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.
___________________
Patrick Moore is a freehand drawing artist and freelance music writer.
TORONTO: Though there are some Canadian-born soldiers of Indian origin in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), there is now a big opportunity for young Indian immigrants to wear the military uniform in this country.
The Canadian Armed Forces are currently at all-time low in manpower even as their emoluments and perks are among the best in the world. In order to fill these vacancies, they have lowered the standards of entrance and medical tests to attract new recruits.
Because of its geographical location and defence guarantees from the US (under NATO), Canada never paid much attention to its defence forces. But in view of new threats emerging from Russia and China, this country has to ensure to keep its forces at the maximum level. Moreover, there is pressure from US and other NATO members on Canada to accord priority to its neglected defence forces by dedicating at least two per cent of its GDP to them.
So almost after years of neglect to upgrade its military hardware, aircraft, ships and submarines, Canada has now realized that it has a deficiency of military manpower to the tune of approximately 20,000 personnel. There is some sense of urgency to upgrade the armed forces.
But where can the new manpower for the Canadian Armed Forces come from?
In my opinion, this offers an opportunity for international students from India awaiting permanent residency in Canada to consider the armed forces as a career. They pay well, have a number of perks, sponsor further studies, and have good pension schemes. Such emoluments must attract the Indian-origin youth in Canada.
The Canadian constitution has a provision that, in order to fill up deficiencies of manpower in their forces, they can offer recruitment to desirous non-permanent residents too in exchange for early grant of PR and later citizenship. If accepted, it will be win-win for Indian students and the Canadian Armed Forces.
But adequate information on the recruitment system is not available to the Indian youth residing in Canada.
To fill this gap, our organization – the Veteran Association of Ontario – has undertaken the task to help the Indian-origin youth in Canada to learn about their armed forces, their recruitment system and motivate them to consider joining them in large numbers to exploit the current opportunity.
This will help them get employment with respect and many of them can pursue higher studies with the support of the Canadian Government. They will have better acceptance in Canadian society and make them better Canadians.
Through this article, I urge all our readers to please spread word among the eligible youth to consider joining the Canadian Armed Forces. If anyone needs some guidance, they can contact our organization. We will be pleased to guide them through the recruitment process.
The recruitment of Indian-origin youth in the Canadian Armed Forces will help foster better people-to-people relations between India and Canada which are currently not enjoying the best of relations. We hope our two well-established democracies will soon have a very robust relationship as in the past.
Indian recruits will also add to the diversity of the Canadian Armed Forces which currently have only 12 percent personnel from visible minorities.
To go back in time, our association with the Canadian Armed Forces goes back to the First World War when many Sikh soldiers fought for Canada. Buckam Singh, along with nine other Sikhs, was one of them who won the Victoria Medal. His grave is in Kitchener.
Sikh soldiers also earned laurels during World War II while fighting for Canada and the Allied Forces. That’s why many Canadian war veterans hold Indian troops in high regard for their valour.
We have a great opportunity to keep our soldiering tradition alive in Canada and thus become a more integral part of Canadian society.
