Peter's music has been heard on hundreds of radio stations and has been on SiriusXM rotation for over a decade. As a multi-award winning artist, Peter's music has also topped Billboard's Classical and Crossover charts.
For Captain Beefheart, a maverick-artist-musician, who was not just a complicated man but highly demanding and by most accounts very difficult to deal with. It was appropriate that Beefheart's Magic Band was to prominently feature a bassist as accomplished, bold and adventurous as Mark Boston, a.k.a Rockette Morton.
Born on July 14, 1949, Mark began life in the small town of Salem, Illinois before his family moved out to Lancaster, California when he was 13. With a bassist and steel player for a father, Mark gained a great appreciation for country and bluegrass along with the R&B and rock’n’roll that was on the rise. Within a year of the Boston clan moving out to Lancaster, Mark befriended a young guitarist by the name of Bill Harkleroad.
At a time when the bass guitar was seen as the dummy’s instrument, Mark left quite an impression on Bill with his talent and equipment, leading to the two joining forces to form BC And The Cavemen. With Mark’s mother sewing some outfits for them, the band developed a decent reputation, and the two would also play in a band with Jeff Cotton and John French known as Blues In A Bottle. And then a local hero came calling. Or perhaps screaming and howling!
In that same Lancaster scene, Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band were making a big splash as a top flight blues rock outfit, with 'Safe As Milk' having made a strong impression and 'Strictly Personal' being a strong record as well. But even with a sound that was speaking to people, one that perhaps would have been a more pragmatic one as far as a career goes, Don Van Vliet just wasn’t meant for conventional norms.
The Captain had all these ideas, ideas far too out for many, including early members. He needed new musicians, younger and more impressionable ones that wouldn’t object to his ideas. Already having John and Jeff in the band, now 'Drumbo' and Antennae Jimmy Semens, he then recruited Bill, dubbed Zoot Horn Rollo. And on bass, he found Mark Boston, who took the name Rockette Morton due to his love of outer space. And the classic Magic Band was born.
Trout Mask Replica (TMR) wasn’t an easy album to make. Yet even with all the bizarre ideas and the difficulty in preparing those ideas into music, Mark was a total champ through it all. The Beefheart sound is one of great dichotomy, and Mark can capture all of it. He’s so tight and precise, and yet there’s this raw grit and dirt. He’s highly intelligent and sophisticated in his playing, and yet there remains this childlike sense of wonder and curiosity.
He takes after all the great traditional American music, yet out into a whole other realm of time and space. The bass traditionally serves the role of grounding the harmony while locking in with the drums to provide a foundation, yet Mark’s playing often serves as another melody line in the music. In a lot of ways, he’s like a third guitarist that just happens to be playing bass.
The TMR on its own is a legacy few can compete with, and yet Mark contributed to more classic records like "Lick My Decals Off, Baby", "The Spotlight Kid", and "Clear Spot". There on Decals, you get the equivalent of Godfather II. With Mother Art Tripp on marimba and drums rather Jeff on guitar, you get an album that captures a great deal of TMR's brilliance while being brilliant in its own unique way.
Then you get to 'The Spotlight Kid', with bass godliness on cuts like “When It Blows Its Stack”, resulting in a bass solo that often opened shows, yet Mark proves himself just as talented on traditional in-the-pocket styles as demonstrated on cuts like “I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby”. And that thing about bassists being failed guitarists? In the 'Clear Spot', with Mark taking guitar and the rhythm section now being a mini Mothers reunion of Art and Roy Estrada, yet nobody missed a beat. Throughout the record, Bill and Mark’s kinship really shines, their weaving right there with what Bill and Jeff had done, or what was done with Alex St Clair early on.
Of course, dealing with Don was quite a task of its own, so it’s inevitable that Mark and the others would all end up departing by 1974. He and Bill soon formed a group of their own called Mallard. For two albums, the first with Art and having some writing help from John French 'Drumbo', Mallard showed itself a pretty decent blues rock outfit. And giving that it was Mark who finally had a chance to create something that was truly his own rather than helping some achieve their vision, it’s understandably the work that he takes pride in. And over time, he’d end up making a solo record and create some cool artwork of his own, as well as performing with 'Drumbo' in the reformed Magic Band, allowing the music to live and breathe on stage again.
If you’re a Beefheart fan, how can you not love Rockette Morton? Not only a uniquely talented bass player but such a great stage presence full of joy, along with a lovably quirky personality and such a sweet guy. Easily one of my favorites from Magic Band members, you can’t help but smile when thinking about Mark. He’s been through some rough weather, including his health scares, and yet he’s still the same Mark we’ve known and loved all the years.
Happy birthday Mark! Thank you for all you have given us and look forward to more.
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Patrick Moore is a freehand drawing artist and freelance music writer.
Anil Singh Hanse, son of the pilot of Air India Kanishka Flight 182 which was blown off mid-air on June 23, 1985, says the least that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can do on this day is to light a candle in memory of the victims. He says Canada has not done enough to help the victim families have a sense of closure to the tragedy.
Anil was on a diving assignment in Scotland when an American diver gave him the news about the Air India bombing – masterminded by Canada-based Khalistani Talwinder Singh Parmar who was later killed by Punjab Police in India.
He recounts how he lived through the nightmare.
My father Narendra Singh Hanse, who was 57 then, was the pilot of the Air India Kanishka Flight 182 which was bombed off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board.
On the 39th anniversary of the worst terror attack in Canadian history, that dark Sunday still haunts me. It is seared in my memory. For a long time, I thought why I was not on that flight with my dad. My hair stands on end every time I recall that morning. The pain will never go away. I was 24 at the time of the tragedy.
We fought for years with the Canadian system for justice, but ultimately we gave up. There is no point in getting bitter. All I now want is to cherish the great memories of my father who was of royal lineage.
Our family comes from Sahanpur in Bijnore district of UP. Dad was the grandson of Raja Bharat Singh. Flying was his passion. In the 30 years that he was with Air India, he took only one sick day off because he loved to fly. Mom told us that once when he fell ill, he didn't know how to report sick.
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Air India Kanishka.[/caption]
When the Air India Kanishka flight started from Mumbai to Canada, I travelled with my father till Delhi as I had to catch a flight to London from Delhi. I remember sitting with dad and the co-pilot in the cockpit. We both stayed together overnight in Delhi and visited his cousin who lived in Greater Kailash.
I was going to the UK on my second diving assignment in the North Sea. Dad told that on their way back from Canada, he would radio me a message when their flight lands in London on Sunday. Their flight never landed in London.
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Where Air India Flight 182 explosion in mid-air happened.[/caption]
When Air India Flight 182 was blown off mid-air at about 8.12 am on that Sunday, I was in Aberdeen in Scotland on a diving assignment with an offshore oil rig. I was staying at a bed and breakfast with other divers. When I woke up at 7 am that morning, some strange thoughts came to me. I felt like I was in a tailspin. I started thinking about Air India, but I shook off those thoughts.
I had to catch a helicopter at 9 am to leave for the offshore rig when this news broke. When I went for my breakfast, one of the American divers who was listening to news on radio told me that an Air India flight had crashed.
I was dazed, stunned. My mind went blank. Frantically, I started calling Air India to find out as I knew my dad was on the plane, but they didn't know what to say... they were all too stunned to speak.
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Flight wreckage.[/caption][caption id="attachment_76708" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Air India Flight 182 rescue work.[/caption]
I called my mom Sheila Gill in Mumbai. Her initial reaction was that since dad was a strong, big man he would swim to safety!
I caught a flight to London later in the day. At the Air India office at Heathrow, the staff were absolutely overwhelmed. There were scenes of chaos all around. Everybody was living through a nightmare.
That night, Air India put us up in hotels in London. Three or four days later, they took us to Cork in Ireland.
There were raw and emotional scenes in hospital as dazed family members from Canada and India frantically looked for the bodies of their loved ones. The hospital didn’t allow us to see the bodies. They had put up photos of the victims. I was in Cork for a couple of days and then returned to London.
In London, Air India organized our air tickets and I went to Delhi where we performed a havan for my father at a temple in Greater Kailash. Then we performed ceremonies in Mumbai. Mom was totally devastated. She and dad had deep bonds. She was an air hostess when she met my father. The two fell in love and married. She was a Sikh from Tarn Taran and her father was Navy Lt. Commander Santa Singh Gill.
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Air India captain Narendra Singh with his wife Sheila Gill who was an air hostess.[/caption][caption id="attachment_76710" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Air India Flight 182 pilot Narendra Singh Hanse and his wife Shiela with their young son Anil Singh Hanse.[/caption]
My fondest memories with my dad come flooding back.
As father worked for Air India, we lived in Bombay for most of my childhood.
In the 1970s, he was posted to London for three years. I was 13 at the time and did not realise how privileged I was to visit New York on weekends (occasionally) when dad operated London-New York-London flights.
I would walk into the cockpit whenever I felt like, and sitting in the jump seat was no big deal during take-off and landings. While other kids shared where they had been during the weekend, I would casually mention that my weekend was spent visiting New York and staying with father in a suite at Biltmore Hotel on 47th Street.
My father was very attached to his family and would try his utmost to visit the family during his time off. He was a quiet man with a good sense of humour. I would never forget how he once got me involved in an attempt to make mom laugh (must have had a domestic thing) by having his pyjamas pulled up to chest height, donning black leather shoes and asking me to do the same. Needless to say, my mother was aghast at the sight of father and son walking around our apartment looking like village idiots... he laughed his head off at mom’s reaction.
When I was at sea, dad would radio the oil rig I was working on and pass messages to me. He would wish me well and confirm our upcoming meetings. This would give my workmates an opportunity to rib me and every plane in the sky was cause for this ribbing to begin anew.
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My dad's name on Air India Flight 182 memorial.[/caption][caption id="attachment_76711" align="alignnone" width="800"]
The aurthor at Air India Flight 182 memorial.[/caption]
We lost father when I was 24. Life never was the same after Air India Flight 182. I will always cherish the good times and happy memories. I miss what life might have been.
I was trained as a deep-sea diver, but I found it unable to continue with this career after my father’s death. It took me years to return to the diving industry. Much of this was due to the memories and close relationship I had with my father.
They used to joke about dad and me – that how father took to the skies and son to the deep sea. I was fond of diving from childhood and went to Sydney to train for deep-sea commercial diving in 1979. I used to go out of Mumbai on deep-sea commercial diving assignments in Dubai and other places.
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Anil Singh Hanse (in 1985) and with his family in Melbourne now (right).[/caption]
What do we do on June 23 on each anniversary?
Every June 23, my wife Sharan Kaur, who is also a Sikh, places flowers and pictures of dad, with a Bible, pictures of Guru Nanak and Hindu gods (out of respect for all religions), lights candles and we have a quiet day.
My wife has been our rock. She left Punjab in 1984 and she has seen and felt pain from both sides as her and my kin were killed in those dark times. My mom’s cousins were also killed in 1984. So, we have seen grief from both sides of the fence.
Here I am 38 years later with two children of my own – 30-year-old son Nathan and 26-year-old daughter Simi. It has been hard on them too while growing up and seeing their grandmother and me talking about Flight 182. Mom passed away in 2010. (Anil Singh Hanse lives with his family in Melbourne, Australia)
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