Playing Robert Johnson's tune "Up Jumped The Devil" on my radio show last Sunday started me thinking about how often Satan turns up in the title and lyrics of traditional and popular music. Peruse the Internet and you'll find lists and lists of songs that mention Beelzebub. Of course the sheer volume of gospel, hymns and symphonies that celebrate God and the victory of good over evil far outweigh devil music, but the personification of Satan is more complex and multi-faceted than the typical portrayal of the divine. In Robert Johnson's case, contemporaries have claimed that Johnson fostered the image of his relationship with evil, perhaps to enhance his status, perhaps as a reaction to the Bible thumping religion of his day that strictly defined right and wrong.
The most sophisticated image of the devil - in my opinion - is the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil", which combines a sardonic review of great evil moments in history with its cynical refrain: "Pleased to meet you/Hope you guess my name". In this case, the evil one morphs from hairy, goatfooted spirit of darkness to suave, sophisticated well-dressed charmer. This devil is the temptor that dwells in all of us, just waiting to be unleashed by mob mentality or incited by totalitarian brutality that eradicates individual identity, suppressing justice in the name of absolute power.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels' "Devil With a Blue Dress" seems harmless, a paen to that beautiful temptress that beckons to hapless males on the dance floor. Yet, when you look at the song a little more closely, it unconsciously evokes the image of Eve, the Biblical personification of the original sin that caused the human race to be evicted from the Garden of Eden. When Van Halen's David Lee Roth howls: " Runn-IN with the Dev-ILL", he is not only celebrating living on the edge - one misstep away from falling into the pit of flames - but also harkening back to Robert Johnson walking with Satan side by side. Charlie Daniels, Jerry Garcia, AC/DC and numerous others have incorporated the devil and "hell" into their lyrics.
So why is Beelzebub so popular? Is it like looking at a bad accident - so gruesome yet so compelling that you can't turn away? Is it because evil is so fascinating - so accessible - that we aspire to it ? Or is it simply an attempt to associate onself with a powerful, commonly-accepted image in the public's eye, so that a musician will seem truly bigger than life?
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The Devil's Music
Growin' up in North Carolina and Virginia I have no doubt why Mr. Devil is so prominent in the blues. It's because we're scared into it. Playing with a 1960s garage band as a teen-ager with my buddies Gerrish and Steve known as the Monks, church ladies would tell us, "that's the devil's music" or referring to our interest in motorcycles, "that's the devil's ridin' horse". Songs like "Cocaine Habit Blues" don't help either,
"I like my whiskey and I like my gin, but the way I love my coke is a dog-gone sin..."
And of course, the impulses this music unleashed in us then (and still does today!) were invitations to misbehave. Those old spirituals, on the other hand, inspired us to live the straight and narrow life. By the way, your radio show on Sunday was outstanding as always. Keep on Keepin' on. Raponda
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