Morgan - The Sleeper Wakes (Reissue, Remastered ) (1973/1999)

Named after keyboardist Morgan Fisher, Morgan was formed in the early '70s by three musicians who had played in the late-'60s British pop group Love Affair: Fisher, drummer Maurice Bacon, and bassist Bob Sapsed. Singer Tim Staffell, who would put lyrics to Fisher's music, joined from Smile, the pre-Queen outfit of Brian May and Roger Taylor. Ex-King Crimsonite Ian McDonald even jammed with them while they were auditioning for their fourth member, although as it turned out he didn't join up. Playing electronic keyboard-drenched progressive rock, they issued only one album, Nova Solis, in their lifetime. A second record, initially titled Brown Out, was recorded in 1973, and is an off-the-wall mix of crazed, hysterical-toned synthesizer solos; winding high operatic vocals; pretentious pseudo-classical keyboard art rock à la Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and arty, experimental song structures in the mold of more serious artistes like King Crimson. The Brown Out album was not released after it was recorded, in part because the band pissed off RCA executives by spreading their cheeks -- the ones on their backsides, not the ones on their faces -- at the photo shoot for the album cover. Fisher joined Mott the Hoople within a few months of the band's 1973 breakup, and soldiered on with them as they mutated into Mott and then the British Lions. The Brown Out album was released in the U.S. by Passport in 1977, and then on CD under the title The Sleeper Wakes by Angel Air in 1999.