John Richards

Good morning, happy Friday, and you're listening to The Morning Show with esteemed DJ John William Richards and fabulous producer Owen Roger Murphy! First Friday Show in 2024! Welcome!! -- Listen to David Byrne’s arresting isolated vocals from ‘Road to Nowhere’ supported by a wonderful gospel choir in the intro. “I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom,” Byrne wrote in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. “At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on ’cause I didn’t think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it.”: www.youtube.com

Declan Patrick MacManus OBE, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is on tour this year. Maybe you would like to go to New Orleans to see him.: pitchfork.com -- "Armed Forces" was released 45 years ago today! Armed Forces has appeared on several best-of lists. In 1993, the album placed at number 61 on The Times' 100 Best Albums of All Time list.

"Instant Karma" was written and recorded on 27th January, 1970 and released just ten days later on February 6th. -- John Lennon: ‘I wrote it in the morning on the piano, like I said many times, and I went to the office and I sang it. I thought, “Hell, let’s do it”, and we booked the studio. And Phil [Spector] came in, he said, “How do you want it?” I said, “You know, 1950 but now.” And he said “Right,” and boom, I did it in just about three goes. He played it back, and there it was. I said, “A bit more bass, that’s all.” And off we went. See, Phil doesn’t fuss about with fuckin’ stereo or all the bullshit. Just “Did it sound alright? Let’s have it.” It doesn’t matter whether something’s prominent or not prominent. If it sounds good to you as a layman or as a human, take it. Don’t bother whether this is like that or the quality of this. That suits me fine.’

Liam Gallagher and the Stone Roses guitarist John Squire have unveiled a joint single, “Just Another Rainbow.” The song marks the Manchester musicians’ first collaboration, with more new music to come in 2024. -- “I think John’s a top songwriter,” Gallagher said in a statement. “Everyone always bangs on about him as a guitarist, but he’s a top songwriter too, man, no two ways about it as far as I’m concerned. There’s not enough of his music out there, whether it’s with the Roses or himself. It’s good to see him back writing songs and f**king good ones. The melodies are mega and then the guitars are a given. But I think even when you take all the f**king guitars off, you can play the songs all on acoustic and they’ll all still blow your mind.”

Speaking of John Squire...he co-wrote (with Ian Brown) this song and, of course, plays guitar on it. -- In 1985 The Stone Roses were locked in a room by their record producer Martin Hannett and told they weren't allowed out until they wrote a song, and this is the one! Watch The Stone Roses perform it live at Coachella in 2013: www.youtube.com

Australian alt-rock trio Middle Kids' new album, "Faith Crisis Pt. 1," will be out on February 16th. -- “I grew up with a solid framework for what life is, but I got to a point when I started to question some of the fundamental truths of what I believed. It was very painful and disorienting. I began to have this feeling that I couldn’t hold together all the things I valued, family, creativity, work, safety, community, spirituality,” says lead singer Hannah Joy about "Bend." -- Watch her in the video for this powerful song: www.youtube.com

Again... "I am one bend away from a break I am one step away from the precipice of crazy I am holding all the pieces in place But maybe you've got to break me to see what I'm made of...": www.azlyrics.com

Florence + the Machine performed this wonderful song live in our studio in 2010: www.youtube.com -- Someone wrote, "Is Florence aware that her voice brings people to tears because of its beauty and power?..."

"The most glaring sound of the track is the bass guitar chords, which are absolutely drenched in the heavy feedback and high reverberation effects." Here's a tribute to this song from Yeah Yeah Yeahs' debut album: onetrackatatime.home.blog -- Watch Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform this song live at The Fillmore in San Francisco ten years ago: www.youtube.com

Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd wrote this song from The Joy Formidable's debut EP and, following that, their debut album. Watch her shred when the band performed "Whirring" in KEXP's Bumbershoot Music Lounge in 2013.: www.kexp.org

Joan Jett will bring her bad reputation to White River Amphitheatre on Saturday, August 3rd, 2024.: www.joanjett.com -- Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2022, Jett talked about her bad reputation. "I always wore it as a badge of honor," she said. "Because what people were saying to me was I had a bad reputation because I played an electric guitar and I had black hair and a leather jacket, and maybe I swore... So I turned around the meaning of it, and I'm proud of my bad reputation."

While only a minor hit on the charts, this mod/punk number is well remembered for serving as England's first introduction to singer/guitarist and Jam songwriter Paul Weller. Weller was only 18 when he penned this celebration of youth in the big city. -- The song's descending opening bassline re-appeared a few months later on the Sex Pistols' single "Holidays in The Sun." Weller subsequently had a scrap with Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in the Speakeasy Club over the pilfering of the riff. -- Watch the Jam perform "In the City" live: www.youtube.com

When “I Want You To Want Me” was originally released as the lead single of the band’s second studio album in 1977, it did not chart internationally except for a modest #97 showing in Canada. But a tour opening for Queen in Japan that year changed all that. It became Cheap Trick's signature song after it was released as a live version from the Cheap Trick at Budokan album in 1978.: www.youtube.com

James Murphy was asked by Mojo magazine January 2008 why he felt this song struck a chord with people. He replied: "I don't know. It's sad-ish and people are old. I was purposefully trying to chase a feeling I got from Joy Division's 'Transmission,' which starts off so gentle, and becomes so f--king overwhelming. By the time he's going, 'Dance, dance, dance to the radio!' your head's exploding. And that Arthur Russell song, Dinosaur L's "Go Bang" (where) I don't know who did the vocal but it's just like, 'I just wanna see all my friends at once, I'd do anything to get the chance to go back.' It's the simplest thing I could imagine and it's f--king beautiful. It's always been a really important theme for me and it's nice to write a song that comes from it."

In 2018, NPR ranked this as the #49 greatest song by a female or nonbinary artist in the 21st century, saying: ‘Dancing on My Own’ has the contradictions of a great Robyn song: A steely cyborg backbone protects a bleeding open heart. ‘I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her,’ the Swede-pop queen sings — and then there’s that gut-wrenching, ‘Ohhhh!’ But it’s the stubborn persistence of that millennial-Moroder synth line that makes the Body Talk single such a stirring anthem of self-reliance... ‘Dancing on My Own’ might start off sounding like an ode to heartbreak, but by the end it’s become a deeply felt love song to the self." -- Want to see the official video?: www.youtube.com

Speaking of dancing.... Written on the spot in the studio, this song was inspired by a drunk woman who had sex with her boyfriend in the back parking lot of Walter Mitty's in full view of the band, then danced for hours in the front row of the club with her jeans Put on backward.: www.vhnd.com

Speaking of dancing... IDLES will be at The Paramount Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 7th and 8th, 2024. -- "There’s something deeply primal about dancing, and particularly when doing it with a group of people. There can be a willful exchange of autonomy, and the potential for bacchanalian escalations. It can be fun, of course, but it can also be a messy, passionate, violent, incomprehensible moment. This is what IDLES zero in on in 'Dancer' — Talbot offers dense, evocative imagery, announcing that his 'focus is on the cocoa butter running down your neck' and savoring the mood of the hour, which tastes like 'particles of punch drunk love.'" : consequence.net

Sleater-Kinney will be at The Showbox (with Palehound) on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 2nd and 3rd, 2024. -- Their tenth studio album (and second since the departure of drummer Janet Weiss), "Little Rope," will be out on January 19th.

Yard Act will play The Crocodile on Saturday, June 8th, 2024. -- Their eagerly-anticipated sophomore album, "Where's My Utopia?," due out on March 1st, is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr. -- Watch the video for "Dream Job" here: www.youtube.com

See the late Andy Gill's staccato guitar playing as you watch this live video from 1980: www.youtube.com

Gary Oldman is great as Jackson Lamb in "Slow Horses" on Apple TV. Following a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents -- and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb -- as they navigate the espionage world's smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.: tv.apple.com

"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..." Here's a 2021 interview with founders Tony James and Neal X: www.classicpopmag.com

Ahhh....the Friday song. Join KEXP for the 24th Annual Expansions MLK Unity Party and Live Broadcast on Sunday, January 14th! The party will kick off with DJ Supreme La Rock for a Live Broadcast of Sunday Soul, and will continue through Expansions and Beyond with DJs Riz, Brit Hansen, Kid Hops, Alex and Sharlese. It’s an evening of music, dancing and celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and we hope to see you there! Get tickets here: www.kexp.org

I’m Krzysztof (Chris) in Poland. I kindly ask you to play the song "Heroes" by Depeche Mode. Happy New Year! -- Watch the band's cover of "Heroes" in Berlin. This was their last concert with the late keyboardist Andy Fletcher.: www.youtube.com

The song is a solid fan favorite. It is one of their most frequently performed songs in concert. And it is a song about heroin addiction. The early 1980s recession had led to a high number of heroin addicts in inner city Dublin. This is why Bono would frequently introduce the song as a song about Dublin when they played it live. His account from a 1987 concert in Chicago indicates that "Bad" is about a friend of his who died of a heroin overdose and also about the conditions that make such events likely to be repeated. At another show in the UK, Bono ripped into a tirade about people lying in gutters with “needles hangin’ outta their f**kin’ arms while the rich live indifferently to the suffering of the less fortunate.” Here's the story behind this song that began life as an improvised guitar riff during a jam session.: norselandsrock.com

Belfast-born Holmes boasts a formidable CV, with five solo albums and twenty-five soundtracks to his name. His screen work ranges from Steven Soderbergh’s classic Ocean’s Eleven trilogy and Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed Hunger, to stylish TV dramas. -- This is his first LP since 2008. He calls the album "a 14-track interrogation of the last decade, time spent watching a decaying, fraying Britain visibly buckling in real time." -- The track features magnetic vocals by Raven Violet, a regular collaborator with Holmes.

"Just remember to fall in love There's nothing else There's nothing else..." The video for "Swoon" was described as "a reverse IPod commercial": www.youtube.com

In an interview, U2 lead guitarist the Edge is quoted saying "You Get What You Give" is the song he is "most jealous of. I really would love to have written that." -- "But when the night is falling You cannot find the light You feel your dreams are dying Hold tight You've got the music in you Don't let go...."

The first "Friday I'm in Love" song on the First Friday of the New Year.... -- Friday I'm In Love is a dumb pop song, but it's quite excellent actually, just because it's so absurd. It's so out of character - very optimistic and really out there in happy land. People think we're supposed to be leaders of some sort of 'gloom movement'. I could sit and write gloomy songs all day long, but I just don't see the point. - Robert Smith to Spin, June 1992: www.radiox.co.uk --

Oh, it's Friday... -- Watch Siddhartha Khosla and the band perform in a classroom in the video for "Friday": www.youtube.com

"Checked out, I'm waiting for the weekend..." Oh, it's Friday... -- Q: What are four words you would use to describe your music? A: Loud. Fun. Louder. Pissed. Here's a 2023 interview with the band: uproxx.com

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet are a Juno Award-winning Canadian instrumental rock band, formed in 1984. They remain best known for the track "Having an Average Weekend", which was used as the theme to the Canadian sketch comedy TV show The Kids in the Hall. Although commonly classified as a surf rock band they rejected the label, going so far as to release a track called "We're Not a F**king Surf Band", although they also later released a compilation box set titled "Oh, I Guess We Were a F**king Surf Band After All."

This instrumental was part of Mission of Burmas's initial EP, released in 1981. The song was co-written by Roger Miller and Clint Conley.

Want to know the chords for this gorgeous song from Galaxie 500?: chordify.net -- Want to know more about this Boston band comprised of vocalist/guitarist Dean Wareham (a transplanted New Zealand native), and bassist Naomi Yang and drummer Damon Krukowski?: www.allmusic.com

The monstrous sound heard on the opening of ‘Cecilia Ann’ is actually guitarist Joey Santiago being rather heavy-handed with his (luckily fairly cheap) Peavey Bandit guitar amp, a trick which he occasionally likes to recreate live. Read how Pixies created a "monstrous crash": faroutmagazine.co.uk

This was the first song that IDLES played in our studio when John hosted them in 2018: www.youtube.com