Smokin' (Boston song)
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"Smokin" is a song by the American Rock Band Boston. It was on Clear Channel Communications' list of "banned" songs after September 11, 2001. It is four minutes and twenty seconds long. It was also featured in the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Playstation 2, Xbox, and PC on the in-game radio station K-DST, the game's Classic Rock radio station.
The song is about the band playing Rock n' Roll music. Many people may get the sense that the song is about smoking, but Boston was a very clean band with respect to drugs and alcohol. Tom Scholz, Boston's lead guitarist, made many demo tapes in his basement with Brad Delp. One of these songs was an early version of "Smokin'", called "Shakin' (Mother's Milk Shake)". This tape reveals the song is actually about dancing. Brad Delp, the lead singer of Boston at the time, was recently hired by Tom Scholz, the band's central member. Delp's singing style mixed with Scholz's musical style in this song helped their eponymous first album to sell over 17 million copies.