April 20, 1979: The Devil Went Down to Georgia

April 20, 1979: The Charlie Daniels Band release their album Million Mile Reflections. The title refers to the Band having traveled over 1 million miles on tour.

The song "Reflections" is a tribute to Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. Janis had died in 1970, while Elvis and Ronnie had died in 1977: Janis from a drug overdose, Elvis from a drug-boosted heart attack, Ronnie and some of his bandmates (but not all of them) in a plane crash.

Charles Edward Daniels was born on October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina. One of the top fiddlers in the history of country music, he is best known for another song on this album, his take on the Faust legend, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Charlie imagined a fiddle duel between the Devil and a country boy named Johnny, with the Devil saying, "I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul." Spoiler Alert for a 43-year-old song: Johnny wins, and the Devil accepts his defeat.

The song reached Number 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, making it Daniels' biggest hit. "My Sharona" by The Knack and "After the Love Has Gone" by Earth, Wind & Fire prevented it from hitting Number 1. A year later, a pair of Muppets acted out the song on The Muppet Show.

Rewrites and parodies of the song proved to be irresistible -- though no one invoked comedian Flip Wilson and claimed the Devil made them do it -- including these:

* 1991: "The Devil Came Up to Michigan," K.M.C. Kru: Johnny is a disc jockey in Detroit, and the Devil bets a turntable of gold.

* 1997: "The Devil Went Down to Scunthorpe," The Toy Dolls: The punk band, from Sunderland, England, about 130 miles from Scunthorpe (the name probably used because it fit the rhythm better), use guitars instead of fiddles.

* 1998: "The Devil Went to Jamaica," Travis Meyer: Johnny is a Jamaican marijuana dealer.

* 2002: "The Devil Went Down to Jordan," ApologetiX: Calling themselves a Christian parody band and "a cross between 'Weird Al' Yankovic and Billy Graham," they rewrote it as depicting the Devil's attempt to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, as told in the Bible's Book of Matthew 4:1-11.

* 2006: Blues Traveler recorded their version, with lead singer John Popper playing the fiddle parts on harmonica.

* 2007: The video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, with guitars by Steve Ouimette instead of fiddles. This is the only version Daniels ever publicly objected to, on the grounds that, since the Guitar Hero series are games and unscripted, the Devil could win the contest, which he referred to as "violating the very essence of the song."

* 2013: "The Devil Came Up to Boston," Adam Ezra Group: The Devil is a New York Yankees fan, as in the Broadway musical Damn Yankees, and Boston locations are used.

* 2015: Michelle Lambert became the 1st performer to use a female stand-in for Johnny, naming her, of course, for herself.

It has been remarked that "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is the best propaganda the Devil has ever had: If it gets into people's minds that he can be beaten, then he'll have more challengers, and have more wins.

Charlie Daniels was more devil than angel. In 1974, he had a hit song titled "The South's Gonna Do It." While, in the song, he said the South was "gonna do it again and again," he didn't specify what "it" was, but it could very easily be interpreted as "The South will rise again," a common refrain among neo-Confederates. In his 1989 song "Simple Man," he supported lynching -- though specifically of criminals. He made paid appearances in videos for the National Rifle Association, and opposed the burning of the American flag with a song titled "Ain't No Rag."

During the George W. Bush years, he began free-flowing blame of liberals for all the harm that had actually been caused by conservatives. And by the time he died on July 6, 2020 -- from a stroke, not from COVID -- he was a full-throated Donald Trump fanboy. 

Speaking of Presidents, what the man who was President at the time the song came out, Georgia native and Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter, thought about this story about the Devil going down to his home State is not recorded.

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April 20, 1979 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Ed Figueroa was the winning pitcher. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Dick Ruthven pitched a 5-hit shutout. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk. Pete Rose went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 9-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs. George Brett went 0-for-5.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray went 1-for-4. Robin Yount went 0-for-4 with a walk. Paul Molitor went 2-for-5.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Dave Winfield went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Claudell Washington singled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 8-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey Sr. and Dan Driessen hit home runs. Lou Brock, in his final season, did not play for the Cardinals.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Jeffrey Leonard hit a sacrifice fly to score Craig Reynolds with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Willie Stargell went 0-for-4, striking out all 4 times. At this point, anyone predicting that the Astros would win the National League Pennant had a good case; but anyone predicting that the Pirates would do it was kidding himself. And yet, it turned out to be the Pirates.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rod Carew went 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners were rained out at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 3. The Twins won the opener, 12-2. The Mariners won the nightcap, 10-2.

The NBA Playoffs were in their Conference Finals. These 4 games were played:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 123-115 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. What a team in Texas was doing in the Eastern Conference Finals, I don't know. What Julius Erving was doing was this: Dr. J scored 39 points.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 89-77 at The Omni in Atlanta. The Bullets, defending NBA Champions would beat the Sixers to win the Eastern Conference.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Phoenix Suns, 111-91 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 118-112 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. The Sonics, defending Western Conference Champions, would beat the Lakers, and then the Suns, for the West title. They then avenged their loss to the Bullets in the previous season's NBA Finals, to win the Championship.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in progress, and 2 games were played on this day: The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at Madison Square Garden; and the New York Islanders beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-0 at the Chicago Stadium.

The World Hockey Association was between its regular season and its Playoffs. When the Finals were over, with the Winnipeg Jets beating the Edmonton Oilers, the NHL admitted 4 WHA teams: The Jets, the Oilers, the New England Whalers and the Quebec Nordiques.