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Guitar Hero III "perverts" song, says musician News

Xbox 360 PC PlayStation 3 Wii
News by Tom Bramwell

8 April, 2008

American singer-songwriter Charlie Daniels has complained that Activision and RedOctane "violate the very essence" of one of his songs in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Daniels is the author of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", for which the player takes on the devil himself in a Guitar Hero III face-off, and the fact the devil "very often wins" has upset Daniels immensely.

Apparently 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".

"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," Daniels wrote on his website.

Daniels apparently lost the rights to the song a while back, and had nothing to do with its inclusion of the game, admitting he doesn't know if he has any "legal resource".

"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," he wrote.

"As it is they have allowed these people to violate the very essence of the song."

He also had a message for parents: "This game looks innocent enough but if you have a child who is playing it, take the time to sit with him or her while they're playing along and take a serious look at the images on the screen."

We also have a message for parents: neither you or your child will get past Knights of Cydonia on Hard, so you might want to pick up Guitar Hero II at the same time.

We asked Activision for comment but haven't heard back yet.

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Comments: 1-48 of 48 in total

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creepylizard
08/04/08 @ 08:27
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christ, what a crybaby
Killerbee
08/04/08 @ 08:29
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Nothing there that a share in the royalties wouldn't fix, I'm sure! :)

I feel the urge to give Hard another go in career mode now... practice, practice, practice...
Der_tolle_Emil
08/04/08 @ 08:32
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I would like to complain as well because I've lost this battle so often that I simply refuse to try again. It's so much more about luck than skill that it's simply no fun anymore.

Anyway, Charlie Daniel's complaint is a bit ridiculous. At least I know absolutely noone who would even think about any sense in those battles and how to interpret them.
MBar
08/04/08 @ 08:32
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the player takes on the devil himself

No you don't.
mingster
08/04/08 @ 08:32
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Ha-Haa.... 'perverts'.
MrED209
08/04/08 @ 08:32
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Jesus. Way to miss the point.

Hang on, is he American? That would explain it.
Koochulainn
08/04/08 @ 08:33
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From Charlie Daniels' site:
"You may be surprised at the world they're being exposed to.
Pray for our troops
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels"

Support our guys over there killing Iraqis...sure, but play a game that features a cartoon devil?



MBar
08/04/08 @ 08:35
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We also have a message for parents: neither you or your child will get past Knights of Cydonia on Hard, so you might want to pick up Guitar Hero II at the same time.

I did just that at the weekend! Ha!

/flex
Mugwum [staff]
08/04/08 @ 08:36
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"the player takes on the devil himself

No you don't."

Er, yes you do! Although he's called Lou.
MBar
08/04/08 @ 08:39
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Er, yes you do! Although he's called Lou.

Exactly. He's not "The Devil". He's a demon called Lou.

Unless the Devil's taken to wearing hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. I might've missed that memo.

Anyway: He needs to shut his mouth. We probably doubled his record sales for him. Steve Ouimette did the cover version if anyone is interested. It's on youtube etc.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 08/04/08 @ 09:49
asphaltcowboy
08/04/08 @ 08:39
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lol!
seasidebaz
08/04/08 @ 08:41
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i thought the title meant there was a song about perverts in gh3!!

that would be really funny...
kangarootoo
08/04/08 @ 08:43
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"Nothing there that a share in the royalties wouldn't fix, I'm sure!"

My thoughts exactly.


"Just gotta imagine it like what if he were Muslim and had made a song where Mohammed always wins a fiddling contest, and Activision put it in the game that you play as Mohammed, but sometimes Mohammed loses and gets laughed at and succumbs to Satan's temptation. Blasphemous, right? Nobody'd be calling him a crybaby for complaining, then."

I would. I'd call him a big old crybaby, with booties and a matching bonnet. I'd maybe even ticikle his tummy if I thought it would stop him crying (but I bet it wouldn't, 'cos he's such a big crybaby).
Stoatboy
08/04/08 @ 08:43
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A demon called "Lou" in a song about the devil? That's subtle. :/
kangarootoo
08/04/08 @ 08:44
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@MrED209

"Jesus. Way to miss the point.
Hang on, is he American? That would explain it."

Oh change the record ffs. This has nothing to with nationality and everything to do with him being a bit of a tit. WHHHHYYY do people wheel out the same comment every time?
Mentalist(air)
08/04/08 @ 08:52
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He's not "The Devil". He's a demon called Lou.

May I suggest you watch the movie Constantine, and look out for Peter Stormare...



skillian
08/04/08 @ 08:54
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I don't think it's to do with him being American or being a tit, it's just that he's obviously a religious man.

In that context you can understand why he might be upset, but that's what happens when you sell the rights to your music.
Mentalist(air)
08/04/08 @ 08:56
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Just like the people at Manchester Cathedral, he has the right to complain, but not a lot else.

So he's said his piece, I doubt very many people will listen, leave him be.
kangarootoo
08/04/08 @ 08:57
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@skillian

I have to remain slightly cynical on this one I'm afraid and refer to Killerbee's previous comment "Nothing there that a share in the royalties wouldn't fix".
estoo
08/04/08 @ 08:58
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Parents, if your child is under 12, they shouldn't be playing it at all (in the uk).
Keep taking the pills mr.
Darkedge
08/04/08 @ 08:58
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Christian fool
bloodflowers
08/04/08 @ 09:00
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What an imbecile.
SpigleyMcCheese
08/04/08 @ 09:00
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Meh. I'd complain, but he did write a great song. If he's uncomfortable with how it's being used, even if I don't agree with his discomfort, then that's fine. A bit crap he doesn't get any say out of the use of his own song though...
Mentalist(air)
08/04/08 @ 09:05
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hmmm... on his Wikipedia page, it attributes the quote:

"In the future Darwinism will be looked upon as we now look upon the flat earth theory,"

So I've changed my mind: the old, fat, beardy, ignorant, warmongering, cousin-fucking redneck tool is fair game.

What can we diss on Amazon that he did?
monkie_king
08/04/08 @ 09:12
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christianslol

Incidentally, speaking of Knights of Cydonia, what possessed them to tranpose the keyboard part onto guitar? That feels really wrong. I guess it's better than Sabotage, where the guitar part has you playing turntable scratches.
JohnnyWashnGo
08/04/08 @ 09:13
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Miserably SOB.

Sounds like good old fashioned envy going on there.

If the song is taken out of context then he shouldn't have written a song that could be taken out of content in such a way in the first place. Bloody religious nutter.

And its a game for fox sake. Who cares if the devily guy wins.

I imagine he must get pissed off when Hellboy kicks ass in the movies because, well, he is the devil as well innit?
All red and horny ;)
gingerlink
08/04/08 @ 09:16
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"We also have a message for parents: neither you or your child will get past Knights of Cydonia on Hard, so you might want to pick up Guitar Hero II at the same time"

I did that ages ago, but still havn't been able to beat Lou, but I know a few people who are stuck on KoC on expert..
skillian
08/04/08 @ 09:17
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Yes, he's the quintessential right-wing Southern evangelical - denies evolution and climate change, supports Bush and the Iraq war and fiercely believes in the USA. He may not be appealing to many of us God-haters here in the UK, but I think it's fair to say his objections to having the Devil emerge victorious in a video-game version of his song are not only financial. He believes in the message of his song - for real, like.
Transcendent
08/04/08 @ 09:17
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People like him will win one day. Say hello to the apocalypse.
Kyle
08/04/08 @ 09:20
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Daniels is the author of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", for which the player takes on the devil himself in a Guitar Hero III face-off, and the fact the devil "very often wins" has upset Daniels immensely.

n00b lolololololololol
monkie_king
08/04/08 @ 09:21
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Guitar Hero III makes the Baby Jebus cry!
Aretak
08/04/08 @ 09:33
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Typical mature responses here. Never in doubt.
creepylizard
08/04/08 @ 09:52
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"Oh, everyone will bash him for this, 'cos nobody takes that stuff seriously.

Just gotta imagine it like what if he were Muslim and had made a song where Mohammed always wins a fiddling contest, and Activision put it in the game that you play as Mohammed, but sometimes Mohammed loses and gets laughed at and succumbs to Satan's temptation. Blasphemous, right? Nobody'd be calling him a crybaby for complaining, then"

I would and have
r3n
08/04/08 @ 09:59
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Meh, I'd feel bad if it was anyone else's song but the guy is clearly a moron.
Fwing
08/04/08 @ 10:06
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So it's lighthearted fun if you win but somehow wrong if you lose your battle with "the devil". Right.

And even if you do beat Knights of Cydonia on Hard, you'll never beat One or Raining Blood. Dammit.
ThemisB
08/04/08 @ 10:23
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Moan, moan, moan.

If you're going to moan about anything to do with this game, ask Neversoft why their stupid game is so hard! Then maybe the "devil" would win less often!

Also, surely everything is all the GH games has been tongue-in-cheek?!? Like playing in "hell"? It's not as if the game encourages you to sell your soul to the devil in exchange for better GH skills!! Though I must say I'd be tempted...

Finished GH1 on Expert without too much trouble. GH2 was harder, couldn't quite finish it on expert. But GHIII? Are you joking? Scraped through Knights of Cydonia on Hard but, as Fwing says, anything beyond that needs several extra fingers. And the ability to slow down time.

It's JUST NOT FUN! Medium is boring, Hard is a struggle. Sort it out!
Frosty840
08/04/08 @ 10:29
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Knights of Cydonia is deeply unpleasant to play, but doable.

Raining Blood, on the other hand... Pfft.
doob
08/04/08 @ 10:44
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bah, I did Knights of Cydonia on expert long ago. not many others yet tho...
bitesize
08/04/08 @ 10:59
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If the song is taken out of context then he shouldn't have written a song that could be taken out of content in such a way in the first place.

say what?!? when he wrote the song many years ago (it's a pretty old song), he was supposed to think that sometime in the future there might be a videogame where you could play the song on a plastic guitar and lose to the devil instead of winning?? now THAT would be foresight...

KreyAtiv
08/04/08 @ 11:13
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He does realise it is a game right? Not everyone is able to beat it on the first go, depending on the difficulty of course.
Not like the game makes the player lose. Although does seem it has an advantage once you up it to Medium and you use three power ups in a row near the end, just seems to annoy it even more. Just a matter of practice.
AHiFi
08/04/08 @ 11:50
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@ Kooch - The fact that he's praying for the troops is nothing and I don't get the point you're going at. I was at a lecture from Dahr Jamail, famous unembedded journo during the main body of the Iraq War, yesterday and he was giving some stories he had heard from troops. He was quoting them, word for word, swearing and all...and I couldn't help but feel sympathy.

They have been influenced from the top, they're in a place they don't want to be, they grow to hate the Iraqis for the reasons they (the troops) are there and sure...the stuff they do is evil, but when they've not had any fun for ages...they're in a Bradley Tank and there's a car there...it's wrong to run over it. But they're not evil people.

Evil people, to me, are the Bill O'Reilly's of the World, further polluting a vast number of the American populace into being pro War. If you haven't looked at it already, go watch his debate, sorry, fight with Jeremy Glick on youtube. Why is there a Fox, when there's already a Pentagon Channel?

Apparently, the troops now go on patrols, will stop in a street, get little kids come up to them with video games, movies etc. to sell. They tell the kids to go tell their parents and neighbours to come out and sell stuff to them which they will buy, that they don't want any trouble and they'll be leaving in a few hours.

And, as I'm sure some of you know, there was the case of the patrol refusing to go out at one point. So, I pray for the troops too. I pray they get pulled out...

/derail, crash...
MrMilad
08/04/08 @ 13:46
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Eh, WHAT???

GET A GRIP


God damnit this world is full of idiots.
Lukus
08/04/08 @ 13:51
#43
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This guy sounds a bit nuts. Perhaps he's a religious nutter. Or maybe he's just upset he no longer owns his own song.
AHiFi
08/04/08 @ 14:36
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AsPic - Nope, just saying that stress and influence are big factors in what they do
Edited 1 times, most recently on 08/04/08 @ 15:37
YourMessageHere
08/04/08 @ 15:18
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I for one would also be pissed off if I wrote a song that ended up in a GH game, but I'd not relinquish control of it in the first place so that problem wouldn't arise. So: retain control over your song, or shut the fuck up, you've only yourself to blame.
Eraysor
09/04/08 @ 07:27
#46
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I have lost all respect for this fool.

Also - Knights of Cydonia isn't too hard on expert, Raining Blood however, is insane. I have only ever completed it once by pure luck!
kangarootoo
09/04/08 @ 08:34
#47
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"he should pray for God to grant him a sense of humour"

Heehee, +1
kokotoni-wilf
09/04/08 @ 09:16
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That comment about Darwinism illustrates how resistant his brain is to new ideas, a 3d representation of your character controlled by a wireless guitar that can sense when you tilt it upwards must have blown his mind when he saw it!

How badly is he going to flip out when he sees the kids playing against the devil at the bus stop on Guitar Hero DS?

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