Because it makes as much sense as having a Tennessee state song : Number Eight.
I’m not saying in this post that Smoky Mountain Rain by Ronnie Milsap isn’t a more than decent song. It’s a fine song. When I worked in radio, 
it was requested NON-STOP. Folks like it. I get that.
But why do we need an eighth Tennessee state song? Does this provide out of work people a job? Does this help with flood relief efforts? Does it help educate people?
If everyone willy-nilly is going to spend the last days of session approving state songs, I offer to you, with the help of my buddy Steve Ross who had the idea first, to nominate “Chocolate Rain.”
/stands, applauds
If the writers will agree to turn over their royalties to pay for the MTSU science building so students can GET AN EDUCATION AND POSSIBLY GET JOBS, FOR DOG’S SAKE, then yeah, have all the state songs you want, boys.
Hilariously wonderful post, as always.
(And y’all actually have to ask why I refused to cover the Lege in my other life as a journalist. I would be on Death Row right now, had that been my beat, cause I woulda done kilt some-a them morons.)
P.S. — I believe I will nominate that young man singing up there for governor.
Maybe Lamar will play piano for him.
why not 10 or 20 songs? maybe we could be the Song State! sure, why not – there’s all the music in Nashville, the historic and the current, plus all the Memphis music (why not some Elvis on that list of eight??, plus all the Bristol bluegrass.
I can hear Tennessee singing!
postscript: can we ever hope, as the people of our fair state, to ever, ever top the REAL 8th state song, The Tennessee Bicentennial Rap:
TENNE-, TENNE-, TENNES-SEE!
Oh, how proud we are of thee!
Volunteer State since 1812 -
Glad our fathers picked here to dwell!
Presidents, Presidents – proud are we!
Jackson, Polk, and Johnson – three!
Crockett, Forrest, and John Sevier;
Alvin York and Hull lived here!
Baker, Gores, and Kefauver,
Served our country with honor!
U.T., Memphis and Vandy U.,
Tennessee Tech and Sewanee, too!
Appalachian Mountains, mountains high -
Reaching up in the smoky sky!
Tennessee River, flowing through -
We will cross near the Choo Choo!
Dollywood and Walking Horse Show!
Opryland and the Opry Show!
Whisky, whisky – sipping smooth -
Moon, Moon Pies and Goo Goo Goos!
Reelfoot Lake and cotton fields,
Natchez Trace and Civil War fields!
Mocking birds and raccoons grow,
And tulip poplars and iris show!
Bessie Smith and Memphis blues -
W.C. Handy and Elvis, too!
Eastman, Oak Ridge, and TVA -
Nissan, Saturn, and Country Music pay!
Chickasaw, Sequoyah, and Cherokee -
Cumberland Plateau and Mississippi!
BIRTHDAY WISHES ON 200 YEARS -
GIVE TENNESSEE A BIG, BIG CHEER!