Far Out 40: The best songs about or inspired by the devil
There has always been a certain allure that comes with the darker side of music. As much as people like the idea of singing love songs to anyone within earshot, it sometimes pays to look at something a bit more macabre that might resonate with people far beyond the length of a pop song. Because for all of the great tunes about sunshine and roses, the tunes having to with Lucifer are always the ones that will stick to you.
Then again, not every song has to be purely metallic to be about the devil. While many heavy rock songs discuss Satan’s works and how many are called to do his bidding, talk of the darker side of life and what the devil has to offer goes as far back as the sounds of the blues.
After all, the traditional blues scale is based on ‘the devil’s interval’, which makes for a haunting sound whenever it’s played. And once people like Robert Johnson started singing about walking side by side with the lord of evil on ‘Me and the Devil Blues’, it was open season for everyone who wanted to make something a little bit darker for their lyrics.
Whereas The Beatles were probably not going to get very far singing songs about Satanism when singing ‘All You Need is Love’, hard rockers could tackle that subject with no problem at all. Looking through everyone from The Rolling Stones to Black Sabbath, inventing a whole genre around a demon coming out to play on ‘Black Sabbath’.
That doesn’t mean that any artist is above a good biblical tale in a tune, either. Although it’s far from the most realistic set of lyrics in the world, Charlie Daniels Band’s ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ is among one of the finest stories about coming across Lucifer, complete with the country music equivalent of a musical duel on the fiddle.
But anyone can talk about the devil in different contexts. Whereas Iron Maiden might sing about coming across some Satanic ritual and being condemned to hell for their actions, many people also look at the devil as a part of humanity, whether that’s someone who has treated them like dirt in a relationship or that sinful urge that exists within everyone when they start having those evil thoughts.
Granted, most people aren’t looking to insert Satan into a song to give it a bit of an edge. It’s normally about their experience with that dark side of life, and while not every musician is a confirmed Satanist by any stretch of the imagination, inserting the Devil into songs about their lives is normally about them trying to warn themselves of what could happen should they push themselves too far towards the dark side.
So, just remember, while many people like the idea of putting the devil into their lyrics, the concept of evil isn’t something that’s supposed to be taken all that seriously. It all comes with putting some edge back into music, and even if people claim to have God on their side at all times, comedian Bill Hicks wasn’t exactly inaccurate when he said that the devil still owned all of the good music.
