Chris Morris

Chris Morris is a music writer, based in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his coverage of L.A.'s independent scene in the 1970s and 1980s, which made him "a central voice in Left Coast music journalism." He has also written well-received books on Los Lobos and Bob Dylan.

Career

Radio and journalism

Morris grew up in Chicago. His father was the program director for WTTW, Chicago's public television station. As a teenager in 1968, Chris worked as an apprentice in WTTW's publicity department. He grew to love blues music and hosted a weekly blues show while working as a late night FM DJ in Madison, Wisconsin. His shows also included R&B and rockabilly, as well as Patti Smith, Television—and The Ramones, whose debut album got Morris fired when he played it in late 1976.

Morris relocated to Los Angeles on Good Friday, 1977. He became music critic for the Los Angeles Reader from 1978–1996. During this period and beyond, his writing helped build and preserve the reputation of leading L.A. bands that sprang up around that time.

Morris showed that his knowledge extended more broadly in writing for Rolling Stone about Uprising, the last album that Bob Marley released in his lifetime. That was also evidenced by his 1981 feature on Echo and the Bunnymen.

Morris was senior writer for Billboard in Los Angeles, where he worked from 1986–2004, writing a weekly column about independent music for 12 years. Shortly thereafter, he joined Billboard's sister publication, Hollywood Reporter, as music editor. However, he was let go in a major restructuring in 2006.

Morris contributed a bi-weekly column, "Sonic Nation," to the alternative weekly LA CityBeat. His writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Spin, Mojo, LA Weekly, Chicago Reader, and other publications.

He served as a DJ on KDLD, hosting a show devoted to roots music called "Watusi Rodeo" during the station's years under the "Indie 103.1" format in the first decade of the 2000s. After it was canceled, the show resurfaced on Scion Radio 17 from Scion Audio/Visual.

He is currently a contributing writer at Variety.

Liner notes

As an authority on L.A.'s indie scene, Morris was chosen to write liner notes for several compilations and reissues of works by pivotal bands of the era. They included:

• The Blasters: The Blasters Collection (1991 best-of anthology) and American Music (Hightone Records' 1997 reissue of the band's debut album).
• Los Lobos: El Cancionero Mas y Mas (2000 four-CD box set).
• Lone Justice: This World Is Not My Home (1999 anthology) and This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983 (2014 archival release).

An especially colorful example of his words may be found in the liner notes for Pigus Drunkus Maximus (1987), the only album from Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, another band central to that scene.

Morris annotated Rhino Records' punk rock boxed set No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion (2003). In 2004, he received a 47th Annual Grammy Awards nomination for best album notes.

Books and films

Morris provided the text for Beyond and Back: The Story of X (1983).

His book Los Lobos: Dream in Blue was published by University of Texas Press in 2015. It was the first book-length critical history of the veteran band from East L.A. The Lincoln Journal-Star called it "a much needed, insightful look." Record Collector News observed that Morris was the ideal teller of this tale. Latin American Music Review cited its "journalistic, accessible style" and viewed it as an excellent companion text for other studies of Mexican-American popular music.

The following year brought the release of Together Through Life: A Personal Journey with the Music of Bob Dylan (Rothco Press). American Songwriter called Morris a gifted writer and the book "an enlightening exploration."

Morris also made major contributions to the following histories:

• Make The Music Go Bang!: The Early L.A. Punk Scene (1997)
• Under the Big Black Sun (2016)
• More Fun in the New World (2019)

In addition, he appeared on screen providing insights in two documentaries:

• We Jam Econo: The Story of The Minutemen (2005)
• Punk's Not Dead (2007)