Hello and welcome to Morganchem, the home of all things NErDy at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School and the official web presence of Michael Morgan.
I take your child's education very seriously. It is with that intention that I have provided this webpage for you and your child to help get a better understanding of what goes on in their Chemistry class. Here you will find our weekly and semester long schedules, copies of all the homework assignments and laboratories, daily announcements, and important information to help parents keep their children on track.
To learn more about my academic activities and the success of my students view my biography under the "about" menu. For those interested in the many different academic activities that my students are involved in on a daily basis outside normal class hours look at the Chem Club page on the "about" menu.
Over the past twenty years music education has disappeared from our schools. This becomes obvious when listening to new music on the radio only to hear music that is unoriginal or even bad. Most of today's so called artists do not write their own music or even play their own instruments.
So in the spirit of teaching you everything we can, this page features an Album of the Week. These are not ordinary albums in the history of music. These are the groundbreaking pieces of music that truly shaped how music was presented, recorded, and how it influenced other musicians and the public.
A few notes about the choices. They are albums and not collections of single songs thrown together willy-nilly. They were meant to be played in order. They often told a story or set a mood. Some of them defined a genre and some defined a generation. I strongly recommend that you ask your Parents/Grandparents to dig through their record collections and find their old copies of these and put them on the turntable and experience them the way they were meant to be experienced.
Steely Dan is not what you would consider a classic Rock and Roll scenario. The core of the band was two guys who met at Bard College in upstate New York in the late 1960’s. They were both big jazz guys named Donald Fagan and Walter Becker. They started out as a song writing duo and did some work at the famous “Brill Building” in New York City. By 1972 they had put together a group, recorded an album, and named themselves after an object (don’t really feel comfortable saying what it was) in a William Burroughs novel. They hit the road and had some success with their first album “Can’t Buy a Thrill”. After a few line up changes and a few more albums they did what no other 1970’s group would dream of… they quit touring and fired everyone else in the band. The two of them came to rely on studio musicians (really good ones) to play all the instruments that didn’t play on their recordings. They let their jazz roots show in a rock and roll world.
Their truly landmark album Aja was released in 1977and was immediately well received by the fans and the...(continued)
Steely Dan is not what you would consider a classic Rock and Roll scenario. The core of the band was two guys who met at Bard College in upstate New York in the late 1960’s. They were both big jazz guys named Donald Fagan and Walter Becker. They started out as a song writing duo and did some work at the famous “Brill Building” in New York City. By 1972 they had put together a group, recorded an album, and named themselves after an object (don’t really feel comfortable saying what it was) in a William Burroughs novel. They hit the road and had some success with their first album “Can’t Buy a Thrill”. After a few line up changes and a few more albums they did what no other 1970’s group would dream of… they quit touring and fired everyone else in the band. The two of them came to rely on studio musicians (really good ones) to play all the instruments that didn’t play on their recordings. They let their jazz roots show in a rock and roll world.
Their truly landmark album Aja was released in 1977and was immediately well received by the fans and the critics. Rather than try and create a fusion of the two genres they just played rock and roll but their jazz roots took hold and created an amazing sound.
Side one had only three songs Black Cow, the title piece Aja, and Deacon Blues. All three of these were long songs but got plenty of FM radio air play. By the late 1970’s FM radio was willing to take more risks and play more experimental music and longer pieces. They all had a great jazz influence and stand up well even today.
The second side of the album was a little more pop oriented but still miles above what the other songs on the radio were. The songs “Peg” and “Josie” were especially well received by radio listeners. It is worth noting that the production value of this album was quite high. For many years audiophiles would use it, along with Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, as a test album for stereo equipment. Also the list of guest musicians on the album was incredible. It was not just the best of the best studio players but some great vocalists of other popular groups of the time contributed backing vocals like Michael McDonald of The Doobie Brothers and Timothy B Schmidt of The Eagles.