wagering a golden fiddle against

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Speaker 1: Johnny's immortal soul. The young man takes the bet without

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Speaker 1: a second thought, and in the end his confidence proves justified.

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Speaker 1: Johnny gives such an inspired performance that the Devil can't

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Speaker 1: deny he's been bested. He lays the golden prize at

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Speaker 1: Johnny's feet and SLINKs away, defeated, making a deal with

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Speaker 1: the devil for personal gain is a classic literary theme.

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Speaker 1: One of the earliest and most popular examples is the

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Speaker 1: sixteenth century German tale of Faust, a depressed scholar who

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Speaker 1: trades his soul to Satan in exchange for infinite knowledge

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Speaker 1: and some sweet magic powers. That popular legend has inspired

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Speaker 1: countless reinterpretations of the concept of bargaining with the devil.

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Speaker 1: For example, in nineteen thirty six, Stephen Vincent Bannet put

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Speaker 1: his spin on the idea in a short story called

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Speaker 1: The Devil and Daniel Webster. It tells the tale of

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Speaker 1: a struggling New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul for

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Speaker 1: a better life, and later tries to get out of

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Speaker 1: the deal with the help of his lawyer, Daniel Webster.

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Speaker 1: Charlie Daniels read that story in his youth and later

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Speaker 1: cited it as inspiration for his similarly themed song Amazingly, though,

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Speaker 1: that wasn't the only work by Stephen Vincent Bannet that

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Speaker 1: inspired The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Daniels was also

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Speaker 1: familiar with a nineteen poem by the author titled The

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Speaker 1: Mountain Whipper Will or How hill Billy Jim Won the

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Speaker 1: Great Fiddler's Prize. As that subtitle suggests, the poem is

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Speaker 1: about an underdog who fiddles his heart out and wins

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Speaker 1: first place at a contest. There's no deal with the Devil,

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Speaker 1: but the poem does include lines like Hell's broke loose

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Speaker 1: in Georgia and fire on the Mountains, Snakes in the grass,

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Speaker 1: Satan's here a bilin, Oh, Lordy let him pass. Binet's

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Speaker 1: stories clearly left an impression on Daniels as a child,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't consciously set out to write a song

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Speaker 1: combining them as an adult. In fact, The Devil went

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Speaker 1: Down to Georgia only came about because the band realized

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Speaker 1: they didn't have a fiddle centric song for their new album.

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Speaker 1: That was a problem since the band viewed fiddle songs

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Speaker 1: as a link to their bluegrass roots and knew that

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Speaker 1: fans would be disappointed if that uniquely country instrument wasn't

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Speaker 1: given its due. Daniels later spoke about the recording process,

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Speaker 1: saying quote, we had rehearsed, written and recorded the music

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Speaker 1: for our Million Mile Reflections album, and all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden we said we don't have a fiddle song. I

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Speaker 1: don't know why we didn't discover that, but we went

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Speaker 1: out and we took a couple of days break from

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Speaker 1: the recording studio, went into a rehearsal studio, and I

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Speaker 1: just had this idea, the Devil went down to Georgia.

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Speaker 1: It may have come from an old poem that Stephen

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Speaker 1: Vincent Benet wrote many many years ago. He didn't use

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Speaker 1: that line, but I just started and the band started playing,

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Speaker 1: and first thing you know, we had it down. The

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Speaker 1: energetic song they came up with was a country twist

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Speaker 1: on the classic idea of a devil's bargain. The song

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Speaker 1: is built around Daniel's spoken word telling of the story,

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Speaker 1: as well as two strikingly different musical interludes, a pair

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Speaker 1: of fiddle solos, one to represent the Devil's performance and

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Speaker 1: one to represent Johnny's. Both solos are performed by Charlie Daniels,

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Speaker 1: but you'd never guess it was the same guy playing them.

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Speaker 1: The devil style is showy, inconsistent, and lacks a clear melody.

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Speaker 1: Johnny's style, on the other hand, is much smoother and

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Speaker 1: more melodic. Daniels later explained these choices, saying, quote, the

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Speaker 1: Devil's just blowing smoke. There's no melody to it. There's

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Speaker 1: no nothing. It's just a bunch of noise, just confusion

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Speaker 1: and stuff, and of course Johnny is saying something. The

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Speaker 1: song was a mainstream hit when it was released as

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Speaker 1: a single, pushing the Charlie Daniels band further into the

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Speaker 1: spotlight than they had ever been before. The song went

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Speaker 1: on to win a Grammy Award for the Best Country

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Speaker 1: Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. It also

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Speaker 1: got a second win the following year, when it was

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Speaker 1: included on the soundtrack for the John Travolta film Urban

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Speaker 1: all Boy. In the decades since, the song has been

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Speaker 1: covered by all kinds of artists, including Blues Traveler Primus Corn,

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Speaker 1: as well as both the Chipmunks and the Muppets. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure winning a Grammy was nice, but I think we

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Speaker 1: can all agree what the real honor was. I'm gay,

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Speaker 1: bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. If you have a

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Speaker 1: second and you're so inclined, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at T D I HC Show. You can

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Speaker 1: also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: you can write to me directly at this day at

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Speaker 1: I heart media dot Com. I'd love to hear what

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Speaker 1: you trade your soul for. Thanks to Chandler Mays for

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Speaker 1: producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in

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Speaker 1: history class. It beat a dent in the