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.
___________________
Patrick Moore is a freehand drawing artist and freelance music writer.
TORONTO: Just listening to the heavy sound check and tune up a couple of days ago at the Rose Theatre in Brampton, part of the Greater Toronto Area, the audience knew they were in for a treat. There is something about a sound check from veteran musicians and ones from a lesser band. It’s just an inner feeling that music lovers can relate to. Of course the Rose Theatre’s state of the art sound system has something to do with it too!
Canadian rock band April Wine, originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, started by giving the audience some prime music from their amazing varied discography spanning 45 years including ‘Rock and Roll is a Vicious Game’, ‘Say Hello’ and ‘Sign of The Gypsy Queen’ even as they made small talk and exchanged light banter with the crowd. That is the great thing about a small venue like The Rose. Everyone gets cozy with the performing artists and they reciprocate in kind. A group of women, who were obviously enjoying the music to the hilt, told Myles Goodwyn, the only original band member, how they grooved on him in their high school days and he joked about how they had changed since then.
Even when Myles stomp box malfunctioned in the middle of a song, I think it was ‘Just between You and Me’, and the technician had to come out and spend a few moments fixing the situation, everyone sat around patiently, without making a fuss. This is the Brampton ethos for you- easy going. Once fixed, the band just picked up from where the song was interrupted as if nothing happened. How cool is that?
As is customary with rock bands each one got his chance to do his thing on his instrument. Brain Greenway, another old time band member who joined in 1977, gave it to the crowd with his guitar and harmonica. Richard Lanthier really amazed the crowd with his incredible baby looks and total lengthy freak out on his bass guitar. He took the audience to another level.
But finally what really socked it to the crowd was when Myles rammed his guitar to lead into their international hit ‘I like to Rock’. Every rock lover in the world including India knows this song but doesn’t really know that it is April Wine’s brainchild.
The original song contains teaser riffs from the Beatles ’Day Tripper’ and the Rolling Stones ‘Satisfaction’, but that night last week, they played not only an extended version of the song itself but included lengthier versions of both ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Satisfaction’ actually going right into the songs and singing a lot of the lyrics. It was a real super tribute to both The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. What with Roy Nichol smashing away on his drums and actually putting away his drumsticks and pounding the skins and cymbals with his bare hands, you can bet they blew the roof off The Rose Theatre.
Then followed ‘Roller’, another classic song, that left the audience on a high note.
They say all good things must come to an end and so it was with this high octane concert. Yeah, April Wine is still as its name suggests, young and vital, and totally able to give you an awesome high!
