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.
By Lachman Balani BRAMPTON: Good ol’ Brampton transformed into Rocksville as Australian-born cricket lover and rocker Rick Springfield slammed into his old favourites and new rock-offerings enthralling the crowd in the cozy atmosphere of the Rose Theater! As the lights dimmed the female dominated audience went crazy as Rick hit the stage and they espied his silhouette. Shrieks and screams filled the auditorium as the lights came on again and Rick opened up with a song from his new album Songs for the end of the world backed by an intense band comprised of Brampton boy George Bernhardt, George Nastos, Paul Trudeau, and Rodger Carter. He followed with an old favourite of his ’I’ve done everything for you’ really infusing energy into the crowd. He then announced he just had his 64th birthday and broke into a short clip of the Beatles’ “when I’m sixty four” flowing into his cover of Wings’ “Jet” with his raucous fans joining in! Rick had hit just the right chords with his audience. He then let loose with his hits really sending electric vibes into the theatre and captivating his enthusiastic fans with “Our ship’s sinking”, “I hate myself”, “What kinda fool am I” and “Love is alright tonite”, all the while throwing away souvenir plectrums into the crowd with his photo on one side and ‘End of the World Tour’ written on the other. He banged his guitar with several bouquets of flowers sending all the petals flying into the animated patrons who loved every moment of it! Two eager fans held up huge lit up letters ‘R’ and ‘S’ waving them with frenzy and another threw her underwear up on stage! Brampton was alive! He then ran down into the crowd and slammed into an amazingly long guitar freak-out finally breaking into The Troggs’ “Wild Thing (you make my heart sing, you make everything groovy)” sending the audience asunder! More fandemonium ensued as he followed with “Human Touch”, lengthening the version as he climbed over the chairs of the theatre and walked in the aisles touching everyone. It was a treat for all those present! Everybody got a piece of him! Then things slowed down as he did a couple of ballads, dedicating one of them to his Dad with whom he would sit and watch cricket, from where he learnt to love the game(well Aussies are indeed great at that game). The tempo picked up again with “Love screws me up” and he then followed with “Don’t talk to strangers” once again engaging the crowd by jumping down and walking all over the chairs of the auditorium and through the aisles asking many on a one-to-one basis to repeat the lyrics after him. This was Rick at his best!
Back to the stage and a couple more songs before he blew everybody’s minds with his all time hit that took the planet by storm way back in 1981- “(I wish I had ) Jessie’s Girl”-and still reverberates till today. There was no stopping anybody as they all got up and danced like nobody’s watching and sang along. This song feeds every guy’s imagination and lust as it talks about how one guy wishes he had his best friend’s girlfriend .This was Rick at his greatest!
