The Devil Went Down to Newport

The devil went down to Newport town
He brought his red surfboard to race against the Lord
 
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
 
Satan told his girl, "I'm gonna ride a curl"
He caught a heinous wave and he gave the crowd a wave
 
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
 
They were surfin for souls
To the beat of rock and roll
All right

 
Next came God's turn
Got a wicked sunburn
Didn't use lotion
While he was parting the ocean
 
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
 
God said to Satan, "Dude I'm sick of waitin'
In order to win, Chuck, you gotta hang ten"
 
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
 
Things were lookin' rad, oh yeah
For the forces of bad
All right

 
Satan went surfin'
Didn't need a board
He could not hang ten
He could only hang four
 
Satan had a problem
He could not compete
Satan was hindered by his cloven feet
 
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
It was totally rockin'
 
Go, go, Satan go
Go, go, Satan go
Go, go, Satan go
Go, go, Satan go go go go


Quoth the Johns:

This two chord wonder was originally recorded in demo form by the legendary, now-defunct New England combo the Clamdiggers. Members of that band were in the group Mente, who performed a locally notorious song called "Bobby Orr" ("greatest hockey player in the world- bahhhh-none!"). Mike was channeling Eddie Van Halen during this take. That's my best/worst John Entwistle impersonation on the fuzz bass at the end.

—John Flansburgh
[source: monopuff.org's online Unsupervised Libretto]



Corrections? Let me know.