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 Subhash K Jha
Mumbai: With Deepika Padukone slamming a publication (the Times of India) for its cheap cleavage remarks, her Bollywood colleagues have applauded her courage.
The newspaper ran a story and tweeting a photo of Deepika with the caption: 'OMG: Deepika Padukone's cleavage show.'
Deepika hit back by saying, "Yes! I am a Woman. I have breasts and a cleavage! You have a problem!!??"
Here is how her Bollywood colleagues are standing by her:
Tapsee Pannu: "I so wish all of us would object to the objectification of women at the right time, and in one collective voice, as Deepika has done because I can assure you all actresses go through this. All that the internet media is bothered about is the number of hits on their pages. And ethics be damned. It’s not just the publication that Deepika has slammed but so many others which publish such compromising pictures. Some of these portals are so thick-skinned nothing affects them.
Dia Mirza: “Deepika has stirred up a hornest’s nest. A section of the media has for years treated women in the entertainment industry disgracefully. TV and internet have mainly led to sensationalism. Some papers use their entertainment pages to objectify women. I know many people who have unsubscribed these publications. The irony of it is that these same publications get paid hefty amount of money from us for sponsored stories. It was about time someone reacted.It will be interesting to see if there will actually be a change in the attitude of that section in the media which thrives on objectifying celebrity women. I am very proud of Deepika.”
Gauhar Khan: “This is the general outlook of a section of the media today. They sensationalize even at the cost of the actors and their own dignity. It makes my blood boil. I am glad Deepika gave back as good as she got. I went through a similar experience with a tv channel recently and I didn’t let it go either. Just because we are public figures doesn’t mean we should allow any kind of behaviour.”
Malaika Arora: “Way to go, girl. She said it exactly the way it should be. Put the yellow journalists in their place.”
Richa Chaddha: “The paparazzi is forever covering us at events...or should I say, uncovering us? They zoom in on private parts of a woman’s body. Youtube is filled with sick videos of alleged ‘wardrobe malfunctions’. About time someone took a stand. Actors are public figure,not public property.”
Nimrat Kaur: “The fearlessness and intolerance for such pepper-spray worthy reportage is what all of us should display. Only Deepika has dared to show us what role models are made of..This is an extremely important message being sent out om behalf of thousands of women who get humiliated daily in one way or another.”
Reema Kagti: “It’s good that Deepika stood up for herself. A section of the media has hit an all-time low. The way the Shweta Prasad case was handled last week made that quite apparent.”
Celina Jaitley: “Passing a comment on a woman’s cleavage is absolutely disgusting. It falls under the category of sexual harassment.I am so glad Deepika stood up against it.”
Swara Bhaskar: “I say, “Good ON her. It’s great and inspiring to see women stand up for their own bodies and dignity. More power to her.”
