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: D day for younger daughter Ahana is around the corner. And ‘Dream Girl’ Hema Malini is fully into preparing for the event. Says the radiant mother of the bride-to-be, “The wedding is on 2 February. We’re all so excited. I don’t feel as if I am giving away another daughter in marriage. Instead it feels like two sons are being added to my family. Both Esha and Ahana’s partners are so loving, caring and affectionate towards both me and Dharamji.” Hema has double reason to celebrate, as Sholay has opened in a new 3D avatar. Says Hema Malini, “I saw parts of the 3D version. Dharamji has seen the whole film in 3D. We both love what they’ve done. All those bullets flying into the audiences’ faces and horses galloping out of the screen adds to the excitement of the original. See, we have to move on with the times gracefully.” The yesteryears’ marquee queen, who has done two other films Andaz and Seeta Aur Geeta with Sholay director Ramesh Sippy, says, “ ‘Dream Girl’ and ‘Basanti’ are the two names by which fans call me out. These are almost like my surnames. My mother didn’t allow me to keep our family name ‘Chakravarthy’. But Ananth Swamiji who discovered me for the screen gave me the epithet of ‘Dream Girl’. And that stuck. Later Ramesh Sippy made me play Basanti. And that became the other name I am known by to this day.” Speaking about the enduring popularity of the Basanti character, Hema says, “I guess it’s the chirpiness of the character that appealed to people. I did two other very important films of my career with Ramesh Sippy. But it’s Sholay’s Basanti that has the most recall value.” Hema’s role inRamesh Sippy’s Seeta Aur Geeta is also her political party the BJP’s leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s favourite. Recalls Hema, “When I met Atalji for the first time, he wouldn’t look at me. He seemed very embarrassed and uncomfortable. I wondered why until someone from his team told me that he’s a big fan of my film Seeta Aur Geeta. Atalji has seen it 25 times.” It was Atalji’s 89th birthday on 25 December. Hema attended the party and recited poetry for her eminent fan which moved him to tears. Says Hema, “Everybody was reciting poetry for Atalji so I thought why not me? Incidentally, I wore a saree gifted to me by Lataji for Atalji’s birthday. I even clicked a picture of me in the saree and sent it to Lataji. She and I go back a long way. I am very fond of her. Until recently I didn’t know she was so fond of me.” Hema says it wasn’t easy shooting for Sholay. “We shot in the blistering sun in a place near Bangalore where there were no hotels or rest houses.I was in full make-up with wigs and costume riding on my tonga. It was tough.” Speaking of her enduring passion for wigs, Hema says, “I could never do without wigs. During those days we actresses were required to sport all kinds of hairstyles, from French cuts to curly hairs. For Gulzar’s Meera I needed straight falling hair and for Sholay I needed a more curly look.I couldn’t subject my real hair to all this strain. Hence the wigs. Once I ceased to use wigs I gave them all away…dozens and dozens of my wigs to fans hairdressers and transvestites.” READ ALSO: 20 facts about Dream Girl Hema Malini
