Has Having A Guitar Duel With the Devil Become A Cliche?

When I was growing up I loved “Crossroads”, the Ralph Macchio film where a white kid learns to play the blues by meeting Robert Fulton, the legendary bluesman. It turns out, though, that Fulton sold his soul to the devil at a dusty crossroads way back in a sepia-toned flashback part of the film, so Macchio must play the devil for Fulton’s soul (I think. It was a long time ago… both Fulton’s soul-deal and my childhood).

Anyways, Joe Satriani plays the devil and he grimaces lots and sticks his tongue out as he has a guitar duel against Ralph Macchio. Ralph wins. Devil vanquished. Or so I thought….

Until the movie Jack Black movie Tenacious D did the same thing with arena-rock guitar licks. So, what’s with guitars vanquishing evil? I don’t know, but the video game “Brutal Legend” (again Jack Black), is about a rock and roll roadie vanquishing demons with a hard rocking guitar riff too.

This started to make me wonder if guitar duels with the devil could be only slightly less popular than zombie movies. Maybe it’s the next trend waiting to happen.

This belief was affirmed when I read a script for a film which also had the Prince of Darkness’ minions in a heavy metal guitar war with the forces of good. Hopefully that will be coming to a theater near you soon, because it was a really good script.

Anyways, I guess it’s okay if this becomes a well-worn ‘trope’ in the canon of writing and entertainment. I mean, even the comedy troupe “The Kids In The Hall” did a sketch about guitar duelling against the devil. In fact, it’s pretty much the high-water mark of devil guitar duels just for the fact that the guy who saves the world is expected to take the trash out for his Mom after he’s done defeating Satan.

Hard-riffing guitar licks may vanquish Satan, but they are no match for Mom.