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.
Hindu Temple St Johns opened on Mother's Day weekend in 1995
By Swati Sharan HAMILTON: It’s hard to believe 25 years have gone by since St. John’s Hindu Temple off of Torbay Road opened publicly on Mother’s Day weekend 1995. For the Hindu community in St.John’s, this was a great turning point as we exited the old temple in Mount Pearl and entered this one. Hindu Temple St Johns changed how the local Hindus interacted with one another because this temple was closer to them at a five minutes drive. As this temple started, many more functions started taking place too and on a much bigger scale. We now celebrated Navratri in 3 different styles on all nine days vs only the weekend. Ganesh celebrations were now being done over a period of days with a concluding parade of cars treading to Middle Cove Beach for the statue immersion. We gradually saw the addition of different new years celebrations including Ugadi and Gudi Pawa and more. At one point, we could celebrate Independence Day on time and not wait for 1-2 months to get a hall. Taking ones kids to dance classes and drama practices became less of a chore because of less commuting. People were able to actually have different wedding festivities in the temple because of the hall and set up for Hindu ceremonies. In fact, we are even able to conduct celebratory baraats in the temple parking lot with technical evolutions happening all the time. (For those not in the know, this lies in great contrast to the earlier church basement weddings of the 80s where people only focused on the core wedding rituals). [caption id="attachment_84768" align="alignnone" width="640"]
Hindu Temple St John's[/caption]
This temple has also become a great site for the North Indian and South Indian lunch fundraisers for which tickets sell like magic and is highly locally visible. It is also the samosa operations management site for the local Regatta event where samosas sell in the thousands.
Hindu Temple St Johns talks
On other fronts, we were also able to attract more guest speakers of varying kinds. In fact, we were even lucky enough to get the honorable Karan Singh and his wife Yashodhara to grace us with their presence over a weekend celebration which attracted people from all backgrounds including then mayor Andy Wells.
The Saturday talk was on the significance of the Bhagavad Gita while Sunday saw Karan Singh practice and join with us for our bhajan concert program. This was to mark the establishment of the 25th anniversary of a formal Hindu group presence with its start in the old temple in 1976.
Technologically speaking, we rock. The use of power point and mp4s in presentations from people of all sizes became frequent thanks to the big video screen and projector as did watching short educational videos including religious cartoons. There were even some bhajans sung looking at lyrics on the cellphone with internet connectivity to reflect our technical vogue.
Overall, it is safe to say that from the cradle to the hereafter, this temple has become a central hub for celebration and commemoration.
In terms of our founding weekend celebrations, I wish I could be there for what are the routine events this year. The multi-faith seminar is a pet favorite event. It’s such an eye opener to hear people of different faiths express their views about a selected topic and how one thing can have contrasting or similar implications across varying traditions. The different meals we get during the event are also of noteworthy anticipation.
Hindu Temple St Johns celebrations
And of course, there’s nothing like the Mother’s Day celebration for many a Hindu woman in St. John’s. Indeed, it is a celebration upon which these women feel an ordained right. It’s where the men and children do all the cooking, serving and pageant hosting and the women enjoy. (Though at points women do intervene in pageant hosting). Though Mother’s Day is a western tradition, it has made its way into our temple’s calendar because of both being part of our founding weekend and the Hindu tradition of honoring the feminine divine. On this day, every woman gets a rose and a break.
And indeed, what better way to celebrate 25 years than by honouring the life givers of our community! May the progressing years see many more wonderful occasions.
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