Rob Hawkins

I wanted to write a good-time party song....so when I sat down with Ron Riddle, my co-writer, on the song, I brought him a working title of Smoke If You Got'em.  When you first listen to the hook I think people might think it's just about drinking, smoking and partying and it is. However, the story of the song has a deeper meaning.  Too many times in this fast-food world we forget what life is all about which is having fun and making memories.  Everybody's so busy working all of the time and running their kids to practice, lessons, and clubs that life gets too cluttered.  The story behind the first verse comes from me hearing my uncle and dad talk about playing in the holler barefoot where my great grandfather and other family had settled after coming over the pond from England. My grandmother and grandfather had attended a one-room school in the hills of the Blue Creek area in the Appalachian Mountains near the Shawnee State Park in Adams County. In that same area as a part of the "New Deal" President Roosevelt had commisioned "CCC" camps to give the great depression a kick in the pants.  Soon railroads, dams, and roads were being built to connect America and put it back to work. The second verse moves on to the baby boomer generation where the Beatles were broadcast on The Ed Sullivan show. When I was very little I would see clips like this on T.V. and get a little confused because they were in black and white. Of course television by the time I had started watching was in color (technicolor to be exact). Embarrassing as it is, I had asked my mother a very simple question, "Mommy, was the world black and white before color television?" This is a story about a innocent curiosity that my mom loves to tell people because it's so cute.  However, it worked well to describe an interesting time when Martin Luther King was marching, riots were rampant, and schools were being consolidated. The Haight-Ashbury flower children's make love not war theme is cited in the song and it ushers in the cold war of my generation.  Originally, a third verse was written and I perform the song that way live it just seemed a bit long for a studio cut. I've included the third verse in the lyrics as a "live version".  The bridge is set in the present day with technological advances and eco-friendly ideas dominating the headlines.  "The more things change the more they stay the same" brings us back to the central theme of not getting caught up in all of the stuff life throws at us: kicking back, cranking up the tunes, and throwing a party. Light 'em up!!!!