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.
17 Indo-Canadians elected as Trudeau fails to win a majority again
By admin 17 Jan 2024
The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gamble to seek a majority by calling a snap election has not paid off as Canadians voted yet another hung parliament on Monday even as 17 Indo-Canadians were elected as MPs to the 44th parliament.
Trudeau’s Liberal Party again ended up a dozen seats short of the 170-mark in the 338-member House of Commons. The Liberals have 158 seats now.
Jagmeet Singh-led New Democratic Party (NDP) will again hold the balance of power as it increased its tally from 24 in the 2019 elections to 25.
With 119 seats, the Conservative Party failed to touch its tally of 121 seats in the dissolved House.
Among the 17 Indo-Canadian winners are Jagmeet Singh, former minister Tim Uppal and three Cabinet ministers Harjit Sajjan, Bardish Chagger and Anita Anand.
Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan retained his Vancouver South seat by beating Sukhbir Gill of the Conservative party.
Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity, too retained her Waterloo seat as did Public Service Minister Anita Anand her Oakville seat.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh got re-elected from Burnaby South in British Columbia.
In British Columbia, three-time Liberal Party MP Sukh Dhaliwal retained Surrey-Newton by beating Avneet Johal of the NDP. Two-time Liberal Party MP Randeep Singh Sarai also won the Surrey Centre seat by beating Sonia Andhi of the NDP. Parm Bains became the third Indo-Canadian MP from British Columbia after winning the Steveston Richmond East riding.
In Quebec, the sitting MP Anju Dhillon retained her Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle seat.
In Alberta, Jasraj Singh Hallan retained the Calgary Forest Lawn seat. But Conservative MP Jag Sahota lost to fellow Indo-Canadian George Chahal of the Liberal Party in Calgary Skyview. Former Conservative minister Tim Uppal is back again by winning from Edmonton Mill Woods. Uppal is the brother-in-law of Congress MLA from Jalandhar Cantt, Pargat Singh.
In Ontario, Brampton again re-elected all the four sitting Indo-Canadian MPs – Maninder Sidhu, Ruby Sahota, Sonia Sidhu and Kamal Khera – against fellow Indo-Canadians Naval Bajaj, Medha Joshi, Ramandeep Brar and Gurprit Gill respectively.
Liberal MP Chandra Arya too retained the Napean seat in Ontario.
Lawyer Iqwinder Gaheer, who won the Mississauga-Malton seat for the Liberal Party, will be one of the youngest MPs to go to the House of Commons.
Sitting Conservative Party MP Bob Saroya lost this time from Markhan-Unionville.