John Richards

Good morning and happy Friday! Welcome to The Morning Show! What's the name of this song?: www.youtube.com

John & Crew, 'Morning. Time stood still listening to Hard Rain's Gonna Fall. Reflective of the past year, the struggling, the weary, the hungry, the hate & the love, the despair. A glimmer of hope at all is that we can do what we can for each other. Be well. Amy -- KEXP ... allows me to sit with my community in all our collective anxiety and know that I am not alone. Thanks, John and Owen, for being there for me this morning. ✌🏽 Jenny -- This song was written during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 when those who allowed themselves to think of the impossible results of the Kennedy-Khrushchev confrontation were chilled by the imminence of oblivion. “Every line in it,” says Dylan, “is actually the start of a whole song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn’t have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one.”: americansongwriter.com

"Of all the songs that The Clash recorded together, 'Straight to Hell' represents perhaps the band’s finest hour. Opening with Mick Jones’ distinctive guitar signature and sustained by drummer Topper Headon’s queasily insistent bossa nova beat, the song offers a panorama of the wretched of the earth." www.rebelnews.ie Joe Strummer once declared the song to be their “absolute masterpiece.”

In 2018 (Was it only two years ago?), Karl Wallinger released a a new video for his 1986 classic "Ship of Fools": www.billboard.com

The late Toots Hibbert covered this Bob Marley classic in the album released just before his death, "Got To Be Tough." This cover featured Ziggy Marley and percussion from Ringo Starr. Watch the animated video: pitchfork.com

"Ultimately, it is a song about hope, about the idea that there will be 'feasting, and dancing, in Jerusalem next year,' if only we can keep our strength up long enough to reach it.": music.avclub.com

“Feeling Good” was written to express a particular kind of euphoria: that which comes with liberation from oppression. It was written by British songwriters Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for their stage musical, "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd." This wonderful song has been covered by many artists (John Coltrane, Lauryn Hill, George Michael, etc.), but Nina Simone made it her own.: ig.ft.com

"'Fearless,' a highlight from 'UNTITLED (Rise),'mystery collective SAULT’s second release of the year, once again pairs impeccably stylish, laid-back R&B with a message that meets the current moment.": pitchfork.com Go here to purchase this extraordinary album: saultglobal.bandcamp.com

"Lead singer and songwriter Isaac Brock was inspired to write the song, an ode to looking at the bright side at all costs, by a surfeit of bad news. 'I was just kind of fed up with how bad shit had been going, and how dark everything was, with bad news coming from everywhere,' Brock said in 2004. 'I just want to feel good for a day.' The verses present a litany of bad-gets-worse situations in the narrator’s life, but he steamrolls through them with an optimism bordering on the psychotic. The funny thing is that, by the time that indefatigable refrain of 'And we’ll all float on OK,' burrows into your brain, you might find yourself getting carried away in its sunny wisdom.": americansongwriter.com

The video shows Mark Hollis at the London Zoo in Regent's Park, but he's not singing - his mouth is digitally obscured as he stands among the exhibits. The rest of the footage came from the BBC nature series "Life on Earth." Directed by Tim Pope, it may have been the first video to feature a band's lead singer not performing. Hollis was likely making a statement about lip synching.: www.youtube.com

This was the second single from Blur's 1991 debut album, "Leisure." Here's a 2012 retrospective on the album: consequenceofsound.net

Happy birthday, "Kid A." Today is the 20th anniversary of this seminal album's release. It was an album that "challenged expectations and blew minds in dorm rooms throughout the world": www.theringer.com (It was # 16 in the list of KEXP's listeners top 666 albums of all time.): www.kexp.org

Did you know that "Wake Up,' released in 2004, was written “in reaction to the band breaking up”" That's what Win Butler said. They did not, however, (Thank goodness!), and the song from their debut album "ended up being one that brings people together.": www.theguardian.com

This one's for you, Mike. You are not alone. “'Hey, Ma' is the record’s biggest, brightest, warmest, most straightforward moment...": www.theringer.com

"I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take / When people run in circles it's a very very / Mad world, mad world ..." This is Brandi Carlile's cover of Tears for Fears. “It’s a mad world, but we’re in this together,” she said before signing off. “Vote.” If that’s not enough, Tears for Fears’ Curt Smith approved of this version, which he tweeted in response to seeing the video.: www.spin.com

This is Elbow's beautiful cover of U2's "Running To Stand Still." It was featured on the 2009 release, "War Child presents Heroes": www.u2songs.com

The hymn-like epic was mostly written about the funeral of friend and U2 employee Greg Carroll. Carroll was taking Bono’s motorcycle to his house on a rainy night, when a car pulled out in front of him. Carroll hit the side of the car and died instantly. He was 26. “His death really rocked us,” drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said. “It was the first time anyone in our working circle had been killed.” “One Tree Hill” became the ninth track on The Joshua Tree. The final version features Bono’s only vocal take; he didn’t record another because he didn’t think he’d be able to make it through the song again.: diffuser.fm

Watch Brandon Summers of The Helio Sequence join John in the KEXP studio for a live performance in 2018: www.youtube.com

Ahhh...the Friday song! There are new thank-you gifts, including a fine hoodie and a necessary mask, available to KEXP donors. You can donate now for our Fall drive.: www.kexp.org

Watch a live version from the Tokyo Dome in 1990. One person comments, "30 years ago, when Keith was only 98... I hope they live forever." Another says, "Maybe if we can get a DNA swab off Keith we might synth a Corona virus killer and live FOREVER!": www.youtube.com

Lemmy Kilmister preferred Motorhead's cover to the Stones' original. “I thought we beat them,” he told USA Today. “I thought we beat it to death. I mean, I like the Stones’ version, but I like ours better.” R.I.P., Lemmy, who died in December, 2015, at age 70: www.nytimes.com

Mudhoney performed "Touch Me I'm Sick" on top of the Space Needle i 2014. That remarkable performance is available for free download as a KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org

Ozzy Osbourne has premiered a new video for his classic solo single "Crazy Train." The animated clip features hand-drawn, cartoon versions of the Prince of Darkness and his band, including late guitarist Randy Rhoads. When the cartoon Rhoads finishes his epic solo, he floats into the sky, as his band mates look on.: www.youtube.com Ozzy's debut album, "Blizzard of Ozz," came out in September 40 years ago.

Speaking of 40 year careers...an autobiography of Bad Religion, "DO WHAT YOU WANT: The Story of Bad Religion," was released earlier this year. It's available right now!: badreligion.com

"...perhaps the most trenchant visual to come from 'OK Computer' is director Jonathan Glazer’s menacing parable for 'Karma Police.' In it, a grizzled man is slowly stalked by a 1976 Chrysler New Yorker, before fortunes are flipped amid a blaze of fire. Along for the ride is Yorke himself, who plays the angel—or devil—singing from the blood-red backseat; most of the video is shot from the driver’s point of view, making each and every viewer complicit in the unfolding terror.": pitchfork.com

In just the second line of the song, Morrissey makes clear that all the romance and nostalgia has been drained from his view of this hamlet: “Trudging slowly over wet sand/Back to the bench where your clothes were stolen.” “This is the coastal town/ That they forgot to shut down,” he warns. And his sly sense of humor sneaks into the tableau throughout: “Etch a postcard/ ’How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here.’”: americansongwriter.com

"What day is it, could you please tell me...": www.flashlyrics.com It's important to keep the 1997 "Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que" music in rotation!

Boy George once explained about the song: "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. "It's about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren't true, if you don't act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that's nature's way of paying you back." Boy George wrote most of the band's lyrics, and many of his words were inspired by his relationship with the group's drummer, Jon Moss. Their difficult romantic/professional relationship was also the inspiration for the line: "You're my lover, not my rival" in 'Karma Chameleon'. The relationship was hidden to the public, so it became an outlet for Boy George to communicate with him through their songs.: www.youtube.com

IDLES "Ultra Mono" just cruised to Number 1 on the U.K. charts: www.billboard.com IDLES will be Live on KEXP at Home on Friday, October 9th, 2020. The NY Times had a big feature on IDLES last week: www.nytimes.com

"If you went to the dictionary and looked up ‘rock drummer,’ chances are there would be a picture of Led Zeppelin’s mammoth percussionist John Bonham pleasantly staring back at you with sticks in his hands and a murderous glint in his eye. That’s because any drummer or professional musician worth their salt would pick out Bonham as the best....." This article isolates Bonham's thunderous drumming on "Ramble On": faroutmagazine.co.uk

"Hey ladies!" "Yeah!" John picked this infectious song as a KEXP Song of the Day. Download it for yourself here: www.kexp.org

"Nobody Speak" was first made available through the Run the Jewels Record Store Day release. It consisted of a special virtual reality cardboard viewer, which held a code that granted the purchaser a free digital download of the song DJ Shadow said about the music video for this one: "We wanted to make a positive, life-affirming video that captures politicians at their election-year best. We got this instead.” - www.youtube.com

My mood is completely uplifted... One life! One planet! One love! Peace! TGIF! Lucas --- Chuck D of Public Enemy explained "‘Can’t Truss It’ is about how the corporate world of today is just a different kind of slavery. We don’t control what we create. And because of the media, we don’t control the way we think or run our lives. We’ve got to limit working for a situation that’s other than ours. We have no ownership of anything. If you don’t own business, then you don’t have jobs. White people have jobs because they have business. They have institutions that teach them how to live in America. Black people don’t have institutions that teach them how to deal with s–t. The Number One institution that teaches you how to deal is the family, but slavery f–ked that up. So the song is about the ongoing cost of the holocaust. There was a Jewish holocaust, but there’s a black holocaust that people still choose to ignore."": www.youtube.com

Time Zone was an electro project by New York’s influential hip hop producer and DJ Afrika Bambaata and John Lydon. Bambaata wanted to bring in a vocalist that was “really crazy” and the producer, Bill Laswell, suggested John Lydon for the part. The idea came to life and was recorded in Evergreen Studios in NYC over a period of about four hours.: www.lethalamounts.com

Speaking of John Lydon... Originally intended to be for on the soundtrack for the film "CopKiller", this song from punk band Public Image Ltd. has been featured in the horror films, "The Blair Witch Project" and "Hardware." This eerie song features the phrase “This is what you want/ This is what you get,” over and over as the only vocal, aside from some echoing screams in the background.: www.stereogum.com

Watch Phil Collins singing this song (and drumming!) live: www.youtube.com