Posted on 10/14/2005 4:41:59 AM PDT by chambley1
Charlie Daniels believes in prayer in school. He's been nominated in the Musician of the Year category for the Christian Country Music Association and he still plays "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" in his concerts.
So the leader of the Charlie Daniels Band was a little surprised to hear the C.D. Hylton High School band director Dennis Brown pulled the 1979 song from its playlist.
"We play it every night. It's our signature song," Daniels said in a telephone interview Thursday.
"We wouldn't dare go off stage without playing that song. People would feel cheated," the 68-year-old Daniels said.
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" won a Grammy for best country vocal in 1979.
This year, the Hylton marching band is performing a Georgia-themed halftime show to celebrate its upcoming trip to perform at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta in December.
The song was in the band's lineup of Georgia-themed music until a single letter to the editor appeared in the Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger. Robert McLean opined that "A high school band director would be fired for playing 'Amazing Grace' but no one bats an eye for the playing of a song about the devil ..."
The letter to the editor generated more letters to the editor and online responses.
Daniels reacted to the reactions to his song.
"My song has nothing to do with Satanism whatsoever," Daniels said before he was to play a concert for the soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. "The song's hard to misinterpret if you listen to it."
"There's no dark side to that song," the southern-rocking, bluegrass-picking, gospel-singing Daniels said.
The lyrics of the song describe the devil's attempt to steal the soul of a fiddle playing Georgia boy by challenging him to a fiddling duel. The devil lost.
The song was written as a "put-down" of the devil, Daniels said.
As far as Daniels knows, the song has never before been scratched from a band's repertoire.
Had the Hylton marching band retained the song, it would have been in good company.
"We've done halftimes at Tennessee football games with the whole marching band," Daniels said.
Daniels said he believes in hymns at school.
"If I had my way people would still be praying in school and we could sing 'Amazing Grace' or anything we wanted to," the forthcoming and congenial Daniels said.
"I think it's wrong not to be able to do that and I think it's a misinterpretation of the Constitution to take that away from children," he said.
He said he was proud the band played his song and said his heart went with the band because they couldn't play a song they'd worked to learn.
"If they took the time and the hours and everything to rehearse the song then I think it's a shame they have to pull it because of one letter," Daniels said.
Daniels stopped short of calling Brown's action censorship and was philosophical about the reaction to the song being scratched.
"I think it's a little overreacting myself," Daniels said.
"If I listened to criticisms of me and my music and my career and my songs, I'd still be down in North Carolina cropping tobacco," Daniels said.
Can't they leave that Long-Haired Country Boy alone?
I always wanted to see a movie made of this song, with Doug Kershaw as Johnny and Jean-Luc Ponty as the devil.
This is a story where the truth is a lot different than what you might think.
A local conservative political activist wrote a letter to the editor. In the letter, he bemoaned how religion had been removed from the school.
To illustrate the absurdity of it (I believe we had a band director remove a song like "when the saints go marching in", but I'm not sure), he decided to illustrate the absurd with an example.
SO he pointed out that, while you would get fired for mentioning GOD in a song at school, nobody saw a problem with playing a song about the devil, specifically "devil went down to georgia".
So the Band Director removed the song.
Got to watch those "absurd" analogies, you might give people ideas. Of course, now the guy is like a pariah. He wrote another letter pointing out that he NEVER thought they would do this, that he had NOTHING against the song, that is simply illustrates the problem.
Part of me wonders if the band director didn't do this on purpose to make a conservative look bad, and to justify the next hundred times he rejects christian-sounding themese for his band.
NOTE: I can't remember what song it was that was removed from a band around here, and I can't find the reference. It was some religious song, and it was a song that made a lot more sense thinking about a marching band then "devil went down to georgia".
What a twisted situation. The letter writer apparently never listened to the song, and the band director was probably worried about a lawsuit, so he took the easy way out.
It's a GREAT song, and is worth the director's defending it in public.
Re #23 - thank you for the information.
It's OK - A Country Boy Will Survive
That's a whole nuther kettle of fish...as they say.
I've known Charlie for years and, although I wouldn't presume to call him a close "friend", I respect and admire him, his wife Hazel and those who work in his organization. I've had the opportunity to sit and share thoughts with him at the end of the day and, while I won't share any specifics, I can say with the highest confidence that he would never entertain the idea that any man can do anything good, noble or enduring without dependence upon God Himself, especially not "beating the devil".
"Can't they leave that Long-Haired Country Boy alone? "
"It's OK - A Country Boy Will Survive"
Thank God! I'm a Country Boy.
Amen!
Your 10-year-old can play "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"? That's a tough part.
My favorite fiddle piece ever. I met a fiddler once who had played it with Daniels.
The Boston College marching band actually plays Black Dog at football games. They are huffing and puffing by the end.
I dunno,if he's so smart he wouldn't have ended up being Satan in the first place,fallen angel and all that,nicht wahr?
Charlie first "caught my ear" when I wanted to know who was playing that great guitar on Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" album back around '69.
Those who confuse simple and direct understanding and expression of the truths of life with "simple-mindedness" or stupidity do so at their own peril.
There was a movie with a similar theme called "Crossroads" with Ralph "Karate Kid" Maccio. He played a classically trained guitar player who wanted to play the blues, who hooked up with Willy, an old black blues man who had sold his soul to the devil for musical ability.
Ralph beats the devil to get back Willy's soul in a guitar showdown.
Good music in that film.
An email I received a while ago:
An Open Letter To The Hollywood Bunch
Ok let's just say for a moment you bunch of pampered, overpaid,
unrealistic children had your way and the U.S.A. didn't go into Iraq.
Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all our nuclear
weapons and stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with some
white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of what
we've done for world peace.
Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep the
National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires.
Let's say that we close down our military bases all over the world and
bring the troops home, increase our foreign aid and drop all the trade
sanctions against everybody.
I suppose that in your fantasy world this would create a utopian world
where everybody would live in peace. After all, the great monster, the
United States of America, the cause of all the world's trouble would
have disbanded it's horrible military and certainly all the other
countries of the world would follow suit.
After all, they only arm themselves to defend their countries from the
mean old U.S.A.
Why you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic, spoiled mugwumps.
get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning.
Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but encourage
a wanton murderer to think that the people of the U.S.A. didn't have the
nerve or the guts to fight him?
Barbra Streisand's fanatical and hateful rankings about George Bush
makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a
railing.
You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get out into
the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility you would find out
here.
Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked, long distance truck
driver that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong.
Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the military that you think the
United States has no right to defend itself.
Go down to Baxley, Georgia and hold an anti-war rally and see what the
folks down there think about you.
You people are some of the most disgusting examples of a waste of
protoplasm I've ever had the displeasure to hear about.
Sean Penn, you're a traitor to the United States of America. You gave
aid and comfort to the enemy. How many American lives will your
little, "fact finding trip" to Iraq cost? You encouraged Saddam to
think that we didn't have the stomach for war.
You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this earth
and won't lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby. Freedom of
choice you say?
Well I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my own. If I see
any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to boycott the movie. I will
completely stop going to movies if I have to. In most cases it
certainly wouldn't be much of a loss.
You scoff at our military who's boots you're not even worthy to shine.
They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you can live in
luxury.
The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced with the
undeniable truth that the war against Saddam Hussein is the war on
terrorism.
America is in imminent danger. You're either for her or against her.
There is no middle ground.
I think we all know where you stand.
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
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