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.
There is a saying in the Gujarati language which translates as follows: “Throwing a feast for the pastor, when one’s family members are starving.”
The spate of virtue-signaling policies and announcements by several political leaders in the West regarding migration of illegals brings this saying to mind.
The most famous example of this is, of course, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but we have several such politicians closer to home as well. Our own Prime Minister, Mr. Justin Trudeau, in an act of impetuous immaturity, tweeted an invitation to illegal migrants that, in effect, amounted to the abrogation of the existing rules and systems relating to the processing of refugee claims.
Other politicians at the city level also jumped on the bandwagon, notably Toronto Mayor John Tory. They declared their cities as ‘Sanctuary Cities’, where illegal entrants to Canada would not be reported to the authorities, and where various government services and facilities would be available to them for free.
None of these politicians gave even a passing thought to the consequences of their stance, including financial costs and demands on infrastructure. Now, Mr. Tory is pleading with the federal government for assistance in this regard. The latter, already overwhelmed by the massive influx of illegals from the US, hardly has the time or the resources to respond.
At the provincial level, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, going one step further, asked the Liberal government to declare the entire province as a ‘Sanctuary Province’. She has since made this a part of her election platform. Given her strong position in opinion polls, her promise has to be taken very seriously; it could very well become official policy of the province.
The question that should have been asked of her, but hasn’t been, is this: If both the federal government and the city administrations are unable to cope with the demands on resources placed by illegals, then how does she expect to cope with similar demands at the provincial level?
It is worth noting here that her 100-page long election platform does not factor in any costs associated with declaring Ontario as a ‘Sanctuary Province’. The NDP and Ms. Horwath, claim that their platform is fully costed, however, this significant promise – and financial commitment – appears nowhere in the estimates of expenditures. Even without this provision, the NDP has promised to deliver consecutive deficits for the next five years. Of course, governments deal with the gap between its revenue and its expenditures (i.e. the deficit) by borrowing.
If a government led by the NDP will be borrowing money to meet its existing expenditures already, where will the additional funding that will be required by being a ‘Sanctuary Province’ come from? It is easy to guess the correct answer – by more borrowing, or increased taxes. Will this be a politically sustainable policy? Let’s look at what is happening elsewhere in Canada for the answer.
Prime Minister Trudeau has already started backtracking on his open invitation to illegals to enter Canada. This is evident by his recent messages to the effect that not everyone will qualify for a refugee status in Canada. Insofar as these messages have gone unheeded, we must classify them as feeble. He has also had to resort to sending various government officials, including Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussain, to various countries to stem the flow of illegals into Canada. And, as noted, above, Toronto Mayor John Tory is already issuing pleas for help to cope with the demands placed on the city by the illegals.
But judging from her continuing stance on the issue, Ms. Horwath apparently does not see how various levels of government in Canada are inundated by the consequences of the misguided policy of letting anyone into the country or city regardless of eligibility, and with zero regard for the laws and regulations in place. She seems determined to plow ahead on the path to disaster.
It is easy to undertake expensive charitable actions when someone else is paying the cost. The very foundation of government spending rests on ‘Other People’s Money’. When a government resorts to borrowing, the ‘Other People’ include future taxpayers, including those who are as yet unborn. So any virtue-signaling by politicians in power, that has financial implications, necessarily places an onerous, unnecessary and ultimately ill-advised burden on the taxpayers (including future taxpayers). These taxpayers are the people who are already struggling under heavy taxation, and in a difficult economy. Yet, they will be asked to fork out even more of their hard-earned incomes, just so the politicians can feel good about themselves.
If Ms. Horwath succeeds in winning the election, we may be entering a financially ruinous period for the province of Ontario.
(These are the personal views of the author)
BY THE SAME AUTHOR: Jagmeet Singh's baffling support for BC Premier on Kinder Morgan
