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.
British Raj: 200 years of British rule destroyed India economically as its share of world GDP reduced from 24 percent to just 4 percent By Dinesh K. Sharma NEW DELHI: That the British Raj did incalculable damage to India under 200 years of British colonialism goes without saying. As former Union minister and author Shashi Tharoor points out in this lecture at Oxford University this week, India accounted for over 24 percent of the world's GDP when the British landed in India in the 17th century. And India's share of the world was down to below 4 percent by the time the British left India in 1947. India actually financed Britain's industrial revolution in the 18th century. India was de-industrialised to finance Britain's industrial revolution. India's cotton raw material was shipped to Britain to starve the country's famous handloom weavers. While British cotton mills in Manchester and elsewhere thrived on Indian raw material, world-famous Indian weavers were reduced to beggars. India was forced to buy finished cloth from Britain, turning it into the colonial empire's biggest cash cow. As Shashi Tharoor has rightly pointed out that it is wrong to give the credit for expansion of Indian Railways to the British Raj. The British created only those railway lines which could carry material from the Indian hinterland to ports so that it could be shipped to Britain. Railway lines to hill stations in India were built so the British could enjoy the summers in Indian hill stations. True, we stupid Indians paid for our own oppression by colonial Britain. Our dark-skinned rajas and maharajas flounted their friendship their white firangi masters just like our NRIs in the West today flaunt on Facebook their pictures with some white legislators. The British cunningly destroyed the Sikh empire, and looted its precious possessions, including the famous Kohinoor. The British took away Maharaja Ranjit Singh's little son Duleep Singh, converted him to Christianity and shipped him to Britain. Hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers died defending their colonial masters Britain in two World Wars and today their descendants flaunt their Victoria Crosses or military medals. How shameful! They were mercenaries, after all. While these Indian soldiers were fighting for their colonial masters, the British in India caused the deaths of four million Indians in the Bengal famine. Before the British left India in 1947, they had already sown the deep seeds of the Hindu-Muslim divide. Without the British, India would have remained undivided. [Updated: This article first appeared in 2015]
kirtikummar kantilal patel: I request all indians to beg to uk-govt to divide tot repairation amount by nummber of months from month of1st payment to the month of next election of whole of lndia to get sum payable each month in arrears &to pay this sum only after satisfactory proof that amount of cash stolen from revenue of indian-govt is NIL;ELSE that installment CANT be paid by 1thief to another thief.if nothing was stolen & the installment was paid;some habitual looters may steal ftom that sum when indians will have some consolation that taxes paid by them is safe AT LAST. I wish gandhi bapu is aware of all ills prevailing in india after his death ! Bapu pls rest in peace &dont worry about the thieves who may soon stop stealing billions & will plan to steal trillions because 'LOBH NE THOBH NATHI'.
Zafar Iqbal: Regretfully there are many Indians of Kala Saheb mentality who believe that Britain gave "freedom" to India and that Bristish connected Indian towns through railway lines. Also we do not realize that the Police Department in India was established to protect "looters and their kala sahebs" from common Indians. Unfortunately, the Police department--generally speaking--is still following British rules in India.
kirtikumar: Few Muslims defeated Indians & ruled over India before britishers.a muslim ruler forced many Hindus to adopt Islam as their religion.forced conversion is worse than looting cash china took-over kailash & mansarover from india;when will india claim suitable compensation from muslims & chinnese for such grave loss.after1947 many m.p.s have looted national wealth of india & how people of india can claim suitable compensation from such looters or their heirs?its very good that the current government of india has moved a motion to keep india 'clean' when the same government has no real interest in cleaning their cabinet from corruption.first corrupt govrnment officers fail to stop illegal tree felling from forests & few mps illegally take few acer of forest land & later govern ment request the citizens to plant more trees!it can be very interesting to note gdp,per capita income,& mps remunerations at the time of independence & today.i must thank the mp who want to claim repairation from past rulers,only if his government dont steal from indian treasury & for a short period steal from income of repairation but not from both ! ! !
k.k.patel: India lost a lot in 200 yrs, but what progress has it made in last 68 yrs? Instead of Britishers, corrupt MPs & business moguls are looting its wealth. Many films have1item/daru song & our MPs stoop so low to claim reparation against tenets of Hinduism. It is ok to state full facts including wicknesses & blunders made by our forefathers like Siraj-ud-daula & his likes. Past is gone & cant be corrected now; but what action have Indian MPs taken?
jasbir singh: Very true, the facts are known, However, the blame may also be put on ourselves. For example, after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the mighty Sikh empire was demolished not by Britishers but the Sikh franctions fighting and taking revenge on each other. If Sikhs had joined hands in harmony, no one could touch Prince Duleep Singh and his mother Maharani Jindan Kaur.
CharanS: how about considering this as a Karmic Cycle, Those who performed better karma could get where ever the wealth of the universe was both in terms of assets and knowledge. Ancient knowledge inspired what west is heading to: computers, quantum physics...keep counting. Those who mis- managed assets and Ancient knowledge - lost it.
Ashok BHargava: Bravo Truth must be told, retold over and over again and its context must be understood. 
