It’s clear in the Primus cover.
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gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
I feel like deep down we all know this:
The Devil’s fiddle solo in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was actually better than Johnny’s.
WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
Oh somehow the existence of this has escaped me up to now. That was incredible.
otacon239@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I mean he absolutely cheated by having a band to assist. Of course it was going to sound better. Thankfully, he realized it wasn’t as good without the band included.
gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
I’m pretty sure that CDB meant for the Devil’s solo to sound discordant and unmemorable. What I hear though sounds aggressive, passionate, and daring compared to Johnny’s “safe” catchy, melodic solo. Also they gave Johnny a call-and-response with vocalists so I’m not gonna hold the Devil’s backup band against him. Johnny was probably meant to be mocking the Devil by playing the same walkdown at the end, or maybe he just copied it. Either way the Devil gave up that contest way to easily.
Carl@anarchist.nexus 3 hours ago
You’re correct about the first part. The intent was for the devil’s part to be technically correct, but discordant and forgettable.
The call and response was because they were references to other famous tunes. Fire On The Mountain was an old folk tune. House Of The Rising Sun was an old folk tune. Etc… They were meant to be familiar and melodic snippets that people from his area would recognize, to contrast the devil’s forgettable solo.
wieson@feddit.org 4 hours ago
Giving him a golden fiddle (that probably sounds bad) cursed his soul with greed
otacon239@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Given the Devil’s history, he really should have had him sign a legally binding (and easily misinterpreted) contract in blood and he would have had it easy.
MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place 2 hours ago
On a technical level sure, but it was a fiddle contest not a technical contest. Johnny is the better fiddler since he knows the music the people like and dance to (a bunch of the lyrics are references to other songs). If the devil played his music to a barn full of dancers, the whole event would likely crumble.