Jeffrey Morgan is a Canadian writer and photographer who is best known for being the authorized biographer of both Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop and The Stooges.
He is also the writer of the graphic novel The Brides of Mister X and Other Stories which Rolling Stone called "one of the 50 best non-superhero graphic novels".
In 2021, New Haven published Morgan's autobiography Rock Critic Confidential as a hardcover coffee table book containing over fifty years of Morgan's writing and photography.
In 2022, New Haven published Alice Cooper Confidential the second volume of Morgan's autobiography.
Writing
Creem
Morgan became the de facto Canadian editor of rock music magazine Creem after he was recruited by its editor, Lester Bangs, in the spring of 1974.
Morgan's first published record review, of David Bowie's 1965 Pye Records single "Can't Help Thinking About Me", was published in the August 1975 issue. Morgan's writing then went on to appear in every issue of Creem until the magazine's demise in November 1988. In 2003, at the request of photographer Robert Matheu, Morgan renewed his relationship with the magazine by writing reviews and interviews for Matheu's new Creem website every month for five years until its demise in 2008.
Other writing
1960s
Morgan's first published writing appeared in the November 1965 edition of the Brown Junior Public School magazine Brown News and Views. Morgan had two poems printed: "The Sun" and "ELEVEN DAYS."
1970s
After being discovered by Bangs but prior to his first publication in Creem, Morgan graduated from Northern Secondary high school where he served in his final year as President of the Student Council. Morgan then spent the balance of 1974 honing his craft as a rock critic and rock photographer for York University's weekly newspaper Excalibur where he reviewed and photographed concerts by Elton John and George Harrison.
While attending York, Morgan studied electronic music with James Tenney, who performed on Terry Riley's album In C. During this time, Morgan was the host of The Air Pirates Show on York's campus radio station CHRY-FM. From 1975 to 1978, Morgan was the editor of a free monthly Canadian rock magazine initially titled Cheap Thrills then StageLife and finally Roxy. All three incarnations were published by Concert Productions International, which was a major promoter of rock concerts and tours in North America run by Bill Ballard and future Rolling Stones concert promoter Michael Cohl. In addition to editing the magazine, Morgan also wrote for it extensively both under his own name and that of the more vociferous alter ego he created in April 1975, "Machine Rock". Six months later, Tee Vee Records in Canada released a compilation album titled Machine Rock: 23 Original Hits. Ballard and Cohl briefly considered suing Tee Vee for damages until they found out that Morgan had not registered his alias as a trademark. During this period, Morgan was also the staff copywriter for CBS Records Canada, for whom he wrote back cover liner notes for an album of baroque music by classical guitarist Liona Boyd. After reading them, however, Boyd demanded that Morgan's notes be deleted before the album was released, exclaiming: "You can't print this! He makes me sound like a rock star!" In 1977, Morgan's poetry was published in Rolling Stone magazine (Our Lady of Perpetual Motion) and Bakka magazine (Neuromantics I-V). In the late 1970s, Morgan was asked by Robert Christgau to participate in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. In 1986, Christgau noted how Morgan skewed the "black caucus" vote by casting 30 points for James Brown's album Gravity.
1980s
During the 1980s, Morgan was a contributing writer for Wayne Green's magazine Digital Audio and Compact Disc Review. In 1986, several of his reviews were reprinted in Digital Audio's Guide To Compact Discs which was published by Bantam Books. During the mid-1980s, Morgan was the host of The Machine Rock Show on the Rogers Television community channel in Toronto. During the late 1980s, Morgan was the host of The Air Pirates Show on Ryerson Polytechnical Institute's campus radio station CKLN-FM.