Revolutionary Action<\/strong> (Easy Action)<\/em><\/p>\n I first heard of Scott Morgan and his band the Rationals back in the late 70s. It was around this time too that he had become part of, what I\u00a0consider at least, the greatest rock quartet ever to emerge out of the Detroit\/Ann Arbor scene – the mighty Sonics Rendezvous Band.<\/p>\n As it happens a good buddy of mine happened to run into Scott at a party in Los Angeles in the late 80s and made sure to grab his contact info. A year or so later I ended up moving to southern\u00a0Ontario, Canada and lived a mere fifteen minute drive to Detroit and a further forty-five minutes to Ann Arbor. Once we had settled it wasn\u2019t but a minute before I was scouring the local rags\u00a0for news of Scott\u2019s gigs and then used my connection to contact him and get directions and info to the first show I could attend. I must admit to being pretty dang nervous phoning up one of\u00a0my long-time musical heroes at home and asking for directions! They couldn\u2019t have been more helpful.<\/p>\n The first Scott Morgan Band album Rock Action (included here) had been out for a year or so before I made my move but that was largely the material his band at the time \u2013 which included\u00a0Gary Rasmussen and Scott Asheton from Sonics Rendezvous band as well as guitarist Brian Delaney and vocalist Kathy Deschaine \u2013 were performing. The volume and guitar driven vibe of\u00a0Sonics Rendezvous was for the most part absent in favour of a stronger focus on the songs themselves. Long-time Morgan favorites like Johnnie Taylor\u2019s \u201cHijackin\u2019 Love\u201d, his own incredible\u00a0\u201cJosie\u2019s Well\u201d, \u201c16 with a Bullet,\u201d \u201cPirate Music\u201d and Rendezvous Band era \u201cHeaven and Earth\u201d sound as fresh now as they did back when they were recorded and performed by what was\u00a0then known as the Scott Morgan Band. Kathy Deschaine\u2019s back-up vocals (and occasional lead) complimented Scott\u2019s gravelly tone nicely and the music itself should easily have found its\u00a0way into regular rotation on radio in the US. Sadly it didn\u2019t. It certainly didn\u2019t stop me and countless other local fans to pack his shows and rave to our friends and families about Scott and the\u00a0band\u2019s talents however.<\/p>\n It was around this time too (1991) that the original Rationals line-up reunited and then collapsed and re-configured into a bigger, badder, bolder and hornier monster. I\u00a0went to every one of those gigs I could and they were incredible. By the time the re-vamped line-up of the Rationals had called it quits Scott\u2019s band (now renamed Scot\u2019s Pirates) had a new\u00a0album ready to roll on the tiny Schoolkids label out of Ann Arbor. When not doing Rationals gigs the Pirates line-up had been doing shows with the new material regularly showcased. Great\u00a0tracks like \u201cDante,\u201d \u201cRunning Away\u201d and \u201cFirst Step\u201d were sure-fire showstoppers. Add to that covers of the Dynamics\u2019 \u201cMisery\u201d (Who fans will know the \u201cZoot Suit\u201d rip) and \u201cI\u2019m the Man\u201d and\u00a0you\u2019re doin\u2019 alright. Just before I moved back west I attended a gig Scott was playing in Greektown. He laid a promo cassette of the Scots Pirates album on me and I played the beejeezus out\u00a0of it until the CD finally arrived in \u201993.<\/p>\n In 1995 Scott and the Pirates released the mighty Revolutionary Means, again on the tiny Schoolkids imprint out of Ann Arbor. Guitarists Mike Katon and Bobby East lend their rockin\u2019 hands\u00a0here and the album is definitely a heavier, darker affair than the previous two. Cover versions of Jimmy Johnson\u2019s \u201cI Need Some Easy Money\u201d and Ike and Tina\u2019s \u201cYou Got What You Wanted\u201d\u00a0easily out-do the original versions in my opinion and Morgan\u2019s own \u201c88\u201d (a tribute to a local Ann Arbor station) is another one that Scott\u2019s fans rate highly in a back catalogue of tunes and\u00a0recordings most artists would love to call their own.<\/p>\n This double-disc set from Easy Action includes the three albums recorded as Scott Morgan and Scots Pirates in the 1980\u2019s and 1990\u2019s and while the tracks don\u2019t follow the order of the original\u00a0releases, the new revised sequencing works remarkably well and any production differences smoothed out by the A couple of tracks I must mention that I think remain criminally overlooked in Morgan\u2019s back catalogue are the funky \u201cDear Dream Diary\u201d where Scott and the band definitely bring the funk\u00a0and vocalist Kathy Deschaine gets to strut her stuff and from the Rock Action album the smokin\u2019 duet \u201cSay Yeah\u201d. Had \u201cSay Yeah\u201d been recorded in the 60s and not in the 80s I am convinced\u00a0that we\u2019d be declaring it one of the greats of the era. As it stands now I am declaring it one of the greats of the 80s and waiting for the day that someone like Sharon Jones finds a duet partner\u00a0\u2013 Scott maybe? – and gives it the exposure it deserves. Kinda like the rest of the tracks on this collection. (Double CD, 38 tracks.) BUY HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scott Morgan Revolutionary Action (Easy Action) I first heard of Scott Morgan and his band the Rationals back in the late 70s. It was around this time too that he had become part of, what I\u00a0consider at least, the greatest rock quartet ever to emerge out of the Detroit\/Ann Arbor scene – the mighty Sonics …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,71,74,86],"tags":[628,596,1058,1057],"series":[],"class_list":["post-6648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-plugs","category-music","category-reviews","category-rock","tag-colin-bryce","tag-colin-mohair-sweets-bryce","tag-detroit","tag-scott-morgan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6648"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6661,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions\/6661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6648"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=6648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nmastering process.<\/p>\n