Top Ten Songs Mentioning the Beatles: I Saw It on TV (#2)

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Now this is what I call a productive day! I had notepad full of things to do today, and it’s almost all scratched off. Two more stops and I can go home! Of course, lunch and a song is always part of the day, so here’s today’s Beatles reference. #2: I Saw It on TV - John Fogerty Kudos to the person who made this video. At the end, they show rain falling…proving that I’m NOT the only person who hears a lot of “Who’ll Stop the Rain” in this song. Musically and thematically! John Fogerty is 81, so he was a child at the explosion of television. Despite the happy mentions (“Annette had ears, I lusted in my heart” a reference to both The Mickey Mouse Club and then-candidate Jimmy Carter’s confession of his shortcomings in an interview in 1976), which includes the Fab Four, this is not a happy song. It’s a painful reminder of what the Boomers have grown up watching. Most striking for me is the line, “Every night at six the showed the pictures and counted up the score.” Let me tell you kids what the late 60s were like: Walter Cronkite came on (at 6:30 eastern time) and started by saying, “Good evening, today in Vietnam…” and telling us how many soldiers were reportedly killed that day. If that wasn’t the headline, then it was something like Reverend King’s assassination, RFK’s assassination, or the Apollo 1 fire. If you’ve ever seen the video of the jubilation Cronkite exhibited when the Eagle landed on the lunar surface in 1969, you might understand why: it was one of the truly joyous things he got to report in the 60s. And you know how I feel about Fogerty and his brilliant songwriting. So kudos to him for a great song, too. I Saw It on TV Written by John C. Fogerty Recorded by John Fogerty From Centerfield, 1985 BEATLES REFERENCE LYRICS: Four guys from England took us all by the hand