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.
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.
So this is cautionary tale of failing US educational system by OP?
Reminds me of when Bobby Newport stole Knope’s heartwarming tale of support in the face of failure, but changed it and said “…And I won!”
the moral of the story was don’t trust celery man
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.
I love lyrics but i’ve found that most people I talk to about lyrics have no idea or don’t pay attention
Yup this is my experience as well, it makes me sad honestly.
Says the person with the Superman profile pic.
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.
I heard this song playing in a restaurant at lunch today then I come home to find this. Freakin’ weird.
We’ve been trying to send you hidden messages all day.
That uniquely “American” trait is just called optimism by people who don’t fixate on a mythical monoculture.
We are Americans! Arrogance is our life’s blood, ambition is our food and drink, but most of all, hubris is the air we breathe!
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Quintessons_(Transformers)
I was just going to throw the quote away, but now it’s getting to me. Why does the idea of Americans as Quintessons work so well? They’re ruled by capricious five-faced nutters, and their five faces are known as “death, wrath, laughter, bitterness, and doubt”. The only thing we haven’t got going for us is superintelligence, but in fairness Quintessons have acted pretty stupid sometimes.
