John Richards

Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to The Morning Show with John Richards! We have Grace Cummings live at 9:30 a.m. today. PLUS, we're giving away tickets to The Rolling Stones! Welcome! -- Happy birthday to "Stand!," released on May 3rd, 1969. It's one of the greatest albums ever released and features "Sing a Simple Song", "I Want to Take You Higher", "Stand!", "Everyday People", and "You Can Make It If You Try". -- See a live performance of "Sing a Simple Song": www.youtube.com

This track samples the drums from "Sing A Simple Song" by Sly & The Family Stone which appears on their 1969 album "Stand!" -- “Mr. Wendal” is a classic story-telling track about the life lessons one can learn from interacting with a homeless person, inspired by several people Todd “Speech” Thomas knew who lived on the streets in Atlanta. Arrested Development donated half of the proceeds of “Mr. Wendal” to the National Coalition For the Homeless in the United States.

De La Soul also sampled the drums from Sly & The Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song." "Eye Know" also sampled guitar, keyboard, and vocal elements of Steely Dan's "Peg." (You may also hear a little of Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay....")

"Fight The Power" sampled 22 other songs, including the vocals from "Sing a Simple Song" from Sly & The Family Stone.: www.whosampled.com --- "Fight the Power" was written for Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do The Right Thing". Lee said, "I wanted it to be defiant and angry. I wanted it to be rhythmic and immediately thought of Public Enemy." rockthebells.com

Sampling the drums on Sly & The Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song."... -- R.I.P., Shock G (Greg Jacobs) of the Digital Underground, who died in 2021 at the age of 57.:www.nytimes.com -- As his "alter ego," Humpty Hump, he perfected The Humpty Dance: www.youtube.com

MC Solaar (like so many others) sampled the drums from Sly & The Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song." He also sampled the drums from Lee Dorsey's "Get Out of My Life, Woman." The song also samples "Bonnie and Clyde" by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot and even Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride." -- Claude Honoré M'Barali, professionally known as MC Solaar, is a French rapper of Senegalese and Chadian origin. ---

"Fight the Power" by Brownout is a cover of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power."

Did you guess it? "Thank U" by Alanis Morissette sampled Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song". -- "Thank you India Thank you terror Thank you disillusionment Thank you frailty Thank you consequence Thank you, thank you silence..." Here are the great lyrics to this song: genius.com -- Watch the official video: www.youtube.com

On this date in 2011, Fleet Foxes released their second studio album, "Helplessness Blues." -- In 2011, they sang this title song live on Austin City Limits: www.youtube.com

"U.F.O.F." came out on May 3rd, 2019! See Big Thief in a live performance in the KEXP studio that year: www.youtube.com -- Adrianne Lenker and drummer James Krivchenia explained how the initial arrangement for the song came together in a jam session over breakfast, with no discussion between the two of them; the engineer captured the performance without telling them he was recording. The two said the band built the song’s background ambience by carefully layering high bass tones, improvised dual piano takes, and loose guitar counterpoint. Lenker described the spontaneous process like a “gust of wind bl[owing] through the studio.”

"With Teeth," NIN's fourth studio album, was released on this date in 2005! -- In 2017, John interviewed Trent Reznor for KEXP listeners: www.kexp.org

Happy birthday to Paul Banks of Interpol, born on May 3rd, 1978. "Turn On the Bright Lights" was the debut studio album from Interpol. It received rave reviews; Pitchfork said " there's no getting around that 'Turn On the Bright Lights' is an incredibly powerful and affecting album.": pitchfork.com

"...their marriage of shoegaze guitar textures and techno beats proved to be a significant influence on countless noise pop, trip-hop, big beat, and dance-rock artists." Curve's two core members -- guitarist Dean Garcia (Today's his birthday--1958!) and vocalist Toni Halliday -- met through David Stewart of Eurythmics. Halliday met Stewart while she was a teenager and they remained friends for years; Garcia played on several Eurythmics records.www.allmusic.com

The steel pan band from Hamburg, Germany shares this take to the lead single to Dr. Dre’s debut solo album, "The Chronic,"

"Pretty in Black" was released on May 3rd, 2005! Happy birthday! -- Perhaps The Raveonettes will play "Love in a Trashcan" at The Crocodile on Monday, June 3rd, or at August Hall in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 5th.

On May 3rd, 1982, Modern English released "After The Snow," featuring their huge hit "I Melt With You." Oddly enough, their debut album is called "Mesh & Lace" which is mentioned in this song. -- Modern English was live in our studio last year. They played four songs, including this one. Enjoy the video from that session: www.youtube.com

On this date in 1993, New Order released "Republic." "Regret" is the lead single from the album. This essay calls it "one of their greatest guitar-based songs": www.thisisdig.com

Ahhh...the Friday song. It's tomorrow! "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

"Don't give up... You've got a reason to live... Can't forget... We only get what we give..." -- Watch the official video for "the baby Friday song," which is also the New Radicals' signature song: www.youtube.com

This breezy but rather trippy tune is built on a sample of the disco hit "More, More, More" by the Andrea True Connection. -- Len started out as the Toronto brother-and-sister duo of Marc "The Burger Pimp" and Sharon Costanzo. "Steal My Sunshine" was written by Marc Costanzo with Gregg Diamond, who wrote "More, More, More," also getting a songwriter credit.

"New York Groove" was written by an Englishman: Russ Ballard, a songwriter who until 1974 was the guitarist in Argent. It was originally released by the English band Hello in 1975. -- In 1978, each member of KISS released a solo album, and this was the highest-charting single of any of the songs released from those albums. Here's the story of the song and how it became a surprise hit for Frehley: www.loudersound.com

Hi John! It's Tim's Birthday. Could you play "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" by Bauhaus for Tim in the gathering space? -Willow -- This is the second-to-last song on Bauhaus' 1982 album, The Sky’s Gone Out, which is the last album they released before their 1983 split. -- The music video for this song features scenes of the David Bowie-led movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth.": www.youtube.com

On May 3rd, 1988, the band When In Rome released their self-titled album that featured the # 1 US dance hit, "The Promise." -- This is Sturgill Simpson's wonderful cover.

Here's the original, written by all three band members: Clive Farrington, Andrew Mann and Michael Floreale. -- Farrington's father converted a garden shed into a studio for the band, which is where their hit song was born. "I'd had this tune in my head for a long while and hummed a basic melody to Mike," Farrington recalled. "This was the intro piano part for 'The Promise.' Mike played it over and over and I then sang the first verse melody over the top of a basic C chord. I then flowed into the chorus part and wrote the lyrics down. I kept these first lyrics, even though I thought them a little odd, especially the words, 'I'll make you fall for me,' because it is, of course, strange to say that you are going to make someone fall for you."

"It was unlike anything that had ever happened before. The song flowed out in a stream of consciousness as he moved between his piano and guitar and back again. That was unusual — he usually stayed at the keys... “I felt something go through me,” Gerard McMahon said. “It just was a moment of that melody coming out of my head and through my mouth, all my being.” Read the gothic story behind this song: www.altpress.com

It was May 3rd, 1988. Living Colour released "Vivid," which featured "Cult of Personality." -- Living Colour, and this song, owe much of their success to MTV, which was at the peak of its powers at the time. In the book "I Want My MTV," it was claimed that Epic Records, who had both Living Colour and Michael Jackson on their roster, refused to release Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video to the network until they agreed to put the "Cult of Personality" clip in heavy rotation. -- See the official video for this terrific song: www.youtube.com

It's Michael Kiwanuka's birthday.! He was born on May 3rd, 1987. -- He'll be in Seattle at The Paramount Theatre (with Brittany Howard) on Tuesday, October 15th. They'll be at The Greek Theater in Berkeley on October 17th.

"Middle Class Revolt," The Fall's sixteenth album, was released on this date in 1994. -- "Hey! Student" was a rewrite of a very early Fall song called "Hey! Fascist," performed live in 1977-78. Want to hear that original?: www.youtube.com

Happy Friday from Madison WI! It's a beautiful warm powder blue sky day here! Can we hear "Laid" by James? That song always reminds me of cruising around in my fully carpeted 85 dodge van with my friends 🥰 --Keith -- This is the title song from Manchester-band James's fifth studio album, released in 1993. Originally viewed by the band as a throwaway song and a possible B-side, Brian Eno soon convinced them of the potential of this track. -- See the video: www.youtube.com

Hi John! How do we feel about getting to the live version of Everything Counts today? I feel good about it… the question is how do you feel about it? Thank you, as always, for everything you do to create and sustain this beautiful little community. It means so much! Michelle in Philly -- Watch a live version from Barcelona last year: www.youtube.com

Here's Queen performing at Live Aid in front of 72,000 people in Wembley Stadium, London on the 13th day of July, 1985.: www.youtube.com --

George Michael referred to it as "the proudest moment of (his) career," but said it was "mixed with real sadness,” due to the fact he had still not gone public with his own homosexuality. Tragically, his then-secret-boyfriend would also go on to die of an AIDS-related illness a year later. -- (Bet you can't watch this without crying.) Watch George Michael and Queen perform this great song at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness: www.youtube.com

The Rolling Stones will be at Lumen Field on Wednesday, May 15th. -- There are no musician credits on Tattoo You, but it's clear that Mick Taylor contributed on guitar, which he was not compensated for. Taylor left The Stones in 1974. That's jazz musician Sonny Rollins on the great saxophone solo. This also features Nicky Hopkins on piano.

"Time rolls by Again Today By and by The old, it waves And I don’t know why I come back each time, just a little more grey..." Here are the lyrics: genius.com See the official video for "A Precious Thing": www.youtube.com

Girl and Girl will play Live on KEXP Thursday, May 23rd at 12 PM! They'll be in San Francisco at the Rickshaw Stop on Monday, May 18th, then in Seattle at the Neptune Theater on Wednesday, May 22nd! Their debut full-length album, Call A Doctor, is set to release May 24th. girlandgirl.bandcamp.com