Hey I'm Richard Marx. I'm here at Amoeba Records and we're gonna play What's in My Bag.
As soon as I walked in, it was like I remembered being a kid in the record store.
So I kind of went down memory lane.
Donny Hathaway collection. Maybe my favorite singer of all time.
He had such a tragic life, he had such a dark life.
The pain and anguish came out in his voice. Didn't matter what he was singing.
You put on 'A Song For You' by Donny Hathaway and you don't well up or get goosebumps
then you've got no pulse.
Ok, kind of in the soul vein again, Earth Wind and Fire. This is my favorite album of all time.
If I only have one album on the desert island, it's this.
Even with 'Boogie Wonderland' on it.
I mean that's my least favorite song on the album, but it's still pretty badass.
But this has songs like 'In The Stone,' 'After the Love Has Gone'
an instrumental called 'Rock That!' which was used as a theme to all kinds of sports shows when I was a kid.
It's a perfect album and I never get sick of it.
And the only thing that would make this album better would be if 'September' was on it.
They put out a greatest hits record after this and 'September' was the single for the greatest hits record.
I don't care if you are literally ready to pull the trigger, put on 'September.'
Forget lithium, put on 'September' and you'll feel a little better.
The Tubes, 'Completion Backward Principle.'
I bought this record in 1981 I think.
I heard the song 'Talk To You Later' on the radio
and I loved it because it had really cool chord changes
and it was a little more sophisticated than some of the rock that I was listening to at the time.
When I moved to LA about a year later, they were making their follow-up album called 'Outside Inside.'
And I, through a weird series of circumstances
I got to go to the recording studio where they were working.
And the first guy I met was the lead singer. His name is Fee Waybill
and Fee Waybill is the godfather to my kids
and my lifelong best friend, and I met him in that studio that day.
We've written, I don't know, 30 songs together. But it all started with this album
and they have a really great back catalog, so you should check out The Tubes.
'So' by Peter Gabriel
I know I was so matter-of-fact when I said it about Earth Wind and Fire.
This would be 'Sophie's Choice' right here.
And the first track on here was 'Red Rain.'
That's maybe the most powerfully emotional song I can think of, for me.
The Tuesday that this album came out
I stood for about two hours in the morning
to be the first one to get in there before they sold out of it.
Because back then, you couldn't just click the shit, you had to go and buy it.
Paul Simon 'Still Crazy After All These Years.'
This is the album that made me want to be a songwriter.
So one day when I was 12 or 13
my dad asked me to come in his music room/office
where he composed the music for commercials and jingles. That was his career.
He said, I wanna play you something, and he played me this album and it changed my life.
This is the album that made me want to make up shit of my own and create my own songs.
So thank you Paul Simon for making this album.
Ok, so Carly Simon... this is an album called 'Playing Possum'
and I grabbed the vinyl because I owned this. God knows where it is now.
Carly Simon is an amazing songwriter and artist
but Carly Simon got me through puberty.
More importantly, her album covers got me through puberty.
I mean that's a really cute back cover, right, but that...
Let me just... let me paint the picture for you.
Do you know how old I was when this album came out? I was 12.
And I have since met Carly Simon and I can't quite look her in the eye.
Morgan Page. Y'know, I'm really into EDM the last couple years
and one of the artists that got me into EDM is Morgan Page.
This is also a really great album that has a killer song called 'In The Air.'
And then this, our last item.
Elvis, the '68 Special Comeback soundtrack.
Ok, this is the first album I ever bought with my own money. I was a huge fan.
I would come home from school and watch Elvis movies whenever they would be on in the afternoon
which I thought were, y'know, 'Saving Private Ryan' quality at the time.
'Schindler's List,' 'Speedway.'
But this album I got about three years after it came out, so I was like 8
and it's still an amazing album.
He does all the old Sun Records songs.
'Baby,What You Want Me To Do' and he does 'One Night' which is killer.
And then there's the big production numbers, like 'If I Can Dream,' 'Memories.'
And again, I don't know where that is either, so now I have it again.
So that's my trip down memory lane here at Amoeba Records.
Thank you so much for talking with us.
Yeah, it was fun.
