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 Renu Mehta BRAMPTON: Hundreds of cinema-goers descended on Brampton’s Cineplex Orion Gate Cinemas to catch a glimpse of the stars walking the red carpet and watch the world premiere of the Canadian film Knot Not! Directed by Indo-Canadian director Brinda Muralidhar, the movie, that explores a deep social issue with a global resonance, drew a full house, with the cast and crew in attendance. The screening took place on October 13 at the Cineplex Orion Gates in Brampton and began with a red carpet celebrity walk and a Q&A session attended by a prominent audience mix. It was followed by a brief introduction of the director followed by the world premiere screening. A brief Q&A took place after the screening, after which the audience got the opportunity to wine and dine with the stars at the after-party. A coming of age story of Mohan (Dilip Krishnamurthy) and his family, the film is about the young man from South India who arrives in Canada for higher studies. Soon he makes friends with Patricia Smith (Jessica Siegner) a pleasant, independent Canadian girl. All is well until Mohan’s parents Srinivas and Padma arrive in Canada. Srinivas, who is a bully, wants Mohan to marry Lakshmi (Suniti Santosh) daughter of his Indo-Canadian friend, the light-hearted Bhaskar (Nat Pennathur). Lakshmi is a delightful girl who cherishes great family values. Mohan likes her, but before he embarks on his new journey, he has a major task to complete; he is yet to figure out what he wants! Knot Not! is a story that needs to be told over and over again as long as marriages do happen wherever in the world!, says Brinda Muralidhar, who gives the credit of her first feature to her husband Gunny Muralidhar, also the producer and Cinematographer of the film. WATCH: Gunny Muralidhar speaks on his film Knot Not! “Knot Not! holds a mirror to society and is for every relationship that springs out of two people coming together. There is imbalance in every relationship, be it husband and wife, or friends and relatives,” she said at the premiere. The movie, shot in English, has been produced in Canada, with Canadian talent with the shooting taking place mostly in parts of the Greater Toronto Area. Focused towards young adults as well as mature audience who enjoy content driven films, the film is filled with moments that are thought provoking while fun inducing and anger evoking. “The name of the film Knot Not! is very significant. Knot is for the people who follow the rules and Not is for those who don’t“ “Whenever you see any imbalance in any relationship, especially in a couple, even good friends turn a blind eye saying it’s not our business. Believe me, there is a lot of abuse out there. Where there is a victim, there is a bully. And it is our duty to stop that abuse; we have to start somewhere to intervene to stop the bullying. ” said the first time film director. The film is about stopping the bad beginnings, said Muralidhar. “The central subject of Knot Not! is something that has distressed me for a long time. I have witnessed similar stories in my own circles. While there are many families that are flourishing happily, in a myriad of ways many families are crumbling. Knot Not! has one such theme that has allowed me to explore two important aspects: ‘why so’? And ‘now what?” “I believe good films offer a great opportunity to hold mirror to the society, to ask questions and to offer at least one solution from the point of view of the writer,” says Brinda who believes it was very important to tell this story. RELATED: Brinda Muralidhar gets going with her award-winning film Knot Not!
