contrary to Greil Marcus’s thesis, “the formless pursuit of crude impulses had turned out to be more than dull: it was potentially lethal” ([4], p. 253).
When The Rolling Stones released the bluesy “Sympathy for the Devil” in 1968 [69], they were
not concerned about a literal “devil”. By that point, “the devil” had become a trope to cultivate a
menacing aura for the band, which is lucrative in a genre where rebellion is precious. Not so with
the “Christ-haunted” musicians explored in this essay, for whom the devil was a matter of great
concern. They could be said, in a sense, to have “sympathy for the devil”, in that they took the
devil seriously. For better or worse, they created their music within the cultural constraints of their
evangelical Protestant culture. Being Christ-haunted like the many Southern musicians examined
in this essay was not pleasant, and it was often personally destructive to the musicians and those
around them. However, artists often turn tensions into creativity, and the same is true for the rural,
Southern folk musicians who were caught between their “sacred” background and their new “secular”
profession and yearning. Of course, Rock n’ Roll continued to be creative, exciting, and important after
it was no longer necessarily associated with its Southern roots and any religious context. However,
it is important to recognize the evangelical Protestant context that helped invent and drive one of the
world’s great musical forms.
Acknowledgments: Research for this article was partially supported by the Research and Creative Activities
Program at Western Kentucky University in 2013.
Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.
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