The Rationals: Unreleased Tracks + Singles (US, 60s)

Welly well, heres the deal, dig it!
aka The Rat`s

• SCOTT MORGAN - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Flute, Harmonica
• STEVE CORRELL - Vocals, Lead Guitar
• TERRY TRABANDT - Bass, Backing Vocals
• BILL FIGG - Drums, Backing Vocals
  
  

INTRO

Whether you're a garage fanatic, an R&B lunatic, or a Motor City maniac (I claim all of the above), Scott Morgan's got the goods to satisfy your particular jones.

When you think about sixties veterans with great R&B-inflected rock voices, the one that stands the tallest, in terms of uncompromising integrity and overall quality of recorded work, has to be the estimable Mr. Morgan. Just look at the competition. Of his Detroit/Ann Arbor contemporaries, Mitch Ryder hasn't had it (IT being the confluence of talent, material, and band) since 1971's Detroit. Bob Seger started out like he might be the best of all (those songwriting chops!), but wound up spinning his pickup truck wheels in the morass of AOR pablum. Steve Marriott (RIP)? Paul Rodgers? Rod Stewart? All of 'em had the pipes, the tunes, the bands; all of 'em enjoyed more commercial success, but somewhere along the line, all of 'em lost the essential spark that made them great to begin with. (continue here)


Scott is the noble exception. He's been kicking out the righteous jams since 1962, starting out as a junior high school kid in Ann Arbor, Michigan, fronting soulful garage kings the Rationals; moving on in the seventies to hard-rocking Detroit "supergroup" Sonic's Rendezvous Band (with Fred "Sonic" Smith from the MC5, Scott "Rock Action" Asheton from the Stooges, and Gary Rasmussen from the Up); soldiering on into the eighties and nineties, well below the radar of public consciousness, with his own vehicles the Scott Morgan Band and Scots Pirates (often in tandem with the unbeatable rhythm team of Asheton and Rasmussen). And he's still sho 'nuff doin' it (but more about that later).

As garage bands go, the Rationals were almost too good to be true.
More info HERE!
Classic bands web.

In one of Nardwuar's oddball interviews from several years ago, Iggy Pop remembered his days as drummer for Ann Arbor's fabled Iguanas:

"Recently some Iguanas stuff has been re-released. Are you aware of that?"

Iggy: "Vaguely."

"Have you got one?"

Iggy: "I've ordered it."

"Who were the Iguanas' main rivals at that time? Who were you fighting against?"

Iggy: "The Rationals were our main rivals."

SCOTT MORGAN INTERVIEW
(complete and very interesting!!!)
part 1 - part 2
More stuff from the Rats here.

Of all the Michigan talent that flirted with stardom but never got invited to the party, there is probably no other band of the era so beloved and still so mourned as Ann Arbor's The Rationals. Certainly, here was a group that deserved fame and fortune but, incredibly, failed to get the notice and air-play that should have landed them among the best recording acts of all time. They were that good.
(Michigan 60s bands & more)

BOOM!