John Richards

Good morning, John! I write today with a feeling of hope. It is something I have not had very often recently. I know this is true for everyone, but this year hit my family hard. In addition to collective horrors my wife, Anna, lost her dad to cancer this January. This left her just before her 37th birthday with no living parents; her mom passed away from cancer when Anna was 21. This is a particular horror that I know you share with Anna. Through all of this, Anna had to keep a company afloat. She runs a small media company in Memphis that puts out the alt weekly paper (the Memphis Flyer), the city magazine, and a few other publications. They employ about 30 people and serve the greater good by providing Memphis with a free source of local news. Anna had to keep her employees safe and employed, while still keeping the presses running. She did it with grace and skill. After a long, dark year, we are finally starting to see some light. We are now fully vaccinated and have decided to escape daily life, at least for one week. We leave this afternoon for Iceland, and we could not be more excited. To some extent, you inspired this trip (at least for me). You introduced me to Sigur Ros, Could you play Hopppipolla by Sigur Ros? To me, the song has always sounded like a sunrise captured by music. It seems like a good choice to kick off our adventure. Thank you for everything that you do. Cameron and Anna Memphis

If this sounds like vintage R.E.M., it's because the band really did imitate life when they accidentally took the verse chords from 1985's "Driver 8" and used them in this song. --- The song title is taken from the classic 1959 film of the same name. Directed by Douglas Sirk, the movie (a remake of the 1939 version starring Claudette Colbert) follows a young African-American girl's struggle as she abandons her mother so she can pass as white in the '50s south. "I thought at the time that the title was a perfect metaphor for adolescence. Unfortunately I have come to believe that it is a perfect metaphor for adulthood, too. But that's another story," Peter Buck explained.

“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” emerged when singer and songwriter Roland Orzabal was in the studio sessions towards the end of recording Songs from the Big Chair and came up with a two-chord riff; the rest of the song, he later said, was “effortless.": bit.ly -- "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" is a line from the 1980 Clash song "Charlie Don't Surf." Did Tears for Fears lift it? Joe Strummer of The Clash thought so. He recounted a story to Musician magazine about confronting Roland Orzabal in a restaurant, informing Orzabal that "you owe me a fiver." Strummer said that Roland reached in his pocket and produced a five pound note, ostensibly as compensation for poaching the line for his hit title.

This live performance at Coachella in the dark in 2011 is extraordinary: www.youtube.com --- "Arcade Fire in concert is probably the closest to a religious experience as I have ever had.": 25yearslatersite.com

This song arrived in Bob Mould's mental inbox in the summer of 1991. “It was this dream song that just turned up as I was waking up one morning,” Mould recalls. “It came to me fully formed, and then it’s just all the baubles that make it that crazy baroque band thing. All that was pretty much in my head too, but you have to sit down and make these baubles shine. That’s the production stuff.”: www.loudersound.com

Don't you love Thom Yorke's voice here? PJ Harvey told an interviewer, "“I wrote this song with his voice in mind, hoping he’d say, ‘Yes, I’ll sing it,’ and that he’d find something in the lyrics. He said yes almost straight away.”: therumpus.net -- Want to see the great Polly Jean Harvey singing it solo live?: www.youtube.com

This is the only song on "Surfer Rosa" not entirely written by frontman Frank Black; he co-wrote it with Pixies bass player Kim Deal, who was using the stage name Mrs. John Murphy at the time. -- The song made a big impression on Kurt Cobain. He said in 1992, "I wish Kim was allowed to write more songs for the Pixies, because 'Gigantic' is the best Pixies song and Kim wrote it." Kim Deal reacted modestly, "Well, it's better than somebody saying, 'Oh God, you suck.'"

It's so exciting that both Leon Bridges and Khruangbin have announced tour dates!(Neither have scheduled Seattle yet.) www.leonbridges.com and www.khruangbin.com --- Go on a road trip through Texas as you watch the video for "Texas Sun": www.youtube.com

Good morning! Brad - The Day Brings First dance song at one of my friend's weddings - and one of my favorites. Darren - in Issaquah -- R.I.P., beloved artist Shawn Smith.: www.kexp.org -- Watch his live performance of "The Day Brings": www.youtube.com

John, I listen often from Sitka Alaska and have been a long time KEXP Amplifier. Listening to KEXP over the years has expanded my music palate as well as listening to the familiar brought me memories of lives past. Often listening to your show I am reminded of great memories with friends there in Seattle and around the world. If you wouldn’t mind playing some Depeche Mode for a great dear friend of mine there today he turns 50 today and I’m sure he has the radio on listening to your show. Happy birthday Brent from all of us around the world I love you dearly. Thanks Kevin

Thank you, listeners Owen Murphy and John Richards, for this fine request! -- Coming from Indianapolis and Louisville, the oddly named Karate, Guns & Tanning are the result of the songwriting alliance and longtime creative partnership between Valerie Green and Paige Shedletsky who met in in Colorado in 2005 while working together at a creepy diner. The band took their unique name from a sign above a strip mall in Plainfield, IN. -- Learn more about them and see the official video for "Fire": www.destroyexist.com

It was described as "a Hammond organ extravaganza." Watch The Charlatans performing it live on "Top of the Pops" in 1992.: (Watch out for those strobe lights!): www.youtube.com

This track was released in 1990 as the first single from The Farm's debut album Spartacus (1991). It contains a distinctive guitar intro by Keith Mullin which was possibly his most significant contribution to any one song. The band had a "big time" at an amusement park in the video for "Groovy Train.": www.youtube.com

They named themselves Inspiral Carpets after a clothing shop in their hometown of Oldham in Greater Manchester. Here's a biography of this fixture in the "Madchester" scene: www.amoeba.com

Any chance you can fit in Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer's version of Redemption Song today for my one-month-old baby girl, Charlotte? Earlier this morning, her older brother, Harrison, asked to listen to Paul's Boutique while I was driving him to pre-school. Harrison's incredible music taste started while listening to KEXP when he was about a month old and Redemption Song was one of the first songs he ever reacted to. Hoping to go two-for-two with Charlotte. Thanks for all the musical journeys you've led my entire family on over the years...looking forward to many more! Aaron, Washington DC

Tanita Tikaram is a singer-songwriter, known for her exotic, low voice. Tikaram, of Malaysian and Indo-Fijian ancestry, was born in Germany but has since her early teens been based in the UK.: www.allmusic.com --- Here's the official video for "Twist in My Sobriety": www.youtube.com

This is the lead single from The Goon Sax's third studio album, "Mirror II," out on July 9th. The band's Louis Forster said, "“‘In The Stone’ is set in Berlin where I moved with my partner at the time, just after finishing school and recording our last album at the end of 2017. We were both exploring ourselves – accepting each other’s changes and celebrating flux – but also reckoning with the complicated need for a solid sense of self and the person we loved.": www.undertheradarmag.com

Los Angeles-based rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club covered this song for their first single from their sixth studio album "Specter At The Feast." Their version was done as a homage to The Call's lead singer and songwriter Michael Been, who suffered a fatal heart attack on August 19, 2010 whilst working as a sound engineer at a BRMC concert in Hasselt, Belgium. He was the father of BRMC's guitarist and vocalist Robert Been and was recognized as an honorary fourth member of his son's band.

When Heart entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, they played "Barracuda" last in a 3-song set. They performed "Barracuda" with their current band along with some of their Seattle-based friends: Chris Cornell (who inducted them), Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) and Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains).: www.youtube.com

Watch these French musicians perform on the Fallon show last Friday, May 7th: www.youtube.com And...read about Jimmy Fallon's shoutout to John Richards: www.seattletimes.com

R.I.P., Eddie Van Halen. The guitar legend, songwriter and founder of Van Halen died on October 6th, 2020 as the result of a long battle with throat cancer. He was 65. Read KEXP's tribute to this incredibly influential musician: www.kexp.org

The late, great Sharon Jones is covering Stevie Wonder. Watch Sharon Jones' performance in KEXP's Gathering Space during our Grand Opening in April, 2016: www.youtube.com

Clash drummer Topper Headon wrote the music and the original lyrics. In an interview, singer Joe Strummer claimed that "the real genius of 'Rock The Casbah' is Topper. He banged down the drum track. Then ran over to the piano and then the bass." The sad irony about the song is that Headon wrote it musically, but had been fired from the group because of drug problems by the time the song became an enormous hit in the US.

Hello friends, I request that John make a huge deal out of the fact that it is David Byrne's birthday. ~Jeffrey in Kentucky --- It IS David Byrne's birthday and, published today, he names "five reasons to be cheerful": faroutmagazine.co.uk

Stephanie: “Learning to Fly” ...was the first song my 16-year-old learned to play about a year ago. He’s been playing socially distanced “gigs” for neighbors as we’ve endured the pandemic. Over the fence at first; closer as we’re all becoming vaccinated. He’s now got a set of about twenty, to include some of his own compositions. His song about procrastination is definitely a hit! He learned “Under the Milky Way” as a surprise for Mothers’ Day. We have great memories of playing it on loop under a clear sky on a climbing trip to Joshua Tree a few years ago and look forward to having him play it himself next time.

Speaking of stars...The lyric for "California Stars" was written by Woody Guthrie, but Guthrie never recorded it or wrote music down for it. Guthrie's estate approached Billy Bragg in 1995 to set Woody's handwritten, unrecorded lyrics to music. Thus the song is a collaboration piece that took place more than 30 years after Guthrie died. Simple and direct, Guthrie's words paint a picture of sleeping beneath the beautiful California stars, and the lovely dreams that follow.

When Robert Earl Keen was inducted into The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, he told the story behind this wonderful song. He said, "Kathleen, the love interest in the story coming down the stairs, is my wife because occasionally she would wake up and figure, oh he’s not here, he must be at Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar Saloon. And she would come down and see me and we would all sit and drink. And sometimes Arkey would lock the door and we would keep going after hours and go as long as we wanted to.”: bit.ly

The lyrics of this song were written in the spur of the moment on an airplane barf bag.: www.countrythangdaily.com

LA duo Filip Nikolic and Jeffrey Paradise (aka Poolside) are covering Neil Young who originally wrote the song as a tribute to his wife, Pegi Young. In 2011, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy gave Poolside notoriety by incorporating this song into his DJ sets.

This song by California psychedelic artist Morgan Delt "serves as a... well-rounded punch of bright, blinding light from far beyond the horizon." John selected it as a KEXP Song of the Day when it was released in 2016. Download it for yourself (and watch the official video) right here: www.kexp.org

This song was based on the '60s surfer/financial criminal Miklos "Miki" Dora. Damon McMahon (Amen Dunes) said, "Miki Dora was arguably the most gifted and innovative surfer of his generation and the foremost opponent of surfing’s commercialization. He was also a lifelong criminal and retrograde: a true embodiment of the distorted male psyche. He was a living contradiction; both a symbol of free-living and inspiration, and of the false heroics American culture has always celebrated. With lyrics of regret and redemption at the end of one’s youth, the song is about Dora, and myself, but ultimately it is a reflection on all manifestations of mythical heroic maleness and its illusions." -- John selected this song, too, as a free KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org

Enjoy an interview about this classic album with songwriter Mike Scott: thequietus.com

Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff wrote this song specifically for "The Breakfast Club." According to Keith Forsey, Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music was his first choice to record this song, but Ferry turned it down. Forsey was also a big fan of Simple Minds, so he tried to get them to record the song by delivering a cassette demo to the band. Initially, the band didn't want to do it, but were persuaded after they saw a screening of the film with John Hughes.

Hi John! It's my 29th birthday today *and* I just had a great first kiss last night! All the best, Candace PS, thanks for all you do, John, especially around mental health and parental loss. Your work helps me know I'm not alone :)