is one of the major and enduring figures on the Michigan rock scene, forming his first band well before the British Invasion helped sparked the '60s garage rock explosion and still playing tough, soulful rock & roll nearly 50 years later. Born in Ann Arbor, MI,
came from a family of music fans, and after he caught the music bug as a child his parents bought him a guitar and he learned to play, first inspired by instrumental acts like
. While attending Forsythe Junior High,
, who also played guitar, and in 1962 they decided to form a band.
, and when a local high-school student named Bob Pretzfelder agreed to play drums, the band had its first proper lineup. By the time
became the group's new guitarist.
was in place.
Influenced by the new sounds of British acts like
the Beatles and
the Kinks and the emotional power of soul and R&B,
the Rationals were one of the Midwest's first great blue-eyed soul combos, fueled by
Morgan's powerful vocals, and after hooking up with manager and producer
Jeep Holland, they became one of the most popular acts in the state, sharing stages with many of the biggest names of the day and cutting a handful of regional hits for
Holland's A-Square Records label, including a 1966 version of
Otis Redding's "Respect" that predated
Aretha Franklin's cover. Cameo-Parkway picked up "Respect" for nationwide release, and their version of the
Goffin/
King classic "I Need You" won them a short-lived deal with Capitol Records, but as
the Rationals began embracing a harder sound and emphasizing the guitar interplay between
Correll and
Morgan, they parted ways with
Holland. The band moved from teen clubs to psychedelic ballrooms, and in 1969, after
Morgan turned down an invitation from
Al Kooper to join
Blood, Sweat & Tears,
the Rationals finally recorded their belated debut album. But by the time it was released in 1970, the bandmembers were at odds with one another, and when the album proved to be a commercial disappointment,
the Rationals called it quits.
Within a few months of
the Rationals' breakup,
Morgan and
Trabandt formed a new group called Guardian Angel; the band didn't last long, and
Morgan next formed a combo called Lightning. In 1973,
Morgan cut a solo single, "Take a Look" b/w "Soul Mover," that featured
Fred "Sonic" Smith of
the MC5 on lead guitar; it marked the beginning of a collaboration with
Smith that would lead to the formation of
Sonic's Rendezvous Band in 1975. Arguably the best rock band to never cut an album,
SRB featured
Morgan and
Smith on guitars and vocals,
Gary Rasmussen of
the Up on bass, and
Scott Asheton of
the Stooges on drums. The group took the high-energy sound of
the MC5 as a starting point and made it both leaner and more muscular;
SRB earned a passionate following in the Midwest for their electrifying live shows, but without record label interest the band wasn't able to take its local success to the next level, and in 1980 the band broke up after releasing just one single, with the song "City Slang" on both sides. (Eventually the group became a legend among fans of high-energy rock, and a number of posthumous releases of live tapes and demos have appeared, most notably a six-disc box set released by Easy Action Records in 2006.)
After the breakup of
Sonic's Rendezvous Band,
Morgan formed
the Scott Morgan Band, featuring
Rasmussen and
Asheton on bass and drums; after cutting an album for a French label, the group evolved into
Scots Pirates, with
Morgan trading off vocals with
Kathy Deschaine and playing off a rotating lineup of guitarists, including
Brian Delaney,
Bobby East, and
Michael Katon. (In 1991, before
Scots Pirates got off the ground, there was a short-lived
Rationals reunion; recordings of the reassembled band appear on the
Morgan collection
Medium Rare.) After
Scots Pirates released a pair of albums for the Michigan-based Schoolkids Records label,
Morgan joined the supergroup
Dodge Main, which also featured
Wayne Kramer of
the MC5 and
Deniz Tek of
Radio Birdman; the short-lived combo released an album for Alive Records in 1996. In 1998,
Morgan met up with
Nicke Royale of the Swedish hard rock band the Hellecopters; a big fan of
Sonic's Rendezvous Band,
Royale suggested a collaboration, and he and
Morgan formed
the Hydromatics, whose 1999 album
Parts Unknown paid explicit homage to the high-energy sound of Michigan's golden age.
Morgan and
Royale have also worked together in another international combo,
the Solution, rooted in the sounds of classic soul and R&B and putting
Morgan's vocal talents to excellent use.
In 2001,
Morgan crossed paths with
Robert Gillespie, a talented guitarist who had worked with
Rob Tyner,
Mitch Ryder, and the Torpedos; after
Gillespie played on some studio recordings with
Morgan, the two clicked and formed
Powertrane with
Chris "Box" Taylor (
Mazinga,
the Avatars) on bass and Andy Frost (
Hydromatics, the High Rollers) on drums. A series of shows with guest guitarists
Deniz Tek and
Ron Asheton of
the Stooges were documented on the 2002 live album
Ann Arbor Revival Meeting, while their first studio album,
Beyond the Sound, was released in 2007. In 2009, Britain's Big Beat Records released a two-disc collection of
the Rationals' recordings for A-Square Records,
Think Rational!; to celebrate the release,
Morgan did a series of live shows with a group of Detroit musicians he dubbed "the Irrationals," playing material from
the Rationals' songbook. Several members of "the Irrationals," including Matthew Smith,
Jim Diamond,
Chris "Box" Taylor, and
Dave Shettler, joined
Morgan in the studio to record the 2010 album
Scott Morgan, his first proper solo album in a recording career spanning five decades.
–
Mark Deming, Rovi