Satanic sounds: the musicians who made a deal with the Devil
Though it may be difficult to ascertain when looking at the work of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and the rest of the rock and roll set, religion of all kinds is responsible for the majority of art available to us today in some shape or form. Once people discovered the ability to express themselves, they first used that newfound expressionism to try and comprehend the beautiful world around them. That came in thanking God(s) in song, literature or art.
It means that all art today, whether made about religion or not, will have faith at its foundation. This makes it easy for us to draw spiritual meaning from things that were never intended to have them and for people to apply a religious narrative to something that doesn’t have one.
The imagery of God and Satan is prevalent throughout multiple elements of modern music. Even when neither is drawn upon directly, people still refer to them. One of the most common forms that religion is referenced throughout a lot of music is when people claim that artists have such talent because they have sold their souls to the Devil.
Beginning when Satan fell in rebellion of God and leading up to Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, musicians everywhere have been said to have struck a deal with the Devil in exchange for natural talent. This is the case in whether they are blatant with their depiction of Beelzebub or not.
Interestingly, references to religion are still made today, when the percentage of people who identify as atheist or agnostic continues to increase, and music pays less regard to all things spiritual. With that in mind, it’s worth looking at why people initially started bringing the concept of religion into music and how it still applies in the 2020s.
Music and religion
Ezekiel 28:13 says, “The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” In other words, an individual’s musical ability exists thanks to God. This is why so many people dedicated their musical ability to singing the Lord’s praise songs.
What’s interesting is that Lucifer was one of the most potent angels and had music built into him. He was an incredibly musical being and the Lord’s heavenly choir director.
Music often surrounds community. Something is rejoicing about singing a song alongside a stranger and being connected through the power of that connection of sonic wave and vocal chord. It’s why many friendship groups and couples have similar music tastes. Community in religion is cemented in the choir and use of hymns, one of the first forms of live music. The power of God and the beautiful world he had created was often too much for people to comprehend, and music, not only the words and the sound but the euphoria of singing it with others, was the closest people could come to meeting God himself.
Satan eventually fell in rebellion of God, but he didn’t lose his musical abilities in the process. The story goes that Lucifer continued to use his power, but rather than bring glory to God, he tried to turn God’s creatures against him. This is where the idea of making a deal with the Devil for wondrous musical ability stems from. Add to this that a lot of artists who have been said to have sold their souls play rock music, which is riddled with satanic iconography, and you have a recipe for a centuries-old trope.
Elvis: The Devil reincarnate
The idea of someone using a natural music ability to bring chaos to the world sounds familiar, especially in the case of Elvis Presley. Though there are debates surrounding Elvis’ legitimacy as a musician, given he never wrote a song and his notorious stage presence was stolen from other artists, regardless of your stance on him, there is no escape. He popularised rock music more than any other artist.
Christian music significantly influenced the development of rock and roll, as artists like Elvis confess that Pentecostalism had a significant impact on the music he performed and how he performed it. “I used to go to the coloured churches when I was a kid,” he said, “Brewster’s church (Rev. W. Herber Brewster of East Trigg Ave. Baptist Chruch in Memphis)”.
Music has continuously developed through time, and the church isn’t immune to that. The songs of praise that became famous throughout churches worldwide were later expanded upon and revamped, as music was used as a form of worship but also accompanied by dance moves where people would flail their limbs uncontrollably.
Elvis put his natural singing ability and the church’s influence into rock music. In that sense, his story mirrors that of the Devil, as rock music would go on to become a genre of music that massively opposed religion and embraced demonic symbolism.
Rock ‘n’ roll (and the devil)
The Beatles were a problem for a lot of people. The issue with many was their look, as their hair was too long and their suits were too tight, meaning they didn’t look the way that young gentlemen should. Yet they were the people the youth idolised. A big issue for the religious came when John Lennon commented that “the Beatles were bigger than Jesus”, not because it was blasphemous, but because it was a bit too close to being true.
When the Beatles took the world by storm, they sold out stadiums and invoked a sense of hysteria in their fans, which drove them crazy. Christians became worried that people would turn their backs on their faith and begin worshipping this band (and other musicians) instead, something more tangible than an omnibenevolent creator who you can never be 100% sure exists.
Lennon’s comments were one of the first mainstream iterations of religious rebellion for the sake of rock and roll; after that, the floodgates started to open. Devil imagery became rife in rock music as an act of rebellion and because it looked pretty cool. Famous rock bands would steadily begin to wear devil horns and make sexual references in their music more noticeable. The apparent parallels meant that the electric guitar became the instrument primarily associated with the devil. When people were good at it, they were considered to be tied to Satan himself.
Musicians who sold their soul
Though rock musicians are most commonly accused of making a deal with the Devil, they are not the only ones who have ever had that label. Giuseppe Tartini, a violinist from the 1700s, was believed to have a sixth digit on his hand, making playing easier. He also claimed that one of his pieces, ‘Devils Trill Sonata’, started because the devil came to him in a dream.
Niccolo Paganini was a violinist who also struggled to shake satanic accusations. His ghost-like complexion and otherworldly playing ability were enough for people to draw a cross in his presence so as to not be influenced by him. There were rumours he was one of Lucifer’s consorts, or indeed Lucifer himself, and also that his violin strings were made from the guts of murdered women. The rumours were so strong that when he died, he was refused Last Rites and denied a Catholic burial.
Ferdinand ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton was said to be the inventor of jazz, as his 1915 piece ‘Jelly Roll Blues’ was the first ever published jazz composition. His grandmother was a Creole who practised voodoo, and it’s said that she sacrificed her son’s soul in exchange for musical talent and fame. When his mother died, Morton’s girlfriend commented, “Jelly always knew she’d sold him to Satan and that when she died, he’d die too – she would take him down with her.” He died two months after his grandmother.
Robert Johnson, perhaps the most notoriously plagued by the rumour, transformed from being a guitar novice to an expert overnight. It was commonly said that he had struck a deal with the Devil for impeccable guitar talent, as such a short transition shouldn’t have been possible. Even one of his heroes, Son House, said, “he sold his soul to play like that.”
These are all individual stories, but selling your soul to be good at the guitar eventually became commonplace. Looking back to Niccolo Paganini, who it seems had the look of a devil worshipper, when you are playing music so encased with satanic imagery, people are going to draw the lines of connection to a phantom source. However, one of the first musicians with proper allegations thrown at him was Jimi Hendrix, to the point the guitarist believed it himself.
“One of the biggest things about Jimi was what he believed in,” said his tour manager Alan Douglas, “He believed that he was possessed by some spirit, and I got to believe it myself, and that is what we had to deal with all the time.”
Hendrix’s girlfriend has also spoken about his close ties with spiritism and how that impacted his music. “He used to always talk about some Devil, something was in him, and he didn’t have any control over it. He didn’t know what made him act the way he acted and what made him say the things he said… It seems like to me he was so tormented and so torn apart… He’d talk about us going down to Georgia and obsessed with something really evil, having some root lady drive this demon out of him.”
Satanic worship in modern music
These days, talks of deals with the Devil have died down, and while there is no direct cause, several factors will likely have some influence. The first is that fewer people are religious enough to truly believe in the Devil. To believe in a demonic Satan, people need to have faith in God; one cannot happen without the other.
Another significant reason is that times change. When rock became popular, artists liked leaning into the Hellish look because it was cool, and truth was spoken into rumours for gimmicks. In the same way that things go out of fashion, so too has satanic imagery; rock bands might embrace something spiritual and demonic looking but for the art style as opposed to the general message behind it. A modern rock guitarist who said the Devil possessed them would likely be met with eye rolls rather than excitement.
If the devil is used in an image in modern music, it is usually a metaphor for something else, such as modern attitudes. Consider the recent music video by Lil Nas X, which sees him give a lap dance to the devil; this is less a commentary on love for Satan and more a nod towards the public’s perception of him. He dances with the devil as satire rather than giving it any literal meaning.
These days, the lack of satanic depictions results from changes in attitudes and trends. Probably. The only alternative is that with streaming giants, football investments and elitism in music, maybe the industry has become too evil for even the Devil.
