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.
BRAMPTON: "Salman! Salman! Salman!" chanted the ecstatic crowd at Silvercity Cinemas in Brampton (Toronto suburb) as Salman Khan, the tremendously physically oriented Bollywood mega-actor, strode on to the outdoor stage to greet the throngs of people at the launch of his production ‘Dr Cabbie’.
Leading up to that final crescendo moment was a musical extravaganza to mark the official kick-off of Dr. Cabbie, a movie about the hardships of foreign educated doctors who immigrate to Canada to pursue their career and instead wind up driving cabs due to the heavy bureaucracy and the long road to re-qualify themselves here in Canada.
The afternoon of über Desi fun in the sun kicked into action with Canadian-born and bred comedian Lilly Singh (aka superwoman, who is a Yutube sensation) taking the stage to deafening applause and cracking a few jokes to set the tone. She then introduced Toronto-born singer Raghav, who rocked the scene with his popular song ‘Fire’, that was a super-hit on the mainstream Canadian airwaves, and then went on to do a number with Hindi and English lyrics.
Following that superb rendition, Lilly Singh introduced Manj Musik and Nindy Kaur who really ‘bhangra’d’ the scene and turned it into a total Desi happening!
Manj really pumped up the audience by often jumping off stage and mingling with the crowd to make them sing along. Par excellence showmanship!
Then the cast of the movie drove on to the scene in the cab that is portrayed throughout the movie to screams of approval from the crowd. Out jumped lead actor Vinay Virmani, Kunal Nayyar (Raj from the famous hit TV series ‘Big Bang Theory’) and Isabel Kaif (Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif’s sister or Little Kat as Salman referred to her).
They introduced their movie and goofed around on stage until co-producer Ajay Virmani came to say a few words and then the big moment, as he prompted the crowd to shout at the top of their lungs for the one and only top gun – Salman Khan!
Yells and hoots of approval greeted Salman, who has more Rs 100-crore movies (his recent movie ‘Kick’ garnered more than Rs. 200 crore at the box office) under his belt than any other Bollywood star. He gave thumbs-up to the acting abilities of the cast and said it was a real pleasure to have met and worked with them and introduced the CD of the movie’s songs which were handed out to a few lucky ones in the crowd by Vinay Virmani.
Samson ( Salman’s nickname) then treated everybody to a couple of songs sung by him in his own voice. It was an afternoon to remember as practically nobody had ever heard him sing live in person.
Finally he jumped off stage to go greet a fan in a wheelchair and wheel him around, in response to a fan of superwoman who had requested her to see what she could do to grant him his request. Thanks to superwoman and Salman, the fan got his wish and met Salman.
Salman also went around to greet the crowd and finally strode off backstage.
As a young spectator burst out enthusiastically, “The best afternoon I have ever spent, usually good times like these happen in the evening or night and we are not allowed to go- so nice of Salmanji to hold it during the day for all his young fans!”
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