John Richards

Speaking of birthdays...it was on this date in 1978 that "The Last Waltz,"director Martin Scorsese's acclaimed documentary of The Band's star-studded last concert, opened in theaters. -- R.I.P., Robbie Robertson, who wrote this song. He died last year at age 80.: www.nytimes.com

Like this commanding voice? This is Melbourne singer and actor Grace Cummings and "Ramona" is her third album.: pitchfork.com -- Watch her perform this song live in Melbourne in 2022: www.youtube.com

Born Aurora Aksnes in Stavanger, Norway, AURORA began writing music and lyrics at a young age, eventually releasing her debut single, "Awakening," as a 17-year-old in late 2013.: www.allmusic.com -- Her new record, "What Happened to the Heart," will be out on June 7th.: www.aurora-music.com

Happy birthday to Giorgio Moroder, Italian record producer and DJ, born on April 26th, 1940. With Donna Summer, he produced "Love to Love You Baby", "I Feel Love", and many other songs: pitchfork.com

John debuted this four-piece band out of Southern California on the show yesterday, after an enthusiastic text from Dave in Nebraska. -- Q: If you could tour with any three bands—active or not—who would they be? Rocket answered: Sonic Youth, Radiohead and Pavement. There’s so many more but those were the first that came to mind! www.getalternative.com

This song was the debut single from Smashing Pumpkins, released in 1991 from the band's first album "Gish." It is one of the few Smashing Pumpkins songs credited to both lead singer Billy Corgan and guitarist James Iha. -- When the band played this song live in the early '90s, lead singer Billy Corgan would often insert improvised speeches into the bass break section. This would often lead to the track extending to 8 to 10 minutes in length. Many fans didn't agree with Corgan's speeches due to their abrasive nature and condescending tone towards the youth of America. There were even times when Corgan's fellow band members became annoyed with his rants, with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin dismissing them as "art-breakdown."

Springsteen played this song for the first time on May 9, 1974 when he opened for Bonnie Raitt at Harvard Square. Rock critic Jon Landau was at the show and wrote in Boston's Real Paper: "I saw rock and roll's future - and its name is Bruce Springsteen." -- Watch The Boss performing "Born to Run" live in 2009: www.youtube.com

Al Kooper, who was primarily a guitarist and went on to be a very successful music producer, played the famous Hammond organ riff on this song. If you listen very closely at the beginning, you'll notice the organ is 1/8th note behind everyone else. Kooper wasn't an expert on the organ, but Dylan loved what he played and made sure it was turned up in the mix. -- "You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat Ain't it hard when you discovered that He really wasn't where it's at After he took from you everything he could steal..." Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016 for having "created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Here are the lyrics to "Like a Rolling Stone": www.bobdylan.com

Happy bday to Lawrence (Ocean Shores) ====== "A washed-out stoner classic, if you’ve never heard it before, you’ll instantly have it on repeat. One of the most luscious productions Pink Floyd ever issued; its hazy essence and dovetailing vocal melodies are some of the most sonically soothing they ever penned. Aside from the catchy acoustic guitar melodies or the warmth of Waters’ bassline, the song is also genius for another reason. Dropping in at the start deep in the mix and coming to the fore again at the end may sound like a strange, almost Gregorian chant to those of you not from the British Isles or familiar with the game of football (soccer). This chant is actually a field recording of fans in Liverpool F.C.’s iconic Kop stand at Anfield singing their iconic anthem, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’." Enjoy this review of "Fearless": faroutmagazine.co.uk

Good morning John! Just picked up my kids from school and we're all listening along in Spain. Oh! Happy Day always makes me think of Spiritualized, so if you could find room in the show for some we would love to hear it. -Justin, Avery and Oscar -- Don't you like this song? John selected it as a KEXP Song of the Day. Download it for yourself here: www.kexp.org

Ahhh....the Friday song. "Coming for one day only! We have boxes and boxes of extra tees, hoodies, posters, and much more, and we're ready to let it go." Join us on Saturday, May 4th at our Seattle Center Gathering Space to snag some favorite KEXP gear from years past. The sale starts at 10 AM and goes until 6PM.: www.kexp.org

George Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on June 25, 1963, was an English singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the pop duo Wham! alongside Andrew Ridgeley, before establishing himself as a successful solo artist. Here's one critic's list of the 10 best George Michael songs of all time: singersroom.com

Hi John, Today is my birthday. I vividly remember the last time my birthday was on a Friday - it was a beautiful day in Seattle and my last day of work before maternity leave. I turned on KEXP, and the first song I heard was “Freedom! 90.” It was a perfect day. Things look a lot different this year. My almost 5 year old son was joined by a little sister in July, and in November we moved to NYC so my husband Chris could get treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I lost Chris to his multi-year battle with cancer last month. We were together 17 years. So here we are. It’s Friday, it’s my birthday, and it’s another beautiful day in NYC. Things are going to be hard, but I have two amazing children that remind me of their father. We will all be ok. Chris loved music and he loved to dance. Can you please play some Hot Chip in his memory? Thanks, Elizabeth

Nice segue, Mr. DJ... --- "It’s what makes a song like “All My Friends” feel as if it has its finger firmly on the pulse of the times, like its whole being is a perfect representation of an era characterized by its fragmentation, and thus by endless paradoxes we live alongside daily." Read an essay on "Deconstructing "All My Friends'": www.stereogum.com -- LCD Soundsystem will play at The Paramount Theatre on Thursday-Sunday, May 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th!

Both Duran Duran and Queen have drummers named Roger Taylor. The former is celebrating his birthday today, while the latter wrote this song. The original title of this song was “Radio Ca-Ca”. This came about after Taylor’s son, Felix said, “Radio, caca!” when he tried to express that the radio was bad. Taylor liked the title, but the rest of the group objected. -- Queen stole the show at Live-Aid when Freddie Mercury, battling laryngitis, got everybody in Wembley Stadium singing the chorus of this song. Here's that extraordinary Live Aid version of this song: www.youtube.com

Good morning. My daughter Beatrix turns 3 tomorrow. Will you please play The Bug Club’s “Marriage?” It’s one of her favorite songs as it always gets our family dancing and smiling. --Merebea -- Watch this three-piece Welsh band perform this live in Reading in October: tinyurl.com -- Go here to purchase the 47-song (Some are quite short!) "Rare Birds" album: thebugclub.bandcamp.com

Good morning! Today is my son, Macklin's 8th birthday. Can you help us celebrate and please play something by Cheekface for the coolest kid I know? His favorite is We Need a Bigger Dumpster, Thanks! Tom in Scottsdale, AZ -- See Cheekface playing live in our studio last May: www.youtube.com

In the sleeve notes to the compilation album "Top of the Pops," Eddie Argos modestly says about "Good Weekend": "In an alternate universe a hit single all around the world including Disneyland, Narnia, and the former Yugoslavia." -- Enjoy this review of Art Brut's terrific debut album, "Bang Bang Rock & Roll": pitchfork.com

Here are The Dead Milkmen performing "Punk Rock Girl" (with the late Mojo Nixon) in 2015: www.youtube.com -- R.I.P., Mojo Nixon, who died earlier this year at age 66: www.nytimes.com

In an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air With Terry Gross," John Linnel said that the lyrics don't have any special meaning, as he often writes the music first and then just tries to "fit the correct number of syllables" in it. -- The video was shot at the 1964 World Fair ground at Flushing Meadows, Queens, NY, where both John Flansburgh and John Linnel attended the fair as children and remember it fondly. The world fair is also mentioned in their 1989 song "Ana Ng.": www.youtube.com

Ugly Duckling is a hip hop group from Long Beach, California that formed in 1993. Ugly Duckling's members include Dizzy Dustin (Dustin McFarland), Young Einstein (Rodney Pleasant Jr.) and Andy Cooper. The band decided to take the name Ugly Duckling because they felt like outcasts on the Southern California hip hop scene of the mid-1990s. -- You can purchase "Taste the Secret" here: uglyduckling.bandcamp.com

"Damn I hate this job To work in this dump you gotta be a snob..." -- MC 900 Ft. Jesus was named after a televangelist's vision of a 900 ft. high Jesus MC 900 Ft. Jesus is the stage name of Mark Griffin, a classically-trained musician[citation needed] turned rapper and experimental musician.: peel.fandom.com

Five Fingers Of Funk is a ten-piece live Hip Hop band from Portland OR.: fivefingersoffunk.bandcamp.com -- Enjoy the video for this paean to the hybrid: www.youtube.com

Want to laugh? Watch the video for "Eat It": www.youtube.com -- This track was both a commercial and critical success, earning Yankovic a Grammy Award. The famous guitar solo, originally performed by Eddie Van Halen, was reproduced by Yankovic's producer, Rick Derringer (Watch the smoke come off that guitar.).

See the "Rawhide" clip from "The Blues Brothers" movie ( and try not to get hit by a beer bottle): www.youtube.com

This song was recorded with "The Toot Uncommons" (actually The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and performed live on the April 22, 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live. SNL sax player Lou Marini emerged from the set’s central sarcophagus to blow a killer solo.: www.youtube.com

"It's just a jump to the left And then a step to the right Put your hands on your hips You bring your knees in tight But it's the pelvic thrust That really drives you insane Let's do the Time Warp again..." Are you dancing?: www.youtube.com

The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyrics by Tim Rice. In 2021, The New York Times featured an essay on why this musical "always rocked": www.nytimes.com

"He would tell these stories, and people would listen. If you were blind, or lame, you just went up to — well, actually, if you were lame, Jesus would go up to you, and he would put his hands on you, and you would be healed. That's so cool..." Here are the lyrics: genius.com

Another song written by King Missile's John S. Hall... --- “Detachable Penis” was described by Spin Magazine as “a musical tale of a man who loses his prized package while drunk at a party”. Here's an....oral history of this song: www.spin.com

"What Day is It?" is a Cartoon Planet song. The song is performed by Brak with Zorak providing additional vocals. It is track #15 from the album Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que that was released in 1997.

The original version of the song, was released as part of their masterwork Damaged. This was followed up some months later by a new version recorded for the TV Party EP. Together they called out the following shows: That’s Incredible! Hill Street Blues Dallas Fridays Quincy Saturday Night Live Monday Night Football The Jeffersons (LP version only) Vega$ (LP version only) Dynasty (EP version only)

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