John Richards

Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to an all-request version of The Morning Show with John Richards! Let us know what you want to hear--206-903-5397 or dj@kexp.org We're very happy you're here!! -- "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 was the first US #1 hit for Tears for Fears.

A request from Zev in Pittsburgh... -- Nicknamed “Pure Boring” by the band, the track is the lead single from their second album, and was a huge hit in the US. The track was their most commercially accessible to date, with easily remembered lyrics and a huge, bass-heavy riff. They’ve since distanced themselves from it, rarely playing it live and describing the lyrics as “cringey.” Brian Molko explained the lyrics in 1999: “Pure Morning” is about that time of day when the sun is coming up and you’re coming down. Everybody else is getting ready to go to work and you’re feeling incredibly dislocated from the rest of the world.

First, I've had two cold brews and I may be able to levitate. Second, I'd love to hear The The's "Dogs of Lust." Thank you! -Devon in Indy -- Songwriter, singer, and guitarist Matt Johnson recruited Johnny Marr of The Smiths to play guitar and harmonica on this song. Watch Mr. Marr in a live performance at KEXP in 2018: www.youtube.com

Billy Duffy of The Cult talks about how his quasi-psychedelic guitar intro came about: "I found a violin bow, and I started to play the guitar with the bow like Jimmy Page. I did it to amuse [frontman Ian] Astbury, who was in the control room, and in order to make it sound weirder, I just hit every pedal I had on the pedal board. Then once I stopped banging the strings and doing all that, I played the middle section of the song, which was kind of a pick thing with all the BOSS pedals on, and that sound just leaped out. The producer went, 'Hold it, hold it, that's great!' And we decided to start the song with that mystical sound. If I hadn't found that violin bow laying around, we wouldn't have gone there."

Welsh goth band Gene Loves Jezebel (GLJ) was originally formed in the early 1980s by identical twin brothers Michael and Jay Aston and Ian Hudson. -- You can see what the band looks like when you view this live performance of "Desire," their biggest hit: www.youtube.com

Bowie said this song's call-and-response vocal arrangement "all comes from Little Richard." A defining moment in Bowie's childhood was when his dad came home with a copy of "Tutti Frutti." -- That's Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar and the incredible Steve Elson on baritone sax.

Did you know that this was supposedly written by Bono in response to the notion that it’s possible to identify a person’s religion and income based on the street where they lived? -- He said: "On reflection I suppose I want to write about that 'other country,' the country of the imagination. I want to run out of hiding, to tear down the walls that hold me inside myself. I want to touch the flame." -- Don't miss the Grammy-winning video: www.youtube.com

"In 'Someone Great,' Murphy takes you on a journey through the entire grieving process, starting at the very beginning — the moment you get that phone call. Even if you were expecting it, even if you feared it was going to happen soon or were thankful it didn’t happen earlier, you’re never ready to hear those words." This essay says that "Someone Great" is the best song about loss ever written: medium.com

Depeche Mode will be at Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday, November 26th, 2023. -- Directed by long-time Depeche Mode companion Anton Corbijn, the video to “Enjoy The Silence” was inspired in part by Anton de Saint-Exupéry’s classic children’s book The Little Prince. See frontman Dave Gahan as a wandering monarch searching for his kingdom.: www.youtube.com

From the sixth studio album by French electronic music band M83, this title translates from French as "Tell Me A Story," but here at KEXP we all know it as "The Frog Song." --- "The biggest group of friends the world has ever seen": www.youtube.com

Guy Garvey: “It was about falling in love or actually the morning after falling in love specifically, you know, pondering it. It’s semi-autobiographical, I was single for a bit then I got together with the girl I was with for almost a decade, Emma Jane Unsworth and that’s when I wrote the song which I came up with in the bath. In the flat I was living in at the time, the shower was broken so I had a bath every day. I used to sit there and put my Dictaphone on record and sing in the bath. Even though the lyrics are quite bleak, I’m saying ‘I’m not having a good time most of the time but today is great.'”

Swan Lake (Лебединое озеро), Op. 20 (TH 12 ; ČW 12), was the first of Tchaikovsky's ballet scores, composed between August 1875 and April 1876, with additions and revisions in February and April 1877. The ballet's original title, as indicated on the manuscript score, was The Lake of Swans or Lake of the Swans (Озеро лебедей), and its story derives from a German fairy tale.

That's an ocarina you're hearing on this song. One sample on "The Chauffeur" was taken “from a nature record [of insect noises] that the band found in the library.

The Power Station were a supergroup formed by Robert Palmer (vocals), Tony Thompson (drummer with Chic), John Taylor (bass player with Duran Duran) and Andy Taylor (guitarist with Duran Duran). -- The Duran Duran members were all fans of Chic, and this song was designed to showcase their drummer Tony Thompson. -- The song was recorded at The Power Station, the New York City studio from which the band took their name.

Patti Smith's debut album, "Horses," was released on this date in 1975. That iconic album cover photograph, of Smith in black and white standing strong and confident against a blank wall, was taken by Robert Mapplethorpe. -- Here's an incredible nine-minute performance of "Gloria" last year (!): www.youtube.com

"Tell him to wait right here for me or, Try again tomorrow I'm gonna kick tomorrow I'm gonna kick tomorrow": genius.com -- This live version of "Jane Says" was recorded at Irvine Meadows in 1991. -- Here's the official video: www.youtube.com

Brendan Perry wrote this song and is the vocalist.: www.youtube.com

Ahhh....the Friday song! (Hit the button, John!) John Richards and Dr. Amy Lindsey will host the Death and Music event at The Moore Theatre on Sunday, November 12th. Go here to learn more and get tickets: www.kexp.org

You are not alone. --- An NPR reviewer wrote, "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.": www.npr.org -- Want to see the official video?: www.youtube.com

In 1993, producer Gordon Cyrus and comedian Henrik Schyffert met while making a commercial and wrote “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe”, recruiting Schyffert’s girlfriend, former Ubangi vocalist Cia Berg, to sing it. -- In the US “Hobo” peaked at #24 the Modern Rock chart, likely aided by its music video (and Beavis & Butthead’s commentary of it) where Berg sports braces on her teeth, seductively licks her lollipop (and a man’s armpit), and is tossed in the air to reveal her panties several times.: www.youtube.com

Dj's choice (Henry?) It's my wife Sarah's birthday and she's a huge Pixies fan. Jason in Columbia SC -- Frank Black acknowledges he would never have completed the song without some words of encouragement from his then-girlfriend and future wife, Jean Walsh. "I was strumming the guitar in the bedroom, and she stuck her head out and said, 'Finish that song, that's a good one,'" he recalled. "So I was, like, 'Oh, OK.' And she had never said anything like that to me before, and hasn't ever since."

"Not Enough Time" was written by Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence. -- The song samples the drums from Dexter Wansel's 1976 "Theme from the Planets." -- Australian singer Deni Hines appears as a backing vocalist on the song and went on to marry guitarist Kirk Pengilly a year later in 1993.

For Eric in Indiana... --- You may know this band for the classic "Gray Cell Green." Both that song and "Happy" were found on Ned's Atomic Dustbin's 1991 debut album "God Fodder." -- "A five-piece band with two bass players and only one guitarist, who repeatedly nod towards the then-ascendant world of hip hop through bouncy syncopated beats and mostly extraneous samples, with teenaged-as-f**k lyrics about fighting with your dad, or having unrequited crushes, or struggling to find self-esteem.": www.offyourradar.com

Birth, school, work, death... This 1998 album was the second from sharp-dressed English band The Godfathers. -- They were still alive in 2020 (32 years later) when they performed this one at Rockpalast: www.youtube.com

This is a new single from Australian trio Middle Kids. According to vocalist Hannah Joy, “Highlands” pays tribute to her Scottish background. “Since I was young, I’ve had this yearning to be free,” she says. “I used an image of the ‘highlands’ as a euphoric place where I have the space to be me, and you have the space to be you. “Part of the imagery comes from my Scottish heritage, which my grandmother was always proud of. I recorded some big slow piano chords which Tim (Fitz) mangled into the atmospheric hits in the intro.” -- Watch Middle Kids performing live, recorded exclusively for KEXP in 2021 - www.youtube.com

See Kermit and a choir of 2,000 members sing "Rainbow Connection" at Lincoln Center: www.youtube.com

The track featured a Roland SH-101 keyboard, a Roland RE-501 loop echo, and, most importantly of all, a LinnDrum machine. “I guess what made “The Promise” so special was my (at the time) insane Linn Drum programming and Roland SH101 bass line coupled with the verse and chorus melodic vocals,” Clive Farrington wrote. "... five years later, when it all exploded, I realized that the nature of the song and its low and high vocals made it feel like it should be sung in a Gothic cathedral, allowing a hymn to be sent to the Gods.” -- Watch the official video: www.youtube.com

This is Sturgill Simpson's cover of When In Rome’s 1988 hit of the same name. As he said in one of his NPR interviews: "I believe it’s one of about three thousand brilliant compositions from the 80’s that got lost in production. I always thought the lyrics to “The Promise” made for a very beautiful, sweet love song and decided I’d like to lay down a somewhat “Countrypolitan” version." -- Here are the lyrics: www.azlyrics.com

Today marks Ennio Morricone's 95th birthday. He was born on this date in 1928 and died in 2020. Ennio Morricone was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. His work for 1966's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered to be one of the most influential soundtracks in history.

Sound familiar? -- British synthpop duo Erasure samples Ennio Morricone's theme to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." -- Established in London in 1985, Erasure combined the talents of emotive, broad-ranged vocalist Andy Bell and synth idol Vince Clarke, previously a founding member of Depeche Mode and Yazoo.: www.allmusic.com

This remix of "Walking in My Shoes" samples "In Chiesa" by Ennio Morricone. -- Watch Depeche Mode performing this live at the BBC: www.youtube.com

Depeche Mode will be at Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday, November 26th. "Remixes 2: 81–11" is a remix compilation album by Depeche Mode, released in 2011. It spanned the band's entire career up that point. It included classic mixes from M83, UNKLE, Trentemøller, François Kervorkian and Dan The Automator, alongside all-new mixes from Stargate, Eric Prydz, Karlsson & Winnberg (from Miike Snow) and Röyksopp.

"Mixed Up" is a 1990 remix album by British rock band The Cure. -- Frontman Robert Smith described "A Forest" as "a childhood dream (nightmare) that came true with adolescence." He also told Rockstar in 1984 that it was inspired by his experience of getting lost in the forest as a boy. "I try to capture that feeling of extreme fear I was being taken by and how - maybe in other ways - this type of unpleasant feeling can still be felt by anyone," he explained.