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.
Agencies TORONTO: Canada’s known Punjabi writer and University of British Columbia former teacher Sadhu Binning this week enriched Canada’s Punjabi literary scene by adding another book. The 170-page book called Nastik Bani (which literally means an atheist’s diary) was released at the Recreation Centre, North Delta, in British Columbia this Sunday at a function organized by the Punjabi Artists’ Association of Richmond (PAAR) and Watan magazine. "I have been an atheist since the age of 20 and this book is essentially a reflection of my worldview,’’ said Sadhu Binning, who retired from the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British in 2008, in an interview after the release of the book. He said he never paid any attention to his atheist beliefs, but after his retirement he started seriously reflecting on his worldview and decided to explore atheism. A spurt in literature on atheism during this period - the last four or five years - only reinforced his interest in this area, he said. "We had these great writers and thinkers such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett expounding upon the non-existence of a creator during this period...it almost became a movement in the West. Maybe the trigger was George Bush’s `us-versus-them' statement that made lots of people think seriously about religion. For me, everything I thought was reinforced by these books,’’ said Binning who came to Canada in 1967. Then he had much to fall back upon in his native India where the history of the school of atheism goes back almost 2,500 years to the time of Carvaka. ``Buddhism and Jainism, which were born more than 2,000 years ago, also didn’t believe in a creator. In recent times, lots of famous Indians - from Periyar to Bhagat Singh - were atheist. So in one sense I was not following the western trend blindly to reinforce my worldview. Then, we had seen the start of a strong rationalist movement in Punjab just three decades ago. Finally, I know that lots of our people don’t believe in a creator, but they don’t say it openly. So I thought I must speak out, and this book is the result.’’ After 20-odd pages devoted to introduction, the book carries about 700 quotations - from Carvaka to the Buddha to Greek philosophers to Nehru to Bhagat Singh to Gadar heroes to Khushwant Singh to Taslima - with a little description for each. ``I have not copied from one source and I have been very eclectic in my selection. The youngest writer I have quoted is Hirsi Ali. And fittingly I have devoted the book to Bhagat Singh whose `Why I am an atheist’ influenced me a lot,’’ said Binning who has played a crucial role in the promotion of the Punjabi language in British Columbia which is home to the largest concentration of Punjabis in the western world. Sadhu Binning said it took him three years to compete the book which has been brought out by Chetna Prakashan in Ludhiana. READ ALSO: Punjabi second most spoken tongue in Canada
Sadhu Binning: Dear Gurpreet Singh. Thanks for your kind words about Nastik Bani. I have not come across this book by Soham Swami. I will look for it and if I find it I will let you know. There are many new books about atheism that have been written in the last decade or so. Books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet, Christopher Hitchens and many others can be helpful in understanding negative effects of religion and why we need atheism. I can be reached by email: [email protected]
gurpreet singh: i like u r book , and i realy appreciate that , i want some more book for that topic please help me , i want soham swami's book common senses i had tried my best but that book not found me , i hope u help me for provide that book . thanks
nastik bani book is very very good
pawandeep singh: I have read this book this book is the best Punjabi book to related atheism.thisbookis best.
bhupinder verma: I would like to purchase this book if you can please tell me where to buy it.
Thank you
Sandeep S. Saini: I am very happy that Punjabis in Canada are contributing to enrich Punjabi literature. 
