The Beatles Lose Out to Eddie From Ohio

Well, it's now "interim-ly" official. As opposed to being the only state with a state song emeritus and nothing else, we've not got a state song emeritus, and an interim state song, and a promise of an even larger net to be cast to find a permanent state song.

But god bless the Senator from Western Fairfax. His attempt on the floor to amend the Senator Colgan's SB 682 to make The Beatles "The Tax Man" our state song is maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen any legislator do. Now, I'm afraid I'll have to cross the aisle and agree with Senator Houck that considering our tax burden relative to the rest of the Union we aren't really the Commonwealth of the Taxman. But it probably has more to do with Virginia than Shenandoah. Senator Watkins made an impassioned plea on the floor against Shenandoah, pointing aspects of its story which may make it in the near term as controversial as our state song emeritus. And I agree with the reasoning of the 10 Senators who voted against it, most of whom are on record saying that it doesn't make sense to have a song which isn't about Virginia as our state song, even if only for an interim period.

For my money, CCR's "Who'll Stop the Rain?" would have been a much better choice. Sure, it's not really a happy, uplifiting song, but the protagonist does visit our fair Commonwealth, seeking shelter from the storm.

If the Senate could pick a song for itself, I think they should pick "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by War.