He entered the British Army and rose to the rank of infantry platoon commander while serving with the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) in West Germany, but began to question this career choice.
Some of his poems have been set to music and have been recorded by such artists as Al Stewart ("My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" on the 1970 Zero She Flies album), the McCalmans and most recently the Levellers, by 'Is This Art'.
(During his 1999 UK tour, Al Stewart invited Morgan to read the lyrics as he performed the above song in the City Varieties music hall show at Leeds on 7 November).
[1] Morgan's BBC Television series A Voyage Between Two Seas (1983) presented a journey across Northern England via the region's waterways.
His later TV programme The Grain Run was about the Roman supply route from East Anglia to the Yorkshire town of Aldborough.