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.
TORONTO: It was Diwali time in 1971. Eid also fell around the same time that year.
So there was holiday spirit in the air, which meant students, workers, professionals and just about everyone could come. The place was Malavli on the Western Ghats on the way from Mumbai (then Bombay) to Pune (then Poona).
The event: Sneha Yatra – India’s Woodstock!
After the successful screening of the movie Woodstock at Eros theatre in Mumbai a year earlier, the music industry thought a similar event in India would be a natural suite and preparations began in full swing. Rock bands from Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay, Goa and several other places were invited to play music of the well known rockers of that time, including Jethro Tull, Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and more.
But it didn’t end there. Many Indian classical musicians were also invited to show their prowess at this breakthrough event.
Among the mountains in the cool night breeze and pleasant day temperatures, with the feel of the earth and grass beneath their cement weary feet, about 4,000-5,000 guys and girls gathered to be bindaas, to be just what you feel like and rap with each other on social issues.
Says Kersi Khambatta, one of the marshals at the event, who now resides in Toronto, "Yaar, it was too much. Youth and all ages came from all over the country. There were music groups from all over India and from the UK also. I remember Kabir Bedi (Indian actor) and his sister who had a snake around her shoulders!”
Yes, indeed, there was Country Funk Revival, Atomic Forest, Twilight Zone, Brief Encounter, Inventions of Mothers (inspired by Frank Zappa’s ‘Mothers of Invention’), Human Bondage and numerous more bands.
Besides these groups , there were individual folk singers like Remo Fernandes (what a beautiful rendition of Don McLean’s American Pie he did!), Ronnie Mistry (known for his covers of Bob Dylan songs ) who is now known as Rohinton Mistry – globally famous author having a star of his own on the Brampton Walk of Fame in Canada. Of course, Sharon Prabhakar was there too.
A few months before he passed away in 2014, Mumbai’s Maharaja of Rock Nandu Bhende, a personal friend of mine, mentioned that his experience was unreal. “Our band was playing at Blow-Up, the nightclub at the Taj Mahal Hotel (now Taj Palace) and as soon as we finished our show there, we all piled into a car and drove like bats out of hell to perform at Sneha Yatra. When we got there, everybody was crashed out under the Id moon crescent surrounded by zillions of stars. Just imagine that scene, Lachman! Serene, calm, cool, surreal and then we slammed into our music routine and woke everybody up. It was like The Who performing in the wee hours of the morning at Woodstock. Like we recreated that magic!”
Nandu was well known to create Dada moments!
Besides rock, and in keeping with Pandit Ravi Shankar’s appearance at Woodstock, there were classical musicians also with sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan accompanied by virtuoso Latif Ahmed on the tabla. Mohammad Rashid Khan and Mohannad Sayeed Khan sang Tansen’s lyrics. Panna Mehta, Kumari Managala, Uday Raikar, Ashok Bellare and many more also performed.
Impromptu discussion and debate groups cropped up led by Professor Raman of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Kabir Bedi. The talks centred on youth identity and their inability to change anything due to the old established customs of Indian mores. Many were afraid that if they spoke up they would be branded and stigmatized thus not being able to get jobs and sustain themselves.
As can be ascertained, the most vocal and most anxious to change the system were those who were not from well to do families. The wrongs of the system hit them the hardest and they were more engaged in the conversations. But alas, no revolution came about. Things moved slowly then. It is only now that one sees things changing at a more rapid pace.
Finally, India’s three day Sneha Yatra inspired by the fabled Woodstock in the US came to end, with most having just enjoyed three peaceful days of music, discussions and fun at India’s first major music festival.
Lal, who made the scene in 1971 and is currently the proud owner of an awesome unique concept Indian restaurant in St. Maarten where one can dine on Indian cuisine while listening to classic rock, says, "Boss, what do you want me to say? There is a famous saying: ‘if you remember the 60s, you weren’t there’. Similarly, if you remember India’s Woodstock, you weren’t there. And I was there.” Make what you will of that!
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Sachin: Who organised the festival?
Lachman BALANI: Thanks for the input folks. Much appreciated. As mentioned there were numerous other bands besides those mentioned.
Mr Bombay Black: I was there..memories .. ..tripping on windowpanes...but the writer forgot about Waterfront...Roger, Trilok, Solid..don't know if Derek had joined at that time..but they were the greatest , playing original tunes. Experimenting with mixed meter, key shifts, and when they covered a classic , did it with their unique signature...
Bomi: I was at this memorable event too, along with my brother and college friends. Remember Adi Cama from Poona, playing the drums, who formed an "on the spur of the moment group" and named them SYPHILIS. Apart from having an upset tummy after eating cold beans from a can, this was indeed
an unforgettable fun experience. 
