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.
“Young girl students getting pregnant, violence against our women…it’s so shameful for us as a community,” says Indo-Canadian community leader Kapoor who is a board member of Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women that is fighting the exploitation of girls by human traffickers in the Greater Toronto Area
The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Indo-Canadian community leader and professional chartered accountant Chand Kapoor says he is pained by reports of sexual exploitation of Indian girl students, boys joining drug gangas, family violence and mistreatment of seniors.
“Young girl students getting pregnant, young boys ending up behind bars, violence against our women and the horrible way in which our seniors are being treated…it’s so shameful for us as a community,” says Kapoor who is a board member of Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women that is fighting the exploitation of girls by human traffickers.
Quoting the teachings of the Gita, he says, “It’s our collective responsibility as an immigrant community in this country is to address the root cause of these problems. I am ready to get them psychologists, sociologists, neurologists and other specialists for a multi-pronged approach to solve these problems. Otherwise we would lose our respect, our identity and our future generations.”
Creating awareness about the root cause of these problems is the key, says Kapoor.
“The problem concerning girl students must be addressed before they board the plane to Canada. They must be mentored and told about do’s and don’ts. We are ready to work with the Indian and Canadian high commission authorities in India. It’s my responsibility to protect these girls,” he says.
Kapoor wants the Indo-Canadian community to adopt the Jewish model of welcoming and helping fellow immigrants and Indian international students.
“Every new Jewish immigrant goes to a synagogue where he/she gets all the help to settle in Canada. Since we now have a very large Indo-Canadian community here, we must follow the Jewish example and our temples and gurdwaras and mosques must extend help to new immigrants, including international students, from India.”
The violence against Indo-Canadian women and seniors too painful, he says.
“The root cause of it is the way we raise our children. In Indo-Canadian families, the man – father – exercises all the power. The child sees the abuse of power by the father and learns that this is the only way to exercise control. When this child grows up, he too starts exercising power over the weak – women and seniors. That’s why we are seeing a lot of violence against our women and seniors. We must stop the way we raise our children.”
Citing the Gita, he says, “You cannot change anybody’s destiny. Raising your hand against a child or a woman in the name of disciplining them is morally wrong. Imposing parental wishes on children is wrong. Becoming good human beings is the solution, and nice things flow.”
Kapoor says he joined the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women because Ms. Sunder Singh, its executive director, is deeply dedicated to its cause. “She has a deep passion for doing good things for fellow human beings.”
He says when he first met her they discussed the abuse of our seniors by their families, child abuse and the problems of new immigrants.
“I found her deeply committed to the community. Under her, the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women is doing a great job of helping women who are being abused and don’t know their rights. Even at the peak of the pandemic, Sunder was out providing help to the needy. She’s a remarkable person.”
He also credits Ms. Sunder Singh with introducing him to Mackenzie Hospital for which he has committed to raising $150,000 over three years.
“People here think why pay when medical facilities are free. But we appealed to them: why don’t we donate to Mackenzie to create facilities for critical illnesses locally when we pay thousands of dollars for treatment across the border.Our appeal worked and we have already raise $50,000.”
As a community builder, Chand Kapoor also serves as chairman of the Gerrard India Bazaar and as president-cum-treasurer of the Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation in Etobicoke.
He has also been associated with the Gerrard India Bazaar as its president for many years.
“Gerrard India Bazaar is the oldest and biggest Indian bazaars in Canada. I got associated with it as we wanted to showcase our culture to other communities. This place has helped us spread awareness about us and today our culture, our food, our dress have become very popular,” he says.
Mr. Kapoor also started his own restaurant Sangeet in the bazaar in 1996. “In starting the restaurant, my focus was to spread a new trend of clay over cooked food with milder taste. We also used to have live music from 10 pm to 2 am at the restaurant. People from mainstream and other communities started loving Indian food,” he says.
He also started Pooja Boutique in the bazaar to showcase India’s traditional costumes.
Under his chairmanship, the TD Festival of South Asia in the bazaar has become a huge annual event attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
And at his 25-acre cottage at Campbellcroft near Port Hope, he regularly hosts celebrities and his friends.
“We jus love being at this beautiful place with a two-acre fish pond. It is surrounded by a wooded area. We hosted Indian Consul General Apoorva Srivastava recently. Many celebrities such as Gippy Grewal and Sherry Mann have been to our cottage and Ali Quli picturized his song Bewafai there.”
Kapoor is also associated with the Indian Senior Social Services Group in Brampton. “The idea is to help our seniors and keep them busy through this group. We hold events for them, we help in arranging funerals for those whose families cannot afford it,” he explains.
His generosity of spirit, time and money is lauded in the community.
