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.
NEW DELHI: In a starling accusation, a former close aide of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who has been arrested for molesting a 16-year-old girl, claims the controversial spiritual guru has built three ashrams across India for women, who are no more than his "keep", according to Daily Bhaskar. “Apart from these, he also keeps many women in separate rooms built in each ashram. Though old, Asaram Bapu needs young girls in the age group of 15 to 25 daily. He may not touch the same woman for a year, as he needs a new girl every time,” the daily quotes Amrut Prajapati, who worked as a technical officer of the Ayurvedic division at Asaram Bapu’s Motera ashram for 12 long years. Prajapati further claimed that women are killed if they try to resist the godman’s advances. “These women were then shown to have committed suicide. There must be an inquiry on how many men or women have committed suicides in his ashrams or how many dead bodies were found in the river behind his Motera ashram,” alleged Prajapati. “One day, I was allowed to see him inside his private room, as he was severely ill. Since the guards knew me well, I went straight to his room and found Asaram Bapu in a compromising position with a 25-year-old girl, who used to stay in the ashram. This was the turning point for me,” said Prajapati. READ ALSO: Rape is no sin for me, said Asaram Bapu Asaram Bapu’s official website www.ashram.org is a portal of self adulation by the guru. It boasts of how ‘Asumal’ turned his fortune in four decades to become Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu who built an empire that stretches beyond the boundaries of the country. Prajapati explained how the spiritual guru turned his ‘humble abode’ on the banks of Sabarmati to an empire comprising over 400 ashrams in India and abroad. Prajapati resigned to start practice at his own clinic at Odhav as an Ayurvedic doctor. He had worked with Asaram Bapu from 1986 to 2001. Prajapati claimed to have left the Ashram during 2004 after being threatened. Despite being under threat, he gave his statement to Justice DK Trivedi commission, who was appointed to investigate the deaths of Dipesh and Abhishek Vaghela and has been vocal against the godman ever since. “Before I joined his ashram as a salaried technical officer of their Ayurveda medicine division in 1986, Asaram Bapu used to sell churans manufactured in his ashram, without any licence. At that time, he used to sit at his small Kutiya on the riverbank near Motera, which later on became the ashram. During the eighties, not more 200 people used to visit Asaram. With my technical help, he started expanding his Aurveda market and started selling many products to his devotees,” said Prajapati. “First, he never pays any tax for whatever products he sells. Almost all the ashrams are built on agricultural land without permission. He owns more than 500 vehicles, which, however, are not shown as his property. He never even pays toll tax while travelling by road,” Prajapati said. According to Prajapati, Asaram Bapu charges huge money to visit a devotee’s house. “He may charge anything between Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh just for the visit. He has an army of agents to find out how much money can be charged from the aspirant devotee. This money is then given on interest. Asaram Bapu has 75% stake in a popular Delhi-based jeweler showroom, which has many branches,” Prajapati claimed. Prajapati gave a very interesting reason behind Asaram Bapu’s huge following. “He preaches high values and claims that he is omnipresent by referring that one of his devotee saw him in his dreams. Thus, out of 10 people listening to his discourse, at least two will see Asaram Bapu in their dreams a day later, thinking that Asaram Bapu is no less than god. They then tell their experience to 100 more people. This is how people started thinking that Asaram Bapu is divine. However, he is just playing with their minds,” Prajapati claims. Giving similar views, Praful Vaghela, former Asaram Bapu devotee and father of Dipesh Vaghela, claimed that Asaram Bapu applies his unique modus operandi to acquire land and gain support of politicians. “He always invites influential personalities, such as ministers and MLAs while conducting satsangs. Thus, the invited guests are left with no other option than to praise Asaram Bapu for his activities. Using such testimonials, he approaches the local government and asks them to give him land for his ashram and other social activities. This is how he acquired land and made influential people his disciples. Thus, no one dares to touch him,” Vaghela claimed.
Raj Chandak, another close associate of the godman, claims to be privy to numerous illegal activities at his Jaipur ashram. Chandak has been shot at and wounded by three bullets following his deposition before the Trivedi Commission formed to probe mysterious deaths of Abhishek and Depesh Vaghela. They went missing from the Ashram and later their body was recovered from a place near the ashram.
``I have seen Asaram having sex with a woman at Jaipur Ashram," Raj Chandak has deposed before the Trivedi commission."I had not seen that lady before, most likely she was a devotee paying visit to him,'' he further said in his statement.
He recorded his statement on May 23, 2011. Trivedi commission has submitted the report to the government. (Courtesy Bhaskar) READ NEXT: What happened when godman Asaram Bapu took young girl in his `dhyan ki kutiya'
sananda chandra: suraj paschim me ug sakta hai,lekin asaram bapu aisa kam kavi nehi kar sakte.App bolenge to me kavi nehi manunga.
rajeev lall..: us pirit ladki ke to saris ka balatkat kiya mere to vishwas or aatma ka isne balatkat kiya iska poorv bakht
sudhakar: like u like u the nonsense people.. like asaram are taking advantage.....
mohinder: Very upset with him, do you personally know him. Did he failed to cure your incestuous desires! Sorry to hear about that!
MOHINDER: And how come you are impotent at such a young age!
sachin: Yeh madhar chod asaram salsa bahut bad a haraami hai ...iski gand kutton se marwaao...aur isko follow Karne walon ko pagal khaane bhejo.
brahmanand sharma: Kya ho gya h ensan ko kaise kaise ku karm karne laga h ,,,,hm nahi jante Ki asaram ne ye sab kiya h Ki nahi pr ese aropi ko kadi se kadi saja deni chahiye
Rishi: all this is fake and bullshitt.. Paid media.... 
