Pop Bop Rock Honoree: Ron Morgan

Colorado’s Extraordinary Guitar Player – Ron Morgan!

We Are Proud to Add Ron Morgan to our Pop Bop Rock Honor Roll!

If you had to select a Colorado musician who’s omission from the Colorado Music Hall of Fame is most glaring – for my money (who asked me?) would be the premier lead guitar player Ron Morgan!

Morgan was born Ronald Bruce Morgan. His story is bittersweet. He rose to creative pinnacle with his unparalled guitar playing with the strange West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, the Electric Prunes and as a founding but neglected member of Three Dog Night.

Ron was a perfectionist and a bit of a loner. It was difficult for him to fit in to the California music industry way of doing things. He longed to create great music but was often shackled by over-bearing controllers.

Early Wild Ones

The Wild Ones – Colorado

I witnessed Ron’s superb and astonishing guitar work when I was a student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Ron was a member of the “Wild Ones” who often played at Clancy’s – a very popular 3.2 spot just south of Fort Collins – frequented by nearly all CSU students.

When Ron would step forward an initiate a lead guitar riff I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – I couldn’t believe the fantastic sound was coming from a guitar which appeared to be so effortlessly being played!

Ron Morgan started off with his own band “Morgan’s Marauders” in 1961 before becoming the “Wild Ones” in 1962. The band would make their way to Los Angeles and got the opportunity to play on the same bill with the Mothers of Invention. His guitar magic captivated Mother’s founder Frank Zappa.

The band would become regulars at Sam’s on Lookout Mountain in Colorado and also Clancy’s in Fort Collins. It was at Clancy’s where Ron would distinguish himself early on as his bandmate and drummer for the band tells us:

“The Wild Ones took every opportunity to showcase Ron. For instance, we arranged a medley of Freddy King classics. Typically a hundred or so patrons of the club would move to the foot of the stage to better watch him perform his magic. What they saw was simply unprecedented; They were watching a world-class guitarist performing songs that mainstream America would not hear for another ten years in a small town Colorado night club. He was simply stellar–the rest of us in the band would just try to keep up with him and stay “out of the way”.

Ron Morgan at the RUG-ged Room in Lakewood, Colorado 1965

Here is what Colorado Leather Soul drummer had to say about Ron back in 2012:

“When I wasn’t working, I was at Corky Young’s house and we were jamming. We played all the old standards of the times.  Mustang Sally, Midnight Hour, Johnny B Good, etc., it seemed like we always had an audience. One of our friends, Ron Morgan would come down and jam with us.  He was in a band called the Wild ones and they played all over Denver.”

“I was engaged to Sheila Morgan, Ron Morgan’s sister when I was drafted in 1964. I had not seen her since my leave in July of 1965 and had lost track of her and Ron Morgan. I knew he was in California but that is all I heard.  I was living with Corky Young when I was in town.  He had a house in East Denver and I rented a room from him.  He was playing in The Mothers Children and doing well with his nightclub gigs.

One night when I came home Ron Morgan was there. He was staying there for awhile with Corky and had just returned from California where he was doing studio work. He worked with the Standell’s, The Association, Moby Grape, The Electric Prunes, and did studio work for Three Dog Night and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.  He was out of money and needed to go to work.  I told him about the Leather Souls and how I was looking for a new lead guitar player.  I invited him down to JB’s to sit in with us.]

(Morgan was a member of Bob Yeazel’s “Super Band” who cut one single in 1967. Another member was future Three Dog Night member Jimmy Greenspoon. The two would be instrumental in forming the famous 1970’s pop band.)

Ron Morgan (upper left) with Three Dog Night

When Ron Morgan was in California he was a member of Moby Grape, and a couple of other bands.  He also did the studio work for Three Dog Night with Jimmy Greenspoon the red headed organ player. Jimmy and Ron also did the studio work for an attorney named Bob Markley that called his album The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Ron had come back to Denver broke and when I saw him he asked if I could use him in The Leather Souls.  I helped him out.

Ron asked if the band wanted to tour as the West Coast Pop Experimental Art Band.  Bob Markely had called and was looking for a group to learn the album and do the Teenage Fair Tour.

Wayne declined Markley’s offer due to the Bob not wanting to extend a formal contract.

Ron and his brother Robert were very close growing up both musicians and both enjoying their youthful years together. The following is an excerpt from “Tribute to the Late Ron Morgan – Guitarist Extraordinaire”.

“Ron was sometimes quite misunderstood in his motives and was somewhat uncomfortable with unnecessary praise (yet he was humbly appreciative). He did not want the “image” to take control of him, as it did with many other great players. That self destruct induced mechanism, from the pressures of having to prove one self and/or not measuring up to what was expected by their peers. In my opinion – if Ron wasn’t impressed with the musicianship while performing, he would seem awkward – perhaps embarrassed on occasion and was falsely noted as having episodes of  “stage fright”.

West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and Ron Morgan

(The following is based on music historian Tim Foster’s “The Legend of The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band”)

The WCPAEB has a very convoluted history. The involvement of Bob Markley as the financer and pretend-band member guaranteed that nothing about their journey would be easy.

The true talent behind the band were two brothers, very close in age, Shaun and Danny Harris who had roots growing up in Colorado. They departed the Mile High State before entering into the world of rock and roll music. They landed with their talented parents trained in jazz and classical music – Roy and Joanna Harris. Their father was never a positive force in the boys’ musical development often scorning their efforts.

Roy went so far to state after listening to his son’s test pressing of a WCPAEB long play “It’s like bringing you up for seventeen years and realizing you’re members of the Hitler Youth Movement”. enough said.

Ron Morgan would come into the band via Hollywood contacts and provide them with some of the finest and most innovative lead guitar work being put forth in southern California. The liner notes of the band’s long plays often give the impression that Ron wasn’t involved with the recordings. But his guitar work was present on all of their LP’s.

Ron was working around the industry in California and had just finished some work with the Standells of “Dirty Water” fame when he was brought into the WCPAEB. Ron would not only provide the lead guitar, complete with all the special effects he could muster, but he would often contribute songs and could provide vocal support.

Morgan was brought in to replace Michael Lloyd who clashed badly with Markley (who didn’t?). Ron was introduced to his craft by his father who played jazz in a Denver-area pizza parlor.

From Tim Forster:

“After the first Reprise album he flew back to Denver and he was real happy with that. But he wasn’t very happy with the singing. He wasn’t a solo singer himself – he just did a little back up – but he was always disenchanted with the vocals. Ron kept coming back and forth from LA and Denver and that was how he missed the photo shoot for the second album. It seemed like the band wasn’t organized at all – it was just a case of throwing stuff together whenever they could – and Ron was always out of time. When he got disenchanted with something, he got flaky. I remember that bit about him not getting out of bed to catch a flight. He didn’t want to go back to LA because he knew what he was going into. I think he really wasn’t into it at that time and just wanted to stay in Denver.

He said that he would go into the studio where they would have laid down a lot of stuff and he would try and over-dub, but it would have just been awful – it almost had to be done again. To him the musicianship just wasn’t up to snuff. A lot of people had trouble keeping up with Ron – it was quite funny to watch some times. But by the time of the third Reprise album, he told me that the whole thing was just a total embarrassment – it was pieced together so haphazardly. By this time Ron was heavily involved with Three Dog Night so when it came to the photo for the back of the LP he shaved differently and wore these silly glasses and hat in order not to be recognized. And I think he pulled it off!”

Another Denver musician, Robert Yeazel, was an acquaintance of Morgan’s – the two playing together in Yeazel’s Super Band. That band also included Roger Bryant also from Denver. Both Yeazel and Bryant would have some involvement with WCPAEB – particularly Yeazel who contributed compositions here and there. Yeazel was also a member of the Colorado bands Beast and Sugarloaf

The Super Band – Morgan far right

Again from Forster: Narrated by Ron Morgan’s brother Bob Morgan

“Despite being a founder member of Three Dog Night, Ron Morgan never got to share in their phenomenal success. As his brother recalls: “Ron didn’t do well under pressure. He suffered from bad stage fright, but it was really ‘drug fright’ – he was so high all the time that he became paranoid. They played the Whisky and when someone said Eric Clapton was in the audience he just froze. Ron found the pressure of living up to his image – and everyone’s expectation – was too hard to bear. When Three Dog Night gave him a contract he flew back to Denver and the family lawyer had a look at it. It didn’t look favorable for Ron so he didn’t sign and by the time he got back to LA they had already replaced him. He never thought it would amount to anything anyway. He would never admit it, but their success really bugged him. He felt persecuted.” Almost immediately another opportunity arose in the form of established Reprise act, the Electric Prunes, but unfortunately for Ron the group was about to hit the buffers. According to Dick Whetstone, drummer and vocalist with the final Prunes line-up, Ron became involved after John Herron quit unexpectedly during the sessions for the ‘Just Good Old Rock And Roll’ LP: “We knew Ron from a Denver band called Superband that included Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards.

Three Dog Greenspoon

The two of them had landed a gig with the original version of Three Dog Night prior to the first album release. Ron was anxious to play in a less structured band – he wanted more solos! He was a world-class guitar player. He joined us in time to help finish the last tracks on the album and began touring with us, along with his Harley. Ron lived to play music, but the lifestyle contributed greatly to his death.” After Three Dog Night and the Electric Prunes Ron moved back to Denver. Bob: “He was disenchanted, but he wasn’t going to sell out. He did drive a cab for a while – he loved the freedom of it, there were no pressures and he was his own boss – but Ron got in a bad way. He was strung out on ‘reds’ – addictive sleeping pills – which he had been popping with Three Dog Night and he ended up on the street. He had no skills apart from music, but after he got married in ’76 he sorted his life out and became a janitor. He still played and we used to jam a lot.

Then he had a motorcycle accident and things went down hill. He got put in a psychiatric ward for a time. His wife divorced him and kicked him out of the house. It was while he was in hospital that he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. The worst thing you can do with that is drink, but he had a strong constitution – he could always put away the drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately he didn’t know until it was too late. He died in his sleep in 1989 at 44. I can remember Ron getting his royalty checks – they were usually for about 75 cents. Ron lived the way he wanted to, but I guess music never gave him the security he wanted.” Bob Morgan continues his brother’s legacy with his own band Blackwood Magazine.”

Ron Morgan Discography

45 – Reprise – Ron Morgan on guitar and Composition – 1906 b/w Shifting Sands – January, 1967

45 – Reprise – Morgan on Guitar – Help, I’m a Rock b/w Transparent Day – May, 1967

45 Promo Issue – Reprise – Morgan on Guitar – Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came b/w Queen Nymphet – November, 1967

Colorado’s Super Band member Roger Bryant co-wrote A side and he and Super Band founder Robert Yeazel both played on this single

45 – Pompeli – Ron Morgan Composition for the Abstracts – Smell of Incense b/w See the Birdies – September, 1968

’45 – HIP/GPC – Southwest F.O.B. with Ron Morgan Composition – Smell of Incense – July, 1968 – September, 1968

45 – Reprise – Morgan Composer and on Guitar – Smell of Incense b/w Unfree Child – October, 1968

45 – Reprise – Ron Morgan with The Electric Prunes – Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers b/w Love Grows – October, 1969

12-Inch Single – Knuckle – Ron Morgan with Johnny & the Knuckleheads – Love All the Way/Blues In The Night – 1984

12-Inch Single – Third Man – with Ron Morgan Composition “I Cut Like A Buffalo” – 2009

45 – Famous Class – Ron Morgan Composition for Ex Cult – Summer of Fear – August, 2016

LP – Reprise – Morgan with West Coast Pop Experimental Band – Part One – 1967

LP – Reprise – Ron Morgan with West Coast Pop Experimental Band -1968

LP – Reprise – Ron Morgan with The Electric Prunes – Mass in F Minor – 1968

LP – Reprise – Morgan with The Electric Prunes – Just Good Old Rock and Roll – 1969

LP – Evolution – Beast with Ron Morgan – “Beast” – 1970

CD LP – Sundazed – (various) with Ron Morgan as Composer “Smell of Incense” – 1989

CD LP – Rhino (various) – Ron Morgan with West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – Smell of Incense – 2004

CD 4 LP Box Set – Rhino Europe (various) Ron Morgan with West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – If You Want This Love – 2009

CD LP – Real Gone Music (various) Ron Morgan with the Electric Prunes – “Love Grows” – 2012

Double LP – Third Man – Ron Morgan Composition for The Dead Weather – June, 2017