Covers shown: LP 1978, CD 1999, LP 1976
THE SLEEPER WAKES (1978)

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Morgan band album recorded in 1973

UK: Cherry Red Records A RED 1
Released as BROWN OUT in 1976 USA: Passport 1006
Re-issued on CD in 1999 UK: Angel Air Records SJPCD049

1. Fire In The Head
2. The Sleeper Wakes
3. The Right
4. What Is - Is What

Tim Staffell: Vocals, Libretti
Bob Sapsed: Fretless Bass
Maurice Bacon: Drums, Percussion

The second and last Morgan band album. Like the first, it was recorded in the high-tech RCA Studios in Rome where Nino Rota recorded his music for Fellini’s movies. Hence, the studio boasted many rare and unusual instruments such as a 1930 Neo-Bechstein electric grand piano (probably the first ever electric piano).The original title, “Brown Out”, normally refers (in the USA) to a partial blackout of a city’s electricity supply. However, for the cover photo shoot, Morgan had their own interpretation of it - mooning. RCA were not amused. The songs, while still experimental, have more firepower to them than those on the first album. But the music was too left-field for RCA so they decided not to release it. On the 19-minute track “The Sleeper Wakes”, the combination of tranquil piano-plus-vocal sections, massed harmony voices and burning rock guitar solos may well have influenced Queen, as Brian May was a fan. Morgan folded after the last gig of their residency at London’s Marquee Club, and went their separate ways. Tim eventually became a graphic designer. Maurice is now in artist management. Morgan landed a job with Mott the Hoople and set off on tour of the USA. Bob played with several other bands, and tragically, in his mid-thirties, was killed when his motorbike hit a car door carelessly opened by the occupant of a parked car.

REVIEWS

***** Amazing and overlooked prog rock!, August 10, 2001
Reviewer: Ben Miler from Lakeview, OR USA
If you collect progressive rock albums like I do, you'll have those days when you'll run across a relatively unknown and overlooked prog rock album and you are nothing short of amazed, like this one. Let's get a few facts straight. This album was not previously unreleased. It was recorded in 1973, but it first surfaced right here in America in 1976 with a different title called "Brown Out" which was released on a small label called Import (which also released Mainhorse, a 1971 band with Patrick Moraz, pre-Refugee and pre-Yes, and Acqua Fragile's Mass-Media Stars here in the US). I own the original "Brown Out" so I should know. A British label called Cherry Red had then released this album in 1978 with a new title, "The Sleeper Wakes" which is also the same title as the CD reissue. Morgan was actually a name of the band featuring keyboardist Morgan Fisher with drummer Mo Bacon, vocalist Tim Staffell, and bassist Bob Sapsed. Basically the band has connections with Love Affair, Smile (a pre-Freddie Mercury version of Queen), and Mott the Hoople, so this does not sound too encouraging to the diehard prog fan like myself, but trust me, this is some of the best keyboard-driven prog I have heard in the longest time! If you like the likes of Yes, ELP, and Gentle Giant with tons of wonderful Wakeman/Emerson style keyboards played on Hammond organ, piano, electric piano, and VCS-3 synthesizer, you will love "The Sleeper Wakes"! Each of the four cuts are wonderful complex and energetic prog rock with tons of great themes. Not a single cut on this album is under five minutes. While the whole album is simply wonderful, the real highlight is the 19:51 minute "What Is - Is What", which is simply one of my favourite side length cuts ever. Throughout the album, you get your share of corny lyrics (i.e. "If you can hear you're deaf, and if you're deaf then you must have heard" from "What Is - Is What") as well as some insane spoken dialogue off "The Right" ("Who spent all of his life in an invisible submarine", for example). Seems to be both "The Right" and "What Is - Is What" were based on some sort of Utopian society in which closer examination reveals little progress was actually made. Morgan's "The Sleeper Wakes" really surprised me beyond belief. The only reason why this album (as well as Morgan's previous release "Nova Solis", recorded and released in 1972) is so overlooked by prog rock junkies everywhere was the musical background of the musicians (especially for the fact Morgan Fisher himself joined Mott the Hoople after "The Sleeper Wakes" aka "Brown Out" was recorded). So if you're a diehard prog rock junkie like myself, buy this album!\

From: http://www.rollingstone.com
Originally released by Passport in the US in 1976 under the title Brown Out, and by Cherry Red in the UK in 1978, Morgan's second album was issued on CD in 1999. On the surface this is period pretentious keyboard art-rock, with similarities to Emerson, Lake & Palmer in the noodly classical-rock arrangements and Yes in Tim Staffell's high, Anderson-esque vocals. There's more to it than meets the ear, though. The helium-squeak timbre of the speedy VCS3 synthesizer solos on "Fire in the Head" is plenty more Frankensteinian and zany than what most art rockers of the time would venture into. Too, the usual art-rock cliches are set off by some pretty weird avant-garde sections, like the murky sound collage in the middle of "The Right" or the outer-space-soundtrack effects on "The Sleeper Wakes." There are odd sections of such left-field intensity that one does not feel entirely sure of whether it's all deadly serious (which it probably was), or a rather deft tongue-in-cheek homage/parody to British prog-rock's bronze age. And of course there's a twenty-minute opus, "What Is--Is What" that's so convoluted - complete with Zappa-esque orchestration for a minute or two - that any band brave or foolish enough to learn it by heart should be awarded a free Mellotron or something. If you're looking for something in the classic art-rock style that's stranger and more unpredictable than most, this is a pretty good bet to do the job. Detailed liner notes by band members Morgan Fisher and Tim Staffell are good reasons to pick this up rather than the previous LP configurations of the recording.
- Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide