John Richards

Good morning, a very happy Friday, and welcome to The Morning Show with the handsome John Richards! Today, we want to celebrate life. You are not alone and we're glad you're here! -- This was the debut album by The Jim Carroll Band, led by Jim Carroll, who is notable for publishing the 1978 memoir The Basketball Diaries. Best known for his poetry and writings, Carroll died in 2009 at age 60 of a heart attack, while ill with pneumonia and hepatitis C. He was found at his desk, still working on his writings.: www.culturesonar.com

The music for this song was written by guitarist Stone Gossard before the band had a lead singer. Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics as he auditioned for the band. -- Vedder's lyrics are about a boy who finds out his father is actually his stepfather, and that his real father is dead. He later revealed that the song was "a work of fiction based on reality," and the chorus of "I'm still alive" was what he considered his curse, as he struggled to deal with the strained relationship with his stepfather and the fact that his real father was dead. In an episode of VH1's Storytellers, Vedder explained that the interpretation of the song had changed, as fans would react to the chorus by jumping around and celebrating - they heard "I'm still alive" as a positive thing, an affirmation of life. Said Vedder: "When they changed the meaning of those words, they lifted the curse." -- Watch the video for "Alive" from Pearl Jam's 2018 Seattle "Home Shows": www.youtube.com

Jim Kerr of Simple Minds talked about why the band is still "alive and kicking" and packing arenas: “There are a lot of things involved. We work with a great team, we work bloody hard – that’s one thing. And also there is quality in what we do – we believe there’s quality – and if you have real quality you can take the blows, you can fall out of popularity, you can go out of fashion, you can do all that stuff but there’ll always be some kind of fan base.": bit.ly --- Here's a live version of "Alive & Kicking": www.youtube.com

"Freedom is within you Giving makes us feel good Hello to our people Say hello to the future...": www.azlyrics.com -- Directed by Alex Theurer and Charles Scott, the video for this track features science fiction costumes and was filmed in Bryce Canyon National Park and the redwoods of California. Check it out here: bit.ly

Well hello handsome! Celebrating life - I'm feeling Keep on Movin and/or Back to Life by Soul II Soul! Of course there's nothing like ALIVE by Pearl Jam! Thank you, Morning Team 💜 Amy in Baltimore --- In a 2012 interview with The Guardian on how "Back to Life" was made, producer Jazzie B said: "Everything about this single was magic. We weren't trying to follow any trend or fit into any category – we were just doing our own thing. ... Its shuffling beats were a cross between reggae and what was to become known as hip-hop: breakbeats and electronic sound. Caron Wheeler's vocal, coming over these very heavy bass beats, was the icing on the cake. ... We also had the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra on the track, and the RPO became a key part of our sound." Learn the recording techniques behind this song: www.soundonsound.com

Beth Ditto has described “We Could Run” as her “U2 song.” It’s larger-than-life, with her vocals booming over a rock instrumental. -- Watch the fabulous singer performing "We Could Run" live in Vancouver in 2018: www.youtube.com

This was the first single from the group's second album, Candy-O, and like their first album, was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who did a lot of work with Queen. -- Cars guitarist Ric Ocasek wrote this song, but their bass player Benjamin Orr sang lead. When he wrote, Ocasek usually took on different personalities, this one a guy who gets let around by the nose by a wild woman. These personas were usually based on character traits he observed from the people around him - rarely were they personal. -- The series of handclaps followed by the shouting of the title was derived from a 1962 instrumental of the same name by the L.A. instrumental band The Routers, while the synth melody was provided by some approximation of the Sync II lead preset from a Prophet-5 synthesizer. In 1980, Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their comeback album, "Chipmunk Punk.” bit.ly

"Consider I Always struggle with the right word Meow meow meow meow meow..." Here are the lyrics to this song written by Kim Deal and Richard Presley: genius.com

Is it any wonder that John loves this band so much?! -- Here's a live performance from Brixton in 1991: www.youtube.com

It’s been a looong week but I’m ditching work for a bit to go see my kid’s grade school musical in a couple minutes. Time to go look at the world through the lenses of a child for a little bit and reset. M83 - Raconte-Moi Histoire See you on the slip side frog, Bob B., Philly --- "It would be great, right...?": www.youtube.com

When they recorded "Stayin' Alive," The Bee Gees were more than just the Gibb brothers: guitarist Alan Kendall, keyboard player Blue Weaver, and drummer Dennis Bryon were key members, if not official. Bryon, though, got called away when his mother fell ill, leaving them without a drummer. Their producer/engineers, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson, kept work going by looping a bar of Bryon's drumming on "Night Fever" and using that as the drum track. The built the song from there, adding the bass, then the guitar. They planned to replace the drum loop with live drums when Bryon returned, but it sounded so good they left it in.

... then it must be "A Time To Dance" - like The Shoes say. Right? :-) Thanks! Regards. Junu - A card-carrying Gold Club member in Chicago --- The Shoes are a French electro-rock duo originally from Reims created in 2007. It consists of Guillaume Brière and Benjamin Lebeau, who are both songwriters and producers. Anthonin Ternant is from the French pop collective The Bewitched Hands. "T-I-M-E-T-O-D-A-N-C-E in the city..." WatchThe Shoes perform "Time to Dance" live: www.youtube.com

The main spoken vocals on "Jungle Boogie" were performed by then-roadie, Donal Boyce, who became better known as "The Boogie Man." Boyce's vocals on the hit were so popular he was invited to sing back-up and perform "vocal effects" on a number of Kool & The Gang singles, including "Spirit of the Boogie," "Open Sesame," and "Slick Superchick." Boyce performed with the band from 1973 to 1977.

"The raw spirit of indie rock. An amplified, rocking version of ’60s protest folk. The soulful passion of the Violent Femmes and The Waterboys.” All of these comparisons have been made in attempts to describe Delta Spirit, the southern California five-piece...": thevogue.com

The Linda Lindas comprises sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza, their cousin Eloise Wong, and close friend Bela Salazar. -- The Linda Lindas chatted with KEXP about having "the most fun job in the world.: bit.ly -- See their colorful video for "Oh!": www.youtube.com

Ahhh....the Friday song. (Welcome back, Henry!) Here's a KEXP interview with Dr. Amy Lindsey on how music helps process grief: www.kexp.org

Watch a live in-studio performance at KEXP that included "Carry Me": www.youtube.com

"Jump in the Pool" was the second single from Friendly Fires' self-titled debut. Friendly Fires' frontman Ed MacFarlane has stated that “Jump in the Pool” (along with “Kiss of Life”) is when the “Friendly Fires sound” began bubbling up on the album. -- Someone wrote, "This is just a masterpiece of pop music. That moment when the chorus kicks in feels more like jumping into a pool than jumping into a pool does." Watch the official video: www.youtube.com

Go back, back, back to 2009 to see Jack Peñate perform "Tonight's Today" live in our studio: www.youtube.com

"Sooner or later your legs give way, you hit the ground Save it for later, don't run away and let me down...." (Oh, I must say that I absolutely love this song! ---Ken) -- Here's Pearl Jam combining "Better Man" with "Save It for Later": www.youtube.com

For Amy... -- "'Need You Now' is a pop song built using one of the core the principles of club music, the build-and-release. It begins gingerly, just a few light synth pulses and a drumbeat, but as it climbs, you sense that a payoff isn't far off. Synths quicken, [Dan] Whitford's voice begins to ache, and by the time we reach the four-minute mark, the song has exploded into one of those glittering, starry-eyed climaxes that pop music fans live for. Arranged with the utmost care and craft, it's about as perfect a Side One, Song One as you'll find, leaving you open to anything the band brings next.": pitchfork.com -- Is that an Olympic torch? A sword? A ball and chain? A hockey stick? An axe? Watch the video for "Need You Now": www.youtube.com

Was Bernard Sumner influenced by the Ambrose Bierce story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"? Sumner wrote, "“I decided to write a redneck song. It was quite tongue-in-cheek. It was about Vietnam. It was about a soldier that came back and his wife was sent a telegram to say that he was dead. You can take the ending one way or another. He’s either dead and he’s come back as a ghost and he sees her or he’s not dead and the telegram was a mistake. But his wife’s got it and killed herself—which is a very country tragedy.” Read more about this song from New Order's third album, "Low Life": bit.ly

"Born of Frustration" was James' first single in America. -- Tim Booth talked about the trouble with recording "Frustration": ".... I did walk into that dumb thing on "Born Of Frustration" where I did those "la-la-las." And I hadn’t heard Simple Minds. We recorded it, and Mark and Saul from James took me into a room before we mixed it and played me Simple Minds, and I went, 'Oh, f---.' They said 'Do you want to change it?' And I said, 'Well, I honestly came on this unconsciously.' And Iggy Pop did la-la-las, which I’m much more likely to have been influenced by. So I left it in, because I figured, James had a rule – no conscious influences are allowed, but you’re allowed unconscious ones.": dontforgetthesongs365.wordpress.com

Today is my birthday! It's always a weird time of grieving - losing both my parents around my birthday but this year I'm fully awake through my grief and taking my life back! I'm going to Europe in March with college friends, jaunting around to visit folks like a 20's something and not a middle aged single mom (kiddo coming too!). We also are going to spend a few weeks trying out living in Seattle next summer! I've been down a long time but have rebuilt so hard! The song by Foals - Sunday has been my mantra as I rebuild my life and turn it into what I want it to be. Can you play it for me? --Amy in Boise -- Foals will perform at the Showbox SoDo tomorrow night, Saturday, November 12th, 2022.

"The heart is a bloom Shoots up through the stony ground..." -- "The lyric expresses amazement, really, that whatever situation you find yourself in, as uncomfortable and upsetting as they can be, if you're alive and you are awake, then you have perspective on it," Bono explains in the band's book U2 by U2. "I was influenced by an Australian preacher I know called John Smith, who was a pastor for the Hell's Angels at one point and who is a very eloquent speaker with a brilliant mind. I remember him talking to me about how depression is a nerve end. Pain is evidence of life because it reminds you there are things in your life that aren't right. So you should be thankful for it really and celebrate that there is so much to live for." -- See U2 playing "Beautiful Day" Live From The FleetCenter, Boston, MA in 2001: youtu.be

Lyrically, "There Goes The Fear" is a song about regrets, and trying not to live in regret. Drummer Andy Williams said: "I did the lyrics in my old house in Chorlton. I had a very early demo, just with a floating melody, and I remember being at home with a cassette player, and spending two days rewinding the tape, laboriously going through the whole track writing lyrics to it with a Dictaphone and a lyric book. The first lines that came were, 'You look to those you love to justify. You turned around and life's passed you by.' That was an in. I thought right, I can build something around this, around regret, and taking responsibility for the way your life has gone. There's also quite a positive message as well: move on with your life."

Want to see Cheekface performing this song live?: www.youtube.com

Harvey Danger was an alternative rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1992 and rose to prominence in 1997 with the iconic single “Flagpole Sitta”.: thevogue.com Here's an interview from 2017 with Sean Nelson on the 20th anniversary of "Flagpole Sitta": "The thing I really remember is, the one thing I didn’t have was the chorus. The chorus for most of the first year we had the song that we were playing it was just the backing vocal bits, which I always thought of as very much in line with the Turtles or something. But we had recorded the song and I thought, 'Well, there needs to be words in the chorus. It can’t just be this.' So I went desperately flailing through my notebook and I found that line: '“I’m not sick but I’m not well,' which was from another song, and then I basically just sang it and made up the other words on the mic. And I’m glad that I did." bit.ly

Catherine Wheel formed in 1990, comprising singer-guitarist Rob Dickinson, guitarist Brian Futter, bassist Dave Hawes, and drummer Neil Sims. They took their name from the medieval torture device, since Rob Dickinson's cousin Bruce was in the "torture device-named" Iron Maiden. The video for "Show Me Mary" shows the band (and many others) in a cab: www.youtube.com

Lead Singer Michael Hutchence and keyboard player Andrew Farriss created this song in 1982 while recording their third album, 'Shabooh Shoobah'. An Australian reviewer writes, "Don't Change was INXS's first single to be released internationally. There's another way to look at it: this was the last time INXS could really be called "ours".......what makes the song so powerful? For my money, it's down to two things: that wafty keyboard riff from Andrew Farriss and the vocal harmonies from Kirk Pengilly.": www.theguardian.com their-first-undeniable-classic --- See a live performance: www.youtube.com

Here's a photo gallery of Japandroids' performance at The Neptune Theatre in 2017: news.bandsintown.com -- Watch this Vancouver, BC duo playing live in the KEXP studio: www.youtube.com

"This is Radio Clash," "nicking" the bassline from the Queen hit "Another One Bites The Dust," is considered by the American music critic Eric Schafer to be the first British hip-hop record, following the bands pioneering use of rap (with a straighter disco beat) on The Magnificent Seven. - www.theclash.com The song as a whole is the band's tribute to New York rap acts such as the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - indeed, Strummer's sinister high-pitched laugh at the start of the song was directly inspired by Grandmaster Flash's "The Message."

The 40th anniversary edition of "Combat Rock" featured a previously unreleased version of "Rock the Casbah" with the late English Beat artist Ranking Roger. The recording of Combat Rock commenced in late 1981, a few months after The Beat had supported The Clash in Europe, when Roger would often join The Clash onstage for their covers of Willie Williams’ Armagideon Time and Junior Murvin’s Police & Thieves. Roger's vocals for Rock The Casbah and Red Angel Dragnet were recorded during would would become known as the Rat Patrol sessions, and received a bootleg release in 2013.

Did you know that drummer Kate Schellenbach was the original drummer for Beastie Boys? Luscious Jackson is an all-female alternative funk band that made four albums in the 1990s. "Naked Eye" was the most successful of the songs they produced. It's best remembered for its stylish video, in which all four members of the band (Jill Cunniff, Gabrielle Glaser, Kate Schellenbach and Vivian Trimble) portray the same character, a woman being escorted to a departing airplane by her boyfriend. Though the video looks like it takes place at an airport, it was actually filmed at the World Trade Center.: www.youtube.com

In October of 2021, Django Django performed Live on KEXP at Home, in a session recorded at Octagon Studios in London: www.youtube.com

This song is based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Burroughs. In the book, packs of adolescent humanoids ravage the civilized nations of the Earth. When wholesale slaughter erupts, the battle continues underground where the survivors evolve into The Wild Boys. It was intended for a movie that was never made. The band wrote this song around the visuals they imagined for that Wild Boys film that was never made, thinking about what it would look like as they wrote it. Duran Duran was gaining a lot of popularity as a result of MTV, with videos for "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Rio" in heavy rotation, but this was the first time they wrote a song specifically for the visuals, which ended up being the video for the song and not the movie. Here's the video: www.youtube.com

A drum that turns into a snake? Bob Geldof with a snake? Just sayin'...: www.youtube.com

“Candy” is a duet, with Kate Pierson of The B-52’s taking the part of the title character. According to Pop, the lyrics refer to a teenage girlfriend, Betsy: I was looking back on my relationship with her, and I thought 'Let's be fair. Let the girl have her say.' I wanted a girl who would sing with a small-town voice, and Kate has a little twang in her voice that sounds slightly rural and naïve.

Skip Scarborough was a songwriter and producer who worked with Earth, Wind & Fire, Patti Labelle, LTD, and many other R&B stars before his death in 2003. He wrote the music for this song, and was also the inspiration for the lyrics Withers came up with. In an interview with Bill Withers, he explained: "Skip was a very nice, gentle man. The way Skip was, every day was just a lovely day. He was an optimist. If I had sat down with the same music and my collaborator had been somebody else with a different personality, it probably would have caused something else to cross my mind lyrically. It was a combination of the music and the person and the ambiance in the room."