John Richards

RIP Sir Loaf....: www.cnn.com == This 1977 debut album by Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman has sold more than 43 million copies and has been certified 14x Platinum. -- Producer Todd Rundgren told Mojo magazine February 2009 of Bruce Springsteen's influence on the Bat Out of Hell album. Said Rundgren: "Jim Steinman still denies that record has anything to do with Springsteen. But I saw it as a spoof. You take all the trademarks - over long songs, teenage angst, handsome loner- and turn them upside down. So we made these epic songs, full of the silly puns that Steinman loves. If Bruce Springsteen can take it over the top, Meat Loaf can take it five storeys higher than that - and at the same time, he's this big, sweaty, unappealing character. Yet we out-Springsteened Springsteen. He's never had a record that sold like Bat Out of Hell, and I didn't think that anyone would ever catch on to it. I thought it would be just a cult thing. The royalties from that album enabled me to follow my own path for a long time after that."

It's just a jump to the left...and a step to the right... It's quite easy to do: www.youtube.com

Although "Time Skiffs," out on February 4th, is technically Animal Collective's first album in more than five years, the band members have remained in each other's orbits. “Every year, all four of us are doing all these different things and they’re all connected to a central trunk of a tree, but they’re branches that spin off,” Josh Dibb said on a recent Zoom call, where he was joined by Noah Lennox. “I think that philosophy is so central to how our music comes together, how our psyches and the community of the four of us stay healthy, with everybody feeling like they aren’t limited by this one narrative of who we are.”: www.rollingstone.com -- This third single from "Time Skiffs" has a psychedelic animated video from frequent collaborator Abby Portner, the sister of band member Avey Tare.: www.youtube.com

Beach House will play The Paramount Theatre on Sunday, April 3rd, 2022. -- "Once Twice Melody" will be out in its entirety on February 18th. Produced entirely by the duo, it has been released in four parts. This song, "Masquerade," is part of the third installment.: beachhouse.bandcamp.com

Happy 50th birthday, Asha!! -- Want to see an interview with Joey Santiago about "Where Is My Mind"?: www.youtube.com

Good morning, lots of love to KEXP and the entire KEXP community. Would love to request Sunshine Smile by Adorable, and wish a Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife Jo, an amazingly strong, independent and intelligent woman who is an even more amazing mother to our daughter Aria. Love to everyone- -AJ & Aria from South Jersey -- Here's an interview with Adorable, the English band that formed in 1990 and live on the cusp of shoegaze and glam rock: www.fadeawayradiate.com

"I'll stop the world and melt with you You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time There's nothing you and I won't do I'll stop the world and melt with you..." It's a great song for singing in the car: www.songfacts.com -- Watch the official music video (and sing along): www.youtube.com

That's Mick Jones singing lead vocals on this song. The song became a firm live favorite for the band, introduced to their live set in December 1979 and played consistently until Mick Jones was fired in 1983. The music video is taken from one of these many live performances, a February 1980 show in Lewisham filmed by Don Letts and featuring an amusing introduction from Joe Strummer: "We'd like to take the soul train from platform one... and if you don't want to come, there's always the toilet!": bit.ly Watch The Clash performing "Train in Vain," live at the Lewisham Odeon: youtu.be

Watch a live performance by this Nantes, France-based band on KEXP Live at Home, hosted by John Richards: www.youtube.com

This Leeds, UK post-punk band will play Madame Lou's in Seattle on Monday, April 18th, 2022. --- "In a lean 37 minutes, The Overload earns its hype. It’s a confident debut LP from a young band seizing its moment and cutting the tension with a chuckle. They’re clearly aiming for something big....": pitchfork.com

Hey John: Tomorrow(FRIDAY) is my son George’s 14th birthday. Since he’s been back in school post lockdown I’ve had the pleasure of driving him to school every morning, always tuned into the Morning Show. He loves music and the 20 minutes we have together every morning with you has broadened both of our musical horizons. Every Friday I tell him today will be the day we hear the Friday song, but by some twist of fate we have never heard it on our drive. He is so committed to hearing it on the station for the first time that he won’t let me play it from a streaming service. It feels like just about every Friday I drop him off and you spin the Friday song one or two songs later. I’d love to have him finally hear the Friday song on his birthday tomorrow. Might you play it for him in the 7:45-8:10a window? --Thanks - Ted, dad to George. -- Ahhh...the Friday song. Happy birthday, George!

"Sometimes the clothes do not make the man..." George Michael was trying to free himself from the shackles of Sony, which was his record label at the time. They created an image for him to promote his Faith album, and Michael was now trying to distance himself from it. In the video, all the Faith trademarks explode: the jacket, the jukebox, the guitar.: www.youtube.com

Choreographer Toni Basil filled in some details about the choreography for this video: "He [Byrne] wanted to research movement, but he wanted to research movement more as an actor, as does David Bowie, as does Mick Jagger. They come to movement in another way, not as a trained dancer. Or not really interested in dance steps. He wanted to research people in trances - different trances in church and different trances with snakes. So we went over to UCLA and USC, and we viewed a lot of footage of documentaries on that subject. And then he took the ideas, and he 'physicalized' the ideas from these documentary-style films.": www.youtube.com

Morning John. If it pleases the DJ, could you play some Neil Diamond this morning? Today is the 1 yr date since my mom Marilyn passed and she was a HUGE Neil fan. Like everyone should be, obviously. Either way, you are very much appreciated. Hope you and the fam have a great weekend 👊 --Paul in West Seattle -- Diamond explained: "This song was written about a revival meeting I was at in Jackson, Mississippi. I went there because I was curious, and also because I was a college kid who had all the answers - no one was going to teach me anything and I could lay a few answers on them. I sat in the back of this tent meeting and I got really caught up in the music - clapping, the singing - tremendously exciting. After a while I felt something about the people - there was a tremendous yearning, looking for answers. Trying to ease a very hard burden of very rough lives. After a while the music stopped and a preacher walked out. I remember thinking that all the education I had, all the books, all the words, all the learning I went through at college didn't mean anything to these people, I had nothing for them. So I found myself pulling for this man who was about to give them something that I couldn't even begin to give them."

One of the many samples in “Rush” and perhaps the most obvious one is Peter Sellers’ line--“Yes, yes, delightful, delightful"--- and the ensuing monologue on how “not everything’s singing” and on the importance of “rhythm and melody”. This bit leads into an extended bridge with a wicked sampled break beat and the keyboards from “Baba O’Riley”. Here's a guide to the samples on this song: www.whosampled.com

The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: spiritual master Maher Baba and minimalist composer Terry Riley. -- In 2019, Roger Daltrey said that this song speaks to generation after generation. "The main advice I give youngsters is to be very aware of what you are getting into on social media. Because life is not looking down at screens, it is looking up. We are heading for catastrophe with the addiction that is going on in the younger generation. Your life will disappear if you are not careful. You are being controlled, and that is terrible."

Hey John! Got a request. My kid Maddox and pals Jack and Andrew just got their booster yesterday and Maddox is feeling like a dumpster fire this morning but said it was worth it to Kick COVID's butt. Could you play Heroes for all the folks out there getting boosted and working in our hospitals Thanks! Keep killing it this morning --Tony -- "Although the song is a love story about a couple who are having their relationship snatched from their grasp, because of Bowie and Eno’s knack for songwriting ‘Heroes’ took on a universal meaning which allows any listener the opportunity to relate to it in one sense or another. Despite Bowie only being 30 when he released the track, it elevated him to his deserved legendary status and confirmed his godlike gift." Here's the story behind this wonderful song: faroutmagazine.co.uk

This one's for 4-year-old Arlo, dancing to The Morning Show! -- "Here Come the Warm Jets" was Eno’s groundbreaking solo debut album, made after he left Roxy Music. He wrote this song with another Roxy Music guy, Phil Manzanera.: classicalbumsundays.com

Ian Curtis worked at the Job Centre in his hometown of Macclesfield, Cheshire, finding positions for people with special needs. One of his clients was a girl with epilepsy. At one point in 1978, Curtis noticed that the girl had stopped coming into the department. He later discovered she’d had a fit in her sleep and had tragically died. The incident inspired Curtis to write a new song about the girl: "She's Lost Control." Son after that, it was confirmed that Curtis, too, had epilepsy.: www.radiox.co.uk

Deep Sea Diver will be playing Fawcett Hall at Alma Mater in Tacoma, WA on Thursday and Friday, February 10th and 11th, 2022.: www.thisisdeepseadiver.com -- This record was written after Jessica Dobson's experience with depression. She spoke with Emily Fox for KEXPs Sound & Vision about her journey on the album. Read/listen here: www.kexp.org thedeepseadiver.bandcamp.com

Wet Leg are playing a sold-out show at the Sunset Tavern on Saturday, March 26, 2022! -- This duo swept KEXP by storm with their singles, “Wet Dream” and “Chaise Longue” in 2021. They dropped two new singles and announced their self-titled debut album will be released in April 2022. DJ Larry Mizell Jr. sat down with British band Wet Leg for a recent KEXP Sound & Vision podcast and found out just how silly they really are. Check out the whole segment here: www.kexp.org www.wetlegband.com

John Richards had the opportunity to interview Roderick Wolgamott of local band Sky Cries Mary about the 90's Seattle scene: www.kexp.org

For ICU nurse Jennifer in California! Thanks for your important work. Hope this lifts you up. -- Although Bob Marley is assumed to have written the song on his own, as its lyrics are highly personal, it was actually credited to Vincent Ford. Ford was a friend of Marley's who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto area of Kingston, Jamaica, where Marley grew up. This meant that all royalty payments received by Ford allowed his work to continue.: bit.ly -- Watch a live version from June, 1977: www.youtube.com

Hi John and my KEXP music support team. Was wondering if you could spin up "bridge over troubled water" Simon and Garfunkel... it's been a year to the day that I lost my pop Pablo. It's rather almost every Thursday/Friday I feel this way. Miss him so much. I found one of his voicemails today so I had to make a video of it. In Spanish he says, "hey, call me when you can... hugs, I love you buddy, kisses..." Tell your parents, if you still have them around, that you love them. Make it awkward if you need to. Once they're gone, that's it. You are not alone, love you guys! --Ivan -- Paul Simon wrote this about providing comfort to a person in need. It started as a modest gospel hymn but became more dramatic as he put it together. Simon said, "I have no idea where it came from. It came all of the sudden. It was one of the most shocking moments in my songwriting career. I remember thinking, 'This is considerably better than I usually write." -- At first, Simon thought the opening lyrics were too simple: "When you're weary, feeling small. When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all." He later realized that it was this simplicity that helped give the song a universal appeal.

Hello! I’m loving all these requests and messages from listeners. It really does remind me I’m not alone. Thank you for creating such an awesome community— we need it now more than ever. Yesterday was my daughter Margot’s 5th birthday and we were able to celebrate by getting her vaccinated! It felt like such a long wait. I wish we could stop worrying and get back to normal but omicron stole that from us. Still I am so grateful to feel a little safer. For all the parents and caregivers of young kiddos, will you please play Fugazi’s Waiting Room? Many feel abandoned as they wait and wait and wait — you are not alone and not forgotten! --Becky --- "I am a patient boy I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait My time, water down a drain..." Here's a live version: www.youtube.com

John hosted this live performance by IDLES in our studio in 2018. The terrific performance included "Colossus": www.youtube.com

Although the late Lemmy Kilmister is great in this cover of The Stones, he preferred The Beatles. “The Beatles were hard men,” he wrote in his 2004 memoir "White Line Fever." “[Manager] Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia – a hard, sea-farin’ town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo’s from the Dingle, which is like the f**king Bronx.” However, Lemmy didn’t have the same praise for The Stones, adding: “The Rolling Stones were the mummy’s boys – they were all college students from the outskirts of London,” he said. “They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability.”: bit.ly

Wondering if you could play I Will Be Your Shield by Billy Bragg. Love his message below about this song and music in general. Thank you and KEXP for bringing this currency to us each day. Thank you! -Michele in west Seattle -- Billy Bragg said, "I’ve come to the conclusion that empathy is the currency of music — that our job as songwriters is to help people come to terms with their feelings by offering them examples of how others may have dealt with a situation similar to that in which listeners find themselves. After what we’ve all been through, the idea of being a shield, physically, emotionally, psychologically, really resonates." -- Watch the official video for this lovely song: www.youtube.com

The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers was a stage name adopted by indie pop artist Perry Wright in 2003. The name was taken from the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski, and was originally intended as the title for a concept album based on an iron lung-bound character in that film. -- Want to read the lyrics?: alloflyrics.cc

This title translates from French as "Tell Me A Story," but here at KEXP we all know it as "The Frog Song." -- As adults hardened by the years of experience, it is hard to envision the world detailed in the lyrics, but through the sincerity of her voice – yes, just her voice alone – but also the sincerity in how she recites the narrative, with such genuine BELIEF in this narrative, it is truly a moving thing to behold. And by the power of empathy and the connection with this girl, through her voice and vocals, you can now transport to her openness, to her imagination, and believe the narrative as well. And thus, you shall become a frog.: bit.ly

To the Lovers, the Dreamers, and You... Keep believing.: www.youtube.com -- Kermit sang this song, composed by Paul Williams, with Debbie Harry: www.youtube.com

“What A Wonderful World” was written in 1967 by George David Weiss together with George Douglas, an alias for Bob Thiele, Armstrong’s producer at ABC Records. In his 2005 book, What A Wonderful World: A Lifetime Of Recordings, Thiele said that the song was intended as a reassuring antidote to the mounting problems facing America in the late 60s; a time defined by what he described as “the deepening national traumas of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, racial strife, and turmoil everywhere.”: www.udiscovermusic.com

R.I.P., Meat Loaf, who died on Thursday at the age of 74: www.rollingstone.com -- "I will say that I did learn a lot about making out and relationships from Paradise by the Dashboard Light. Sang it at the top of my lungs as an 8- year old even though I didn't know what the heck I was singing about. Happy Friday and peace to the one of a kind Meatloaf."--Listener "Paradise by the dashboard light was my very first sexual education course. Remember listening to that track when I was so young thinking what? Is this what teenagers do?" --another Listener -- Don't you love this song?: www.youtube.com