Maybe I'm totally off base here, but I always thought that the line was

The Devil played "The House of the Rising Sun".

I haven't got a copy of the song handy to check, but the song is about a fiddling contest between Jonny and the Devil isn't it. I assumed the lyric at that point was describing the contest. Jonny played "this" then the Devil played "that" and then some more songs with out mentioning who played.

Les B, Is it possible you misunderstood this guy? Could he posibly have been playing and talking about "House of the Rising Sun"?

-Bill