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.
Canada Senate is an unnecessary burden on Canadian taxpayers as each of the senators gets an annual salary of $132,300 plus perks and privileges
By Balwant Sanghera VANCOUVER: The latest developments with respect to the Canada Senate indicate that this relic of the past should be put to rest. The events relating to Senator Pat Brazeau and the irregularities in the out of town housing claims by some senators have cast a shadow on this chamber of sleepy second thought. A number of attempts to reform the Canada senate in the past have failed miserably. Currently, the Harper government seems to be quite sincere in reforming the senate. However, its efforts to reform it don’t seem to go anywhere. Regardless, the senate, in its current form, seems to have outlived its usefulness. It is a waste of tax dollars. Historically, in 1867, the year in which Canada came into existence as a country, the fathers of the confederation created the senate as a chamber of second sober thought to the elected House of Commons. It was modeled along the British House of Lords. The House of Lords had its own problems. Consequently, the British have made substantial changes to the House of Lords during the past few years. That should serve as an example for Canadians. However, here in Canada, we seem to be totally helpless in reforming this outdated model. Take for example the disparity in its representation. The Senate has 105 seats. Each of Canada’s four regions – Quebec, Ontario,Atlantic Canada and the West – get 24 seats each. The remaining nine seats go to New Foundland (six) and the three union territories – Yukon, N.W.T. ,Nunavut (one each). In 1867, this allocation of seats was relevant. The four major partners at that time – Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia – which came togather to give birth to this nation, were fully justified in getting what they wanted. However, the West was nowhere to be seen as all of the four western provinces joined the confederation later on. Now, the times have changed. Canada’s four western provinces – B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – have become not only the fastest growing but also resource rich and powerful provinces. Yet each of them still has only six senate seats. Compare that to tiny P.E.I. which has a population of less than 300, 000 but has four senate seats whereas British Columbia with a population of more than 4.5 million has only six members in the Senate. This is gross inequality. Any attempts to reform the Canada Senate in a satisfactory manner will require constitutional amendment. This is like opening a Pandora’s Box. None of the Central or Atlantic provinces may be willing to give up what they have. This is likely to create a stalemate. To have the senators elected by the provinces and then appointed by the prime minister has some merit. Also, setting a time limit of eight or nine years for the senators makes sense. However, such measures may not be the lasting solution. To simply abolish the Senate and then come up with something better acceptable to Canadians seems to be the only viable and long term solution. However, to accomplish that appears to be a formidable challenge. Canadians spend more than $92 million annually to keep the Senate going. Each of the senators gets an annual salary of $132,300 plus perks and privileges .No doubt, there are some very hard working and conscientious members of this chamber who take their responsibility seriously. They are an exception. On the whole, our Senate has become a repository of old, tired and failed politicians and party loyalists. For some, it is a plum job with little to do. Canadians deserve better than that. They need a balanced, elected, equal and effective chamber of second sober thought. It is overdue for a major overhaul or complete abolishment. (Updated: This article appeared first on Feb 8, 2013) (Based in Richmond, BC, Order-of-British Columbia Balwant Sanghera is one of the foremost activists in the Indo-Canadian community)
