John Richards

Ohh...happy Friday!! Good morning and welcome to The Morning Show with John Richards!! It's a dance party today! We're so glad you're here!! -- "Has there ever been a band in history quite as reviled as Sigue Sigue Sputnik? Back in 1986, it was almost impossible not to hold an opinion about this gaggle of fishnet-masked, fetish-clad, firework-haired outlaws. Described by their quote-machine bassist Tony James as “hi-tech sex, designer violence and the fifth generation of rock and roll” and with a tabloid-baiting motto of “fleece the world”, Sigue Sigue Sputnik always felt like a band that had slipped through some wormhole from the future, and for most people in ‘86, that future looked frankly horrifying." Here's a 2021 interview with founders Tony James and Neal X: www.classicpopmag.com

M/A/R/R/S was a one-off collaboration between members of A.R. Kane (Alex and Rudi Kane) and Colourbox (Martin and Steve Young), both veteran 4AD artists. They took their name from the four collaborator's initials plus that of label boss Ivo Watts-Russell, who suggested they get together. -- "Rhythmic, systematic, world control, Magnetic, genetic, demands your soul..." You may want to memorize these lyrics: genius.com

The song integrates a 1970 recording called "Modern Dynamic Physical Fitness Activities" by Ed Durlacher, who was best known as a square dance caller. In his recording, he goes through some basic calisthenics, but Beastie Boys chopped it up to make it sound like dance instruction ("you will do this four times with the left... four with the right"). -- "Body Movin'" also sampled Graham Central Station's 1975 "The Jam", as well as "Oye Como Va" by Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers.

Funk isn't just meant to be heard, it's meant to be experienced, and no one knew that better than James Brown, who wrote "Get Up Offa That Thing" to rouse an uninspired crowd at a Fort Lauderdale club. "The audience was sitting down, trying to do a sophisticated thing, listening to funk," he recalled in the 2014 biography "James Brown: The Godfather Of Soul." "One of the tightest bands they'd ever heard in their lives, and they were sitting. I had worked hard and dehydrated myself and was feeling depressed. I looked out at all those people sitting there, and because I was depressed they looked depressed. I yelled, 'Get up offa that thing and dance til you feel better!' I probably meant until I felt better."

This was written by KC & The Sunshine Band bassist-producer Richard Finch and frontman Harry Wayne Casey, the white members of an integrated band in the 70's. -- Casey had originally called the song "I'll Be a Son of a Gun." "Then I went back and 'I'm Your Boogie Man' came into my head because I was thinking about how disc jockeys were always there on the radio. Like it says: Early morning Late afternoon Or at midnight It's never too soon I'm your Boogie Man It's taking the theme of the disc jockey being the one that's there for you all the time, no matter when. So it was as if I was a disc jockey, I'm the Boogie Man. Like if you call in and want to hear a certain song, or talk about what was going on in your life, I'm your Boogie Man. And of course I put in 'turn me on,' but that could also mean turned on the radio."

R.I.P., Shock G (Greg Jacobs) of the Digital Underground, who died in 2021 at the age of 57.:www.nytimes.com -- "Let's get stupid!" As his "alter ego," Humpty Hump, he perfected The Humpty Dance: www.youtube.com

"In early 2002 we were a cowed people, but when the first dings of Conversation's cowbell rang across the post 9/11 landscape we knew we'd be alright. As The King crooned to us from the past, his mouth sounding more full of boiled eggs than ever, the world grew more confident that the storm could and would be weathered. "Come on, come on! Come on, come on!" became a mantra for the new millennia, urging us onwards into an uncertain future." A number of writers talked about what this song meant to them: www.vice.com

Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. The vocals were provided by the London-based Foundation for Young Musicians choir. -- According to the duo, they were huge Michael Jackson fans and therefore decided to dedicate this song to him. The song recites numerous Michael Jackson songs including “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”, “Black or White”, “Workin' Day and Night”, and “Whatever Happens” along with the Jackson 5 song “ABC.' The intro of the song contains a sample of the outro of Britney Spears' and Madonna’s “Me Against the Music”.

"Say what?!" -- Do you know that you can go right here to purchase this beloved song?: babydayliner.bandcamp.com

Ahhh....the Friday song! Learn about Aquí y Ahora, KEXP´s special programming for Latinx Heritage Month. For us, this month represents an opportunity to continue amplifying the music, stories, and presence of Latinx, Latine, and Hispanic communities in the United States and the diaspora in our on-air, in-person, and digital world. : www.kexp.org

When the Canadian band Men Without Hats recorded “The Safety Dance” in 1982, it was not to promote safety in any way at all. In fact “The Safety Dance” was a protest against something far more mundane: officious bouncers. Ivan Doroschuk had formed Men Without Hats as a punk band, and “The Safety Dance” was about being told off for dancing dangerously: “It originated when I was getting kicked out of clubs for pogoing — for hitting the dance floor whenever they played Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ or The B52’s’ ‘Rock Lobster’, he said.: ig.ft.com

If the world is ending, we might as well dance... Here's the video: www.youtube.com

Prince won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance for this song. -- Fashion photographer Rebecca Blake was in the middle of a shoot with Sheila E in Los Angeles when Prince spotted her from his limo. A few weeks later, he enlisted Blake to direct the video for "Kiss." Prince shows off his dance moves in the clip alongside veiled dancer Monique Manning. Blake recalled: "What was fascinating was how once the stage was put together, how brilliantly he move around in the space of the set for the film. Like, I would set-up a shot and then he would kind of interpret it in terms of how he moved physically. And that was very interesting.": www.youtube.com

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band is a Hamburg, Germany funk music ensemble founded by members of the Mighty Mocambos. -- This is their cover of the Game and 50 Cent's "How We Do." bacaorhythmandsteelband.bandcamp.com

Rob Base is the stage name of Robert Ginyard and the late DJ E-Z Rock was Rodney "Skip" Bryce. This infectious song is built on a sample of a 1972 track called "Think (About It)" that was recorded by the soul singer Lyn Collins but written and produced by James Brown, the man responsible for a plurality of samples in hip-hop, especially in the '80s. Many other artists sampled "It Takes Two" but Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock figured out how to loop just the right elements of the song into an inescapable groove.

This song, written by producer Inflo and Cleo Sol, sampled Co-Real Artists' 1974 "What About You (In the World Today)." Behind the rhythm is the desire to escape to a carefree state from the anger caused by needless deaths of black people.: www.lyrics.com

Aretha wrote the song herself, but she got a lot of help in the studio (Criteria in Miami), where the groove came together. On "Rock Steady," Donny Hathaway played organ and Dr. John added percussion. "It was a dream come true," producer Arif Mardin said.

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 -- Check out Eddie Van Halen's isolated guitar track for "Dance the Night Away": faroutmagazine.co.uk

" I urge you to write a two bar groove that’s good enough to be played non-stop for 5 minutes 39 seconds without becoming boring....2 bars. That’s it, the whole song is based on a simple E minor chord arpeggio repeated ad-libitum in different colors." Here's a wonderful analysis of this famous track: v2.puremix.com

Happy Friday and thanks for the dance music. This is why I have a standup desk at work, and my colleagues are very entertained by my work dance. If you can squeeze in some Janet Jackson that would be great. Thanks and hugs, Martha in Santa Fe -- "It's Janet... Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty..." See the official video: www.youtube.com

Galactic is a jam band from New Orleans. Galactic is Ben Ellman on saxophone and harmonica, Robert Mercurio on bass, Stanton Moore on drums, Jeffrey Raines on guitar and Richard Vogel on keyboards. That's Boyfriend on vocals on "Dance at My Funeral.": www.bluesblastmagazine.com

ESG (Emerald, Sapphire & Gold) is an American funk rock band formed in the South Bronx in 1978. Three sisters-- Renee, Deborah and Valerie Scroggins (along with friend Tito Libran)--compose ESG. ESG has been influential across a wide range of musical genres, including hip hop, and dance-punk. The band's track "UFO" is one of the most sampled songs in history. -- Drummer Valerie Scroggins wants you to dance. Enjoy this 2013 interview with the musician: tomtommag.com

Frontwoman Karen O told the New Musical Express January 17, 2009, with a grin: "I figured if we were going to write a dance song it should be about heads bouncing on the floor and murder and slaughter." -- The video, with its wolfish dancer, was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video. www.youtube.com

"We Got The Beat" was written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who drew inspiration from some Motown beats, specifically one that mentioned the name of her group. Caffey said: "I thought it would be very clever to do 'Going To A Go-Go.' I thought, Well, let's try working this out as a cover song. Which is really funny when I think about it. I was listening to it a lot one day, and later that night, the song came to me within five minutes.

Former band member Peter Hook calls "Regret" “the last good New Order song.” The guitar used in it was Johnny Marr’s ‘59 Les Paul. Johnny Marr said, "You can hear the Pro really well on New Order’s ‘Regret’. Bernard (Sumner) borrowed my Les Paul and Pro for that, so he owes me some money as well."

Wow! Duran Duran's "Rio" came out in in May, 1982. Here's a 40+ year retrospective: duranduran.com

Radio 4 was named after a 1979 P.I.L. song. The band was formed in 1999 in New York City by bassist Anthony Roman, guitarist Tommy Williams, drummer Greg Collins, percussionist P.J. O'Connor, and keyboardist Gerard Garone, -- There are repetitively-dancing skeletons in the video for "Dance to the Underground" (Don't say we didn't warn you!): www.youtube.com

The Muppets did a surprise performance of this song on the streets of Brighton, England in 2021. Watch the performance: coloradosound.org

"...the song is perhaps my favorite pop expression of the idea of interdependence – that we all cooperate in large and small ways to forgive and understand and therefore enable each other's individuality." -- Here's a great NPR feature on this wonderful song: www.npr.org

Producer Nile Rodgers said of this song in the 2013 film "Davie Bowie: 5 Years in the Making of an Icon": "'Let's Dance' is not what I'd call a traditional dance record, but it's certainly a record that does make you want to dance. I thought to myself, 'Man, if I don't make a record that makes people want to dance, and we call the song Let's Dance, I'm going to have to trade in my black union card.'" -- Maybe this was the first time you heard Stevie Ray Vaughn, who played lead guitar. Bowie was impressed when he saw Vaughan perform at the Montreaux Jazz festival a year earlier. When Vaughan received the call from Bowie to play on the record, he was (although not literally) in the middle of recording his debut album, Texas Flood.

Watch a live performance by The Budos Band in the KEXP studio in 2019: www.youtube.com

The Selecter is an English ska revival band, formed in Coventry, England, in 1979. The Selecter are led by their iconic frontwoman Pauline Black OBE. -- Here's the band performing it in 1979: www.youtube.com

"Same Old Show" by Basement Jaxx sampled The Selecter's "On My Radio". -- Basement Jaxx is South London production duo Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton.: www.allmusic.com

"One Step Beyond" is a tune written by Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster as a B-side for his 1964 single "Al Capone". It was covered by British band Madness for their debut album. madness.co.uk

"Just social discomfort to the point of pitiful pain of always feeling you're in the wrong place at the wrong time and saying the wrong thing to the wrong person." --Dave Wakeling about this song The (English) Beat performed this one live at the US Festival in 1982: www.youtube.com

"Shake It Up," written by Ric Ocasek, is a tailor-made party song. With the simple "dance all night" refrain, it indeed became a favorite dance party tune. -- Guitarist Elliot Easton said he wanted his solo to sound like "two guys trading off". He first plays a Fender Telecaster, in a style skewing country, then midway through the solo switches to a Gibson guitar for a heavier rock sound.

London, Ontario rapper Shad sampled The Breeders' 1993 breakout hit "Cannonball."

"Did you say......DANCE?" -- This song was written by Q-Tip, Ed Simons, and Tom Rowlands. Rowlands recalled to Q magazine: "I went to Q-Tip's house in New Jersey to do 'Go.' It's brilliant, proper teenage b-boy fantasy stuff. He's got an incredible studio in the basement with special sub-bass in every corner, and the most amazing vinyl collection -four copies of obscure Krautrock records, stuff like that. Then we ordered jerk chicken. I was in awe." -- Don't miss the official video for "Go": www.youtube.com.

"Originally formed in 1981 as a duo of Bauhaus guitarist Daniel Ash and Bauhaus roadie-turned-bassist Glenn Campling, Tones on Tail was a generally interesting, shortlived experiment in various styles. When the parent group called it a day in 1983, Ash chose to make this modest side project a going concern, and Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins hopped aboard to make it a fulltime trio." Here's a discussion of the band's history: trouserpress.com

This was written by ABBA members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. According to ABBA's official site, it was conceived as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo." They drew inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby," and from the drumming on the 1972 album "Gumbo" by Dr. John. Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen," and after several months working on the track, ABBA came up with arguably the world's first Europop disco hit. : abbasite.com

"Dancing on My Own" starts with one of the most visceral, propelling four-to-the-floor beats of the past few decades. The tempo is perfectly situated right around 118 beats per minute, pretty close to what scientists say is the preferred walking tempo for humans. The one-five-four chord progression is immediately familiar, like it's been around since the beginning of time. Everything about it is meant to make you smile and move and dance." --- "This is what's so confusing, so endearing and so lovable about this song. When I talk to people about it, they tell me how it always manages to make them feel less lost — eager to dance themselves toward the next day, or the next party, or the next lover. It's a song about loneliness, but the moment you hear it, you instantly feel less alone." Read this NPR tribute to this emotionally powerful song: www.npr.org

Go here to purchase The Budos Band's "Frontier's Edge" EP: budosband.bandcamp.com