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Thursday, Apr 18 2019, 6AM
Good morning Seattle, and welcome to Six Degrees of Prince! We'll be devoting the next twelve hours of programming to Prince's many musical contributions and his wide circle of influence. The connections to Prince between the tracks played today are not pre-planned, and DJs will be thinking on their feet to come up with the next song. We'll also have artists all day in the Gathering Space sketching out each song played in real time! You can stream it live here: www.kexp.org
Prince was a major inspiration for local legend Shawn Smith, who in addition to his solo work, was also a part of Brad, Satchel, and Pigeonhed. Smith passed away on April 5, 2019 | www.kexp.org
Shawn Smith was one of the vocalists asked to perform at a show in 2018 at the Neptune Theatre that saw all four surviving members of Mother Love Bone (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Bruce Fairweather, and Greg Gilmore) reunite for the benefit show SMASH. Mother Love Bone frontman, Andy Wood, died of an overdose in Seattle on March 19, 1990.
Mother Love Bone members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament would join Mad Season member Mike McCready to form Pearl Jam in 1990. This live version of the Mad Season song "River of Deceit" features guest vocalist Chris Cornell, who took over vocals for original frontman Layne Staley in 2015 with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra | www.rollingstone.com
Chris Cornell, the guest vocalist featured in our previous song "River of Deceit", covered this Prince song live in 2015 for SiriusXM : www.youtube.com
And here we are linking to our previous cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" with the Prince-penned song that Sinead O'Connor made a worldwide hit in 1990.
Sinéad O'Connor is a background vocalist on this track from British band World Party
Alright, and here we have the link of The Waterboys keyboardist, Karl Wallinger, who would leave the group in 1985 to form World Party, our previous band featured
Okay, pretty obvious Six Degrees of Prince connection. It's The Waterboys covering the Prince song "Purple Rain!"
And here we have Scottish band Frightened Rabbit covering our previous artist, The Waterboys! It's Six Degrees of Prince day here at KEXP, and we'll be weaving our way in and out of Prince's influence (on the fly) all day | www.kexp.org
Our previous artist, Frightened Rabbit, received vocal help on this track from singer/songwriter Julien Baker
Julien Baker, the guest star on our previous song, is one of the three members of Boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus being the other two)
Better Oblivion Community Center is the duo of Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers, who is also a member of our previous band, Boygenius
And now we have Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst (also a member of our previous band Better Oblivion Community Center!) doing a cover of Daniel Johnston's "Devil Town"
Okay, the last song was a cover of Daniel Johnston, so now here's Daniel Johnston! (You're tuned into Six Degrees of Prince day all day today, we'll make our way back to the Purple One soon)
Alright, so how did we get to this one? Well, our previous song from Daniel Johnston, "Casper" was featured on the Kids soundtrack, which also contains this Folk Implosion song
And here is Austin band Shearwater covering the song "Natural One" from our previous artist, Folk Implosion!
A cover of the song written by Tom Petty and sung by Stevie Nicks on her 1981 debut solo album, Bella Donna. Sharon Van Etten is joined by our previous band, Shearwater, on this track! FUN BONUS FACT: Sharon Van Etten was also the first artist we featured on a Six Degrees Day, all the way back in 2013
And now we have Tom Petty, the songwriter of our previous track "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (We're going to wind our way back into Prince somehow, stay tuned!)
The Traveling Wilburys were a supergroup formed in 1988 that featured George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and our previous artist, Tom Petty!
And now here's Prince helping out Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty (both members of our previous band, the Traveling Wilburys) and Dhani Harrison at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 to honor inductee George Harrison. Who was also a member of the Traveling Wilburys! Phew.
The guest star in our previous song, and the man we are devoting our entire day of programming to. It's Six Degrees of Prince Day! Let's go crazy!
This Public Enemy song from their 1990 album, Fear of a Black Planet, features a sample from our previous song "Let's Go Crazy". We're winding our way out of, and then back to Prince!
Our previous track, "Brothers Gonna Work It Out", samples this 1982 song from George Clinton
And "Atomic Dog" featured in this Snoop Dogg track! You're tuned into Six Degrees of Prince all day here at KEXP, watch these songs being sketched out live from our Gathering Space here: www.kexp.org
This 1988 album from the L.A. rap group made up of Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre, who produced our previous song "Who Am I (What's My Name?)"
And now for a song from Ice Cube, who was a member of our previous band, N.W.A!
This version of "I'm Afraid of Americans" features our previous artist, Ice Cube! You're listening to Six Degrees of Prince Day, we're weaving in and out of his inspiration and songs all day
Okay, so the last song we played was co-written by Brian Eno, so now here's Brian Eno! We're on a track to Game of Thrones and Prince somehow, which was a great idea? A crazy idea? An idea?
A song off the 1981 collaborative album from Daivd Byrne and our previous artist, Brian Eno
Alright, and here's our previous artist, David Byrne, collaborating with St. Vincent for the 2012 album Love This Giant
Off the Score! Twenty Years of Merge Records: The Covers album from 2009 that features this Crooked Fingers cover from The National and our previous singer, St. Vincent!
OMG we've made it to Game of Thrones. The lyrics were written by George R. R. Martin in the original novel, and turned into a song for the season two television soundtrack by our previous artist, The National!
Ramin Djawadi is the composer for the Game of Thrones TV theme, and we wound up on the season two soundtrack with our last song. GIRD YOUR LOINS folks, we're getting back to Prince! At some point.
The composer of our previous song, Ramin Djawadi, also did the theme song for the TV series "Westworld." This Radiohead song from OK Computer is featured on the piano in the show that plays modern songs, so there's your connection!
And here's another Radiohead cover, this one recorded live in September 2004 in Minneapolis by Gillian Welch
Our previous artist, Gillian Welch, appears on this song from the "O Brother, Where Art Thou" soundtrack! For the record, you're listening to Six Degrees of Prince, so we're going to end back up to Prince somehow... stay tuned... we're still figuring this out...
This Flying Burrito Brothers cover was done by Beck and our previous singer, Emmylou Harris
And now here's The Flaming Lips covering Beck! It's Six Degrees of Prince Day, and we reeeeeally want to get to "Batdance" before The Morning Show ends...
It's the "Batman" TV show theme, done by The Flaming Lips! You see where we're going now...
We have weaved our way back to Prince. Did you know we've got artists sketching out the songs we're playing all day in the Gathering Space?! Watch it here: www.kexp.org
Here's more soundtrack work from Prince, who we are devoting our programming to all day today: www.kexp.org
And now we've pushed it real good to "You Really Got Me." Yup, this was sampled by Salt-N-Pepa in our previous song.
A song written and performed by The Kinks frontman, Ray Davies! Covered here by David Bowie for his 1973 Pin Ups album
Off the soundtrack for the 1986 fantasy film starring Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud, and our previous artist, David Bowie, as a Goblin King!
Our previous song came from the Jim Henson directed film "The Labyrinth", so naturally, we've gone the Muppets route now...
And we've finally made it back to Prince! And more Muppets! This appearance on the "Muppets Tonight" TV show happened in 1997
This has been Six Degrees of Prince Day here on The Morning Show! Cheryl and Kevin are going to keep this going, and make sure to tune into our live stream of artists sketching out songs in the Gathering Space here! www.kexp.org
Kicking off the Midday Show today on Six Degrees of Prince Day is Janelle Monáe featuring Prince. Check out the development of the fabulous accompanying artwork live in the Gathering Space: www.kexp.org
Moving from Janelle with Prince to Janelle joined by Pharrell Williams on this track.
Beck just released this track three days ago, co-written and co-produced by Beck and Pharrell Williams, who plays drums and keyboards and provides some additional backing vocals. bit.ly
Prince wrote "Raspberry Beret" in 1985, and it was the lead single from the album Around the World in a Day. The song tells of a teenage romance and first sexual experience with a girl who wears the titular hat.
This Prince song was from the 1987 album Sign o' the Times. Musically, the song features Prince's pitched-up, androgynous vocals over a sparse bass and drum machine pattern, punctuated by a keyboard line.
Lyrics on this one sung by Beyoncé were sampled from Prince's "If I Was Your Girlfriend", the previous song.
Moving into Beyoncé's "Freedom" featuring Kendrick Lamar.
Anderson .Paak recruited Kendrick Lamar for this song. www.youtube.com
This track is a tribute to the late Mac Miller. The jazzy song also features a Phife Dawg tribute from Q-Tip.
The last song featured Q-Tip, connecting to this fantastic track by A Tribe Called Quest. This song was recorded in 1989 when Q-Tip and Phife Dawg were only 19 years old.
The obvious connection from the last song to this one.... Tribe's Q-Tip and Phife Dawg sample Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" on that one, "Can I Kick It?".
Connecting the last track to this one, Lou Reed and George Clinton were both members of the Artists United Against Apartheid protest group.
Chaka Khan collaborated with George Clinton on this track, which features Stevie Wonder on harmonica. This is also a cover of the 1979 original song by Prince.
Which leads to the great Stevie Wonder with "Superstition".
"So What the Fuss" is a song from Stevie Wonder's 2005 album A Time to Love, featuring Prince and the original four members of En Vogue.
And wrapping back to the Purple One. Prince sang on the last track with Stevie Wonder. You are listening to Six Degrees of Prince here on KEXP. You can watch the artists live specking out the connections and all the songs we are playing here: www.kexp.org
And a cover of Prince's "I Would Die 4 U" by CHVRCHΞS, titled as 'I Would Die 4 V', as a reference to the V in their band name.
Death Cab for Cutie's “Northern Lights” has a vocal cameo from CHVRCHΞS’ Lauren Mayberry.
The Postal Service's singer Ben Gibbard, also in the last band Death Cab for Cutie.
Connecting The Postal Service to Knife Knights is their Seattle based label, Sub Pop Records. This song features Marquetta Miller and Stas Thee Boss (from KEXP's Street Sounds). And also OCnotes worked heavily writing many of the Knife Knights songs on this album.
And pulling in KEXP's own OCnotes, also on Sub Pop Records and a member of Knife Knights.
Seattle's Erik Blood mixed for the last artist, OCnotes. He is known for his work with, among other artists, the Seattle-based hip hop groups Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction.
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From the last song, Erik Blood worked with Shabazz Palaces' Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler and Tendai "Baba" Maraire on this track.
In the last song by Shabazz Palaces, you can hear samples from this track sung by "Bootsy" Collins.
Back to Prince! The last song by D'Angelo sampled Prince's "I Wonder U". You can watch artist's drawing out the connections on this special day of programming for Six Degrees of Prince. www.kexp.org
This is Prince's 36th album Plectrumelectrum, his first with 3rdEyeGirl, featuring spirited raps by Minneapolis’s own Lizzo and Sophia Eris as well as Claire de Lune.
The last track featured Lizzo rapping with Prince. Which leads us to this track "Juice" by Lizzo, which will make you all want to dance. Go ahead. You know you want to dance!
Okay, this is a funny connection to Lizzo. Lizzo did a video parody of The Anchorman's Jazz Flute Scene. In the video, you can see Este Haim. www.youtube.com
HAIM and Childish Gambino have both been produced by Ludwig Göransson.
The last song was by Thundercat. Thundercat plays and produces this album by Kali Uchis.
Gorillaz produced the Kali Uchis Isolation album. This song features De La Soul.
This track by Mint Royale also features De La Soul. You can read on Wikipedia that this song is "played every Friday by John Richards of KEXP and the song has become known as 'The Friday Song'." en.wikipedia.org
And the last two songs lead to this song by De La Soul.
In the last song by De La Soul "Lovely How I Let My Mind Float", they sample this track by Prince.
Thank you for joining us on Six Degrees of Prince, a 12-hour broadcast celebration connecting songs together and winding back to Prince. You can read more articles on our website and watch artists draw these musical connections on the fly, here: www.kexp.org
Low Cut Connie covering Prince's song "Controversy". www.youtube.com
Saundra Williams of Saun & Starr sang on that last track by Low Cut Connie.
Saun & Starr (Saundra Williams and Starr Duncan Lowe) were back up singers in Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.
The Dap-Kings were back up singers for Amy Winehouse.
Connecting to the last track, Mark Ronson produced Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album. This track features Kevin Parker on vocals.
Tame Impala singer Kevin Parker was featured on that last track by Mark Ronson.
Kevin Parker of Tame Impala provided additional drumming on "Going Home" off The Avalanches Wildflower.
Biz Markie is singing on this Beastie Boys cover of Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets". Biz Markie also sang on The Avalanches album Wildflower.
That last song was an Elton John cover. Which connects us to Elton John doing a cover of the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
And from Elton John's cover of The Beatles into The Beatles. "All You Need is Love"....