In some quarters,
Scott Morgan is an unquestionable rock & roll hero, a lifer who survived any number of slings and arrows hurled his way, always operating on the fringe but as a matter of choice as much as necessity.
Morgan made his bones in
the Rationals, the pivotal Ann Arbor garage rockers who laid the groundwork for
the Stooges and the
MC5, and cut
Otis Redding's "Respect" long before
Aretha Franklin (thereby inspiring speculation the Detroit native may have been inspired to record her iconic version by these rockers), and
Morgan remained a fixture in Southeastern Michigan, playing with
Sonic's Rendezvous Band in the '70s, the
Scott Morgan Band in the '80s, and
Scots Pirates in the '90s, along with a bunch of other bands as he piled up a pretty confusing discography. Even if it samples from every era of his career,
Easy Action's 2013 box set
Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust doesn't attempt to sort out this byzantine catalog, but rather offers a rousing testament to
Morgan's passion, a tremendous trawl through the vaults (as well as the private cassette stashes of collectors) that gets at the heart of why
Morgan is beloved by a dedicated guitar army