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.
Franky Dias, who has a full-time job with Scotiabank, says his first novel is set against the backdrop of Indian mythology and western philosophy
News East West TORONTO: Franky Dias, the author of the recently released novel The Taste of Water, is an unassuming man. And for this Toronto Indo-Canadian, who also holds a full-time job at Scotiabank, writing is pure hobby. As he puts it, capturing his meandering thoughts into prose is pure fun. Over a cup of tea in Mississauga, Franky Dias opens up about himself, his maiden writing venture and what his novel is all about and the two worlds – the East and the West – he straddles. The Taste of Water, Dias says, depicts the effervescence of his tiny village in Mangalore which is the source of inspiration for writing this novel. Its plot centres around Victor who left his south Indian village for the West. Having enriched himself materially in the West, Victor is drawn back to his village by the taste of its water, and the “fragrance of jasmine and the colour of the earth.” The novel captures the magical quality in this tiny village – full of life, adventurous, and funny. Here are the excerpts from the interview: Franky Dias, please tell us briefly about `The Taste of Water’. In a nutshell, this novel weaves history and folklore. Humour, irreverence and adventure on two continents in a sweeping story spanning three generations set against the backdrop of Indian mythology and western philosophy. Since your village forms the backdrop to your novel, what was your childhood like growing up in that village? My village was a tiny piece of land, in between a small valley, with rivers and streams, mountains, trees, areca nut trees. There was no electricity. Life was a wild living adventure – fishing, catching rabbits, and doing all kinds of mischief like any normal boy of that age will do. Were you into writing from the beginning? I was into theatre and musicals. I had a keen ear for music, and I loved writing lyrics and composing the tunes. In 1977, I collaborated with Remo Fernandez and composed a piece called Jazz Yathra. Ours was a family of readers and my brother-in law was a prolific Konkani playwright. So where did you get the inspiration to write? I was inspired by a blind old lady from my village. This old lady was a great story-teller. She used to narrate amazing stories about life, our existence and maya. The kids of the village used to be so fascinated that they used to sit around her listening to her tales. Perhaps I carried the memories of her story-telling all the way. Tell us how `The Taste of Water’ happened. I was recuperating after a surgery to replace a defective aortic valve. While I was convalescing in my cottage at Wyton, I decided to give shape to the characters of my childhood from my poetic village. In reality, I wanted to share the serene bliss of my childhood with my two children. Soon I began to write with full vigour which is when the canvass grew larger, the characters from the village came alive and I could not stop the flow till I finished this novel. What has influenced your thinking and writing? I have always been interested in Indian mythology, the gods… where each character in itself is an enormous volume of study. I have also delved into Buddhism. And I am very much interested in yoga and I do practise pranayama for a balanced life. I have gone reasonably deep into Indian mythology and when one is able to grasp the essence of it, it heals our entire being. Any characters in Indian mythology who have influenced you deeply? The characters of Indian mythology have redeeming features. They have compassionate as well as destructive elements as we see in real life. Some gods such as Shiva and Kali are destructive while others such as Vishnu and Krishna are compassionate. The law of Karma that says what goes around will come back is quite evident in our mythological stories. In essence, one can live a balanced life if one takes a keen interest in Indian mythology. Is creativity inborn or can it be taught? I am of the opinion that pure creativity is inborn like composing a piece of music out of imagination, whereas creativity can also be taught by life experiences like an artisan building a monument. What is your advice to budding writers? Write when thoughts come to your mind, and never postpone. Set time to write and start writing regularly. Keep your mind active and manage time well. Finally, what do we expect next from you? My next work is titled `Thunderstorm in Vermont’. It is the story of two people on a road trip who meet when their individual lives are at a crossroads.
