Charlie Daniels is pretty upset with how his song ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’ is portrayed in Guitar Hero III. The game features a demonic guitar player and in his words, “grotesque monsters on stage with the band, strange, eerie lighting effects and all manner of weird things popping up on the stage”. He claims that this portrayal violates the very essence of the song.
Daniels wrote the song in 1979, and it has become his most popular song. Unfortunately, he lost the publishing rights to the song in a settlement many years ago, and the company that now owns the rights granted the license to Guitar Hero.
Here’s what he had to say in a recent post on his blog:
The song, “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” which I wrote, is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses.
That is not the case with the Guitar Hero version which comes complete with a horned, guitar-playing devil who battles the player and very often wins.
I want any of you parents out there whose children have this game to know that I did not grant these people my permission to pervert my song and am disgusted with the result.
I would never grant permission for some company to create a video game version of a song I wrote in which the devil wins a contest and I’m sorely disappointed with the company who owns the copyright for not policing the situation. As it is they have allowed these people to violate the very essence of the song.
Here’s a video of how the song appears on Guitar Hero III.
You can read more about this story here.
Wow, what a ridiculous person. Seems to me that he lost any say in the matter when he lost the publishing rights.
Just shows you how old and disconnected Ole’ Charlie is. He should be honored that his song is one of the “boss” songs on the video game, and that millions of young’uns are hearing it for the first time.
Go, Charlie! I think the whole game is a bunch of crap – evil is prevelant!
Yeah, its good exposure for Charlie, but I guess not the kind he wants. Too bad he doesn’t make a nickel from the song. The music industry is the most evil thing from this story, in my opinion.
Bitter. Old. Man. Should’ve been more careful with his copyright of the music. Not to mention that some people just need to lighten up with the whole “demonic” bullshit.