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.
Barj Dhahan business story began when still a student at the university in Vancouver, he leased a gas station (petrol pump) in 1979
By Gurmukh Singh VANCOUVER: Few first-generation Canadian immigrants have succeeded like Barj Dhahan (Barjinder Singh Dhahan) of Vancouver. And even fewer have benefited their home state Punjab in India with charity work in education, health care and employment as much as him. Dhahan is also the man behind the biggest award for the promotion of his native Punjabi language – the annual Dhahan International Punjabi Literary Prize of $25,000 started in 2014. A self-made man, he comes from the village of Dhahan between Banga and Phagwara in Punjab in India. Starting from scratch in the early 1980s, he went on build his Sandhurst Group of Companies with businesses across gas stations, real estate and Tim Hortons outlets (Canada’s equivalent of McDonald’s). His father Budh Singh Dhahan, a freedom fighter, left his family behind in Punjab and migrated to Canada in 1959 to settle in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island as a lumber mill worker. "Dad left Punjab because he wanted better education and life his five children. His sister’s family was already settled in Port Alberni since 1933, so he joined them,’’ he says. Dhahan was 10 when he with his mother and four sisters joined his dad in Canada in 1967. "At the age of 14 as a school boy, I started working in a general merchandise store to supplement family income. That job laid the foundation of my later business success as I learnt the value of hard work. I learnt everything there – assembly of bicycles and furniture," recalls Dhahan. Later in 1973, the Dhahan family shifted to Vancouver where his father quickly established a successful construction business. "But dad wanted do something for Punjab. In 1979, he returned to his village and started the Guru Nanak Mission Medical & Educational Trust,’’ says Dhahan. The Guru Nanak Mission Medical & Educational Trust has been the centre of the Dhahan family since then. "In 1984, the trust opened a 40-bed hospital to serve rural Punjab. Today, the hospital has expanded to 225 beds. The trust also started the Guru Nanak College of Nursing in 1993. This nursing college works in partnership with the University of British Columbia. Over 2,000 girls in Punjab have got their nursing diplomas and degrees from this college and over 250 of them have moved to Canada. The trust also runs elementary and high schools,’’ says Dhahan. As his dad got busy with charity work in Punjab, young Dhahan charted out his own destiny. That's where the Barj Dhahan business empire began. While still a student at the university in Vancouver, Barj Dhahan leased a gas station (petrol pump) in 1979. "It was my first business venture. I worked on my gas station as well as finished my university degree in 1983. After five years, we started expanding and we are still expanding. This year, we will add six more gas stations,’’ he says. Apart from gas stations, Dhahan is also the biggest Indo-Canadian franchisee of Tim Hortons outlets in Canada. "My group got into Tim Hortons in the 1990s. In fact, our first free-standing Tim Hortons at Maple Ridge created a national record in the first-year sales iin 1999. There are 7,000 Tim Hortons outlets in the world, it is among the top 70. We are building five more Tim Hortons this year,’’ says Dhahan who is also involved in major construction businesses in the Vancouver area. Barj Dhahan business with literary pursuits The annual Dhahan International Punjabi Literary Prize of $25,000, started in 1914, is the latest feather in the Dhanan family’s cap. "The Punjabi language has been divided by religion and scripts. I want to unite all Punjabis . This award is for both Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi (used in Pakistan) scripts,’’ says Barj Dhahan. (Courtesy of the Times of India where this article appeared on January 23) READ ALSO: How Sahota brothers became leaders in carrot production in Canada
Dale Trotter: The years (dates) in this article are very important. Yes, prior to 1990 it was easy to become successful, but with every success, I believe, the 'system' plugs the loophole to stop anyone else 'getting through' that loophole. These type of OLD NEWS is just nonsense.
What I would like to see is THE PERCENTAGES of success stories, especially in 2nd generation immigrants and possibly also an article on the (secret) bank bailout of 2008.
Over 250,000 people come to Canada each year, about 300,000+ LEAVE Canada each year! Why,why why? So, with this type of article, I would like to see some statistics of how many people, for example, who came in 1991, are still in Canada and are a success, left, etc.
I also beg to differ, the Canadian education system is NOT better than Indian or elsewhere, it is DIFFERENT... In addition to immigration, outsourcing-education is Canada's 2nd largest 'export'.... In Canada if you qualify in Ontario, Alberta (for example) does not accept it.
While congratulating the above people for 'getting through', the fact remains that no one else can get through 'that loophole' anymore. 
