Charlie Daniels upset that 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' in Guitar Hero III

We thought that the inclusion of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," as the final song in Guitar Hero III was a pretty inspired choice, but it seems not everyone was as thrilled with the selection, including Charlie Daniels, the song's author. The Christian country star (who no longer holds the rights to the song) recently posted about the game on his blog, his primary beef seeming to be that El Diablo can win.

He wrote that the song "is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses." But, he goes on to say that GHIII features "a guitar-playing devil who battles the player and very often wins." ... So, is Daniels complaining about balancing issues? Because, if so, we totally agree. The devil's way too tough.

But we do feel compelled to point out that the game never says the main boss is the devil. In fact, he has a name and it's Lou. Maybe Lou isn't a devil at all, maybe he's just deformed like that guy from Mask. So we ask you, dear reader, what's the worse sin? Letting the devil win in a video game or calling handicapped people demons? We think the choice is pretty clear.

[Via Bit-tech.net]

Reader Comments (80)

Oh, dude, you're so tough...

No, but he is very metal.

No, hes just emo.

"I told you once you SON OF A BITCH" Yeah uhhh uhh isn't that like, not what your suppose to do. I don't think he understands that your suppose to win...

the original version sucks. Steve Ouimette did it up right. Turn the page sucks and so does Tuesday's Gone..

I don't agree that the original sucks, but I think Steve Ouimette did a fine job on this cover. For the life of me, I DO NOT understand where all this hate for this verison of the song is coming from.

Well, seeing as the devil is a fictional character in a book written by primitive people who though thunder was God's anger, I don't see the problem with the devil winning. It's no different than a fictional story/game where Dracula, Moriarty, and Zombie Hitler win the day.

What's wrong is that we live in a world where someone can really, truly believe that a red-skinned, horned fallen angel is responsible for all evil, and is lord of a fiery domain underground, and that he wants your soul so he can poke it with burning sticks for the rest of eternity.

To someone who believes that, I can only laugh when they complain about another piece of fiction.

There are people out there who think the earth is only 6000 years old, man lived with dinosaurs(or they didn't even exist, because they aren't in the bible) and we rode said dinos, like horses. And to the people who say dinosaurs didn't exist, go visit a fucking museum.

And 1,000 years from now, people will laugh at us for goofy ideas like quarks, the theory of relativity and the idea a 13 billion year old universe can be 98 billion light years across.

Don't talk like you actually know anything. Atheists are just as stupid as the religious right wing. It's really difficult to take someone seriously as they accuse one group of coming up with answers absent of evidence when they do the exact same thing.

Someone's going to have to tell me what "answers" atheists offer...last time I checked, they just poke holes in the God Hypothesis...

It's not like all atheists agree on universal subjects. Look at Hitchens versus Sam Harris...

No, atheism is, very simply, a lack of belief, or disbelief even. Everything tagged onto it is extraneous to the philosophy, if you'd even call it that.

This is what happens when idiots gain a rudimentary grasp upon something they'll likely never be interested in fully understanding.

Keep in mind I'm staunchly agnostic and I still think that was a rather dumb comment, Zero.

can someone explain to me how you can believe in nothing?

Maybe they believe in like, I dunno, evolution?

I don't know, Zerocorpse. I find it even funnier that somehow people believe an evil, manipulative bastard will be some big ugly beast with eyeballs running up his cock so he can see just how badly he's fucking you.

Do you really think the brightest and most beautiful of all angels will look like a monster? I think he's be quite attractive. Or rather unassuming looking (like the dealer in Castlevania 64).

just my 2 cents... NOT ALL CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN A SIMPLE "POOF" UNIVERSE! In the Bible it even says humans came LAST in creation leaving room for dinosaurs and ect. I really don't think evolution or big bang(if they are true) disapprove the exsistance of God.To me it just justifies that he works realistic sense.

It's his song, a song I incidentally enjoy quite a bit, so I certainly wouldn't begrudge him his opinion. However, I think he's a being a bit inflexible about it. Primarily, it's a game. Secondly, you can play it repeatedly until you actually win, game over, with you as the victor, not "Lou". Thirdly, IMO, it'd be a better lesson of the worth of salvation; i.e., nothing good comes easy.

Really, I think the emphasis is being placed on the wrong part of the quote, which I think should be "lighthearted", which, to particular Christians, losing to the devil may not be.

/atheist

three words: Crossroads guitar duel

Things wrong with the Lou battle:
1. The intro is way too long and pointless. There are no special attacks to get and if you're even halfway decent you always end up with a full rock meter by the end of it.
2. Lou gets the special attacks before you do and never misses them (at least on hard and up) WTF? I can 5-star a lot of songs on expert and I still haven't come close to beating Lou on hard.
3. I wouldn't say it was butchered, but making a metal version of this song made it worse, IMO. And I like metal.
4. As with most of the character models, the devil girls look pretty stupid.
5. THE DEVIL CAN WIN WHICH WILL MAKE KIDS WORSHIP HIM AND THE TERRORISTS WILL WIN

Sorry about that, I let ol Chuck Daniels type that last one. I felt bad that he doesn't have creative control over his most famous song.

Seriously, I have no idea how the boss battles ever got the A-OK out of playtesting. I guess they just needed something new to make it Guitar Hero III instead of just the third (and a half) playlist for GH. If boss battles don't FOAD for GH4, I probably won't buy it. Aerosmith is lame, anyway.

"2. Lou gets the special attacks before you do and never misses them (at least on hard and up) WTF? I can 5-star a lot of songs on expert and I still haven't come close to beating Lou on hard."

Amen.

First of all i am never gonna be able to get up to this level, wow.

I think he should be more upset by the fact that this game is bad than anything else.

Slash was harder.

Prove me wrong.

You're wrong.

There. I proved it.

Ok, I've beaten Slash on expert and can't even beat Lou on hard...

Not that you care what i think:

1) Charlie Daniels needs to start playing on easy or stop bitching about how he sucks at GHIII (newb)
2) Mr. Daniels: it's called Devil MAY cry, not Devil Will Cry, so i'd pick on Dante and his crappy haircut too if you want to be all good n stuff
3) Subby needs to learn how to use the whammy bar and play that song better before posting videos on YouTube

...

But thats just my opinion

Sounds bitter.

I think the worse sin is to sell your song and then bitch about what happens to it. Wahhh! Your choice dillhole.

IMMA STANDING ON MAH RELIGIOUS SOAP BOX INSTEAD OF COMMENENG ON TEH ARTIKLE

Everyone knows that the real final boss is the Super Devil - what with his flying motorcycle and jar of marmalade that causes you to commit adultery. He's taller too.

What a douche. If he didn't want a song to be transposed onto a new instrument and used in another way to spread itself across culture, he shouldn't have sold the rights to it.

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Charlie Daniels upset that 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' in Guitar Hero III

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