Talking Reality Television Blues

(album: Surrounded By Time - 2021)

Well, come gather around and I'll sing you a song
About a crazy old world that's coming along
Till one day some fool made the decision
To turn on the television
Of course, radio reported we'd all ignore it
Paper said we'd have no time for it
But before you knew it, you knew Milton Berle
And we all had a new escape from the world

All tuned in, before too soon
We were watching a man walk on the moon
He made it look as easy as driving a car
Video killed the radio star
I got the talking blues

Talking blues is easy to do
All you gotta do is rhyme a line or two
Rhyme a line or two and then
You don't even have to rhyme again
See? I can say anything I want to now
But you know, within reason

Say, sitcom catchphrase game show nation
Television soon defied explanation
As the situation took to such a degree
That eventually we all heard about cable TV
Of course, free TV news swore we'd ignore it
That your average family could never afford it
But again, they were wrong, and eventually
Everybody wanted their MTV

We were all tuned in but now the shock
Was watching a kid do a thing called the moonwalk
Sliding backwards really
It was eventually too far
Reality killed that video star
I got the talking blues

So simple at first it was hard to foresee
The impending collision with reality
But it soon seemed TV turned on itself
When the real world came on like it was something else

Of course, actors all acted like they weren't floored
Hoping eventually that we'd all get bored
But one after another, we pretended not to act
As we hurdled ever-forward towards alternative facts

Then a show called The Apprentice came on and pretty soon
An old man with a comb-over had sold us the moon
We stayed tuned in, now here we are
Reality killed by a reality star
I got the talking blues
Hillbilly