John D Morton

John D Morton
John D Morton playing with X_____X at the Cake Shop in NYC
Background information
Born	(1953-03-27) March 27, 1953 (age 64)
Origin	Lakewood, Ohio, United States
Genres	Punk rock, Avant-garde music
Associated acts	electric eels X____X The Styrenes
Website	http://mortonia.com/

John D Morton (born March 27, 1953) is an American musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet, writer, and visual artist born in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio best known as the leader and founder of protopunk band electric eels in 1972.

Growing up in and around Cleveland, John Morton played in bands during school while simultaneously getting into Beat Generation authors such as William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and others as well as art thru films like Lust For Life, A Bucket of Blood, and other avenues. "Being an artist seemed like a way-viable means to get away with a whole lot of societal misbehaving."

Morton wore a jean jacket held together by safety pins as early as 1971, years before the use of safety pins became a widespread part of punk fashion. The use of safety pins in clothing and piercings was later popularized by artists such as Richard Hell, the Sex Pistols and others during the punk rock explosion of the late 70's. It was a jacket that Morton had admired a few years prior on his friend and mentor, Royce Dendler, an assistant professor at Oberlin College, whom Morton met when he was 14 years of age. Morton later visited Dendler while he was attending SVA and Dendler was also living in New York at the time. Upon inquiring as to the jacket's current whereabouts, Dendler answered by pointing to the doormat below them. Morton offered to replace the doormat and asked if he could have the jacket even though it was now tattered, in need of much repair. Morton subsequently repaired the jacket using safety pins to make it wearable and liked the look so much that he gleefully added even more safety pins. It's also been said that Morton wrote the lyrics to one of his earliest songs, Mr. Crab, after Dendler "walked him around New York and told him to write them." He recorded the song a few weeks later in September 1972 and it was eventually released in 1997 on the Those Were Different Times 3x10" vinyl set on Scat Records credited to The Styrenes.