Michigan Music History Podcast -- MMHP989 · Scott Baker, Gary Johnson, Fred Reif, Mike Beattie

MMHP Season 5 Ep:25--Scott Morgan--The Rational Sonic Architect of Michigan Rock Part 2 of 2

·1 hr 4 min·4 clips

Scott Morgan says the Rationals did 'Shop at Danby's' and got no money, not even clothes.

Scott Baker and the MMHP crew open part two with Scott Morgan. They keep the focus on Michigan rock history and on the room where Morgan is talking, with photos and collections all around him. The talk starts with his long run in the Rationals. Then it moves through Sonic's Rendezvous and into his solo years, with the story staying close to the records and the people behind them. Publishing comes up next. Morgan talks about how he gets his music out now, along with the practical side of getting older material moving. The Rob Tyner Blood Brothers record gets its turn. So do Hold On Baby with Seeger, Skunk with Seeger and the MC5, and the work he did with Dick Wagner. The pacing stays easy. The conversation keeps slipping from one memory to another, which lets old names and old places surface naturally. Gary Rasmussen enters the story. So does the overlap between the Up, the MC5 circle, Ann Arbor, and the Hill Street houses they shared after the riots. The Free John Sinclair Rally comes up too. The crew remember Chrysler Arena, the Delta Pop Festival, and how the Up looked from the stage and from the crowd. Bay City stays in the picture. Morgan and the hosts talk about Gary Rasmussen playing there with the Broken Arrow Blues Band, along with stops at Scotty's and BMO's. The room keeps its friendly back and forth feel. That makes even the side talk easy to follow, whether it is about who was around, who managed whom, or which band was where. Near the end, the subject shifts again. The conversation lands on desalination, the Great Lakes, and the 2025 thing, then closes in the same loose, conversational way it has carried all along.

As heard by us

A lived-in Michigan rock story that keeps circling back to the people and places that shaped it.

The episode stays with Scott Morgan as a Michigan rock lifer, moving through the Rationals, Sonic's Rendezvous, solo work, publishing, and the practical grind of getting songs into the world.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for Scott Morgan's deeper pass on Michigan rock, publishing, and where the story keeps going.

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