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.
Lata Mangeshkar-Bhupen Hazarika affair alleged by Hazarika's widow
By Subhash K Jha MUMBAI: The ongoing tussle between filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi and Priyamvada Patel Hazarika, the estranged wife of her mentor-companion-soulmate of 40 years the late Bhupen Hazarika, has now taken a bizarre turn, with Kalpana resolving to take firm legal action against her for insinuating an affair between Hazarika and Lata Mangeshkar. In an interview to a local TV channel DY365 on Assam, Priyamvada Hazarika has hinted at an affair between her late husband (Bhupen Hazarika) and Lata Mangeshkar. But Lajmi, a life-long devoted companion to Hazarika and also a self-confessed diehard admirer of Lataji, is stunned by what she sees as a “pure sublime relationship between two iconic artistes being reduced to a crass and cheap late-night soap opera by a spurned and angry woman who was obviously looking for revenge.” Kalpana, who left for Assam to prepare for Bhupenda’s firstdeath anniversary on November 5 along with the trust that she has set up on behalf of the late composer, spoke just before her flight took off and asserted her determination to “fight on behalf of Bhupenda and Lataji who don’t deserve this kind of cheap treatment”. Kalpana in fact sent a lengthy SMS to Lataji after the interview that Mrs Priyamvada Hazarika gave to the TV channel. The message reads, “Pujya Pranam Lata Didi. It is with great sadness that I am messaging you. We are all horrified by Bhupenda’s estranged wife of 50 years Priyam’s damaging blasphemous, slanderous, irresponsible interview mentioning your revered self and Bhupenda’s revered self with such cheap and false accusations. The tragedy being Bupenda is not alive to protect your and his tarnished image.” Sounding deeply incensed and wounded by the seemingly irresponsible statements of the late musician’s US-settled estranged wife Kalpana said, “I am too shocked for words. You know as well as I do what a wonderfully healthy creative and spiritual relationship Bhupenda shared with Lataji. He adored her, like we all do. A few years ago when Bhupenda was very unwell he wanted to meet her. Lataji graciously invited him and me home and we spent some time misty-eyed watching Bhupenda’s face light up with reminiscences of the times they shared together as two kindered artistes.When Bhupenda was dying in hospital she called and comforted him like a mother.To make such cheap insinuations can only be the work of bitter vengeful mind. Chee!” Shedding light on the rapport that Bhupenda shared with Lataji, Kalpana says, “Bupenda worshipped Lataji all his life. He said, to me and to you, how fortunate he was to have been born in the same century as Lata Mangeshkar.” Pausing for breath, Kalpana said, “I am on a flight to Assam. It’s Bhupenda’s first death anniversary. The trustees of the Bhupen Hazarika Cultural Trust and I will take legal recourse to combat this defamatory and perverted falsehood. I will fight to my last breath to undo this damage done to Lataji and Bhupenda’s iconoclastic reputation. The Mangeshkar family is going through tough times right now. To burden them with such a cheesy insinuation at a time like this…not done! We’ll fight this out.” READ NEXT: Guru Dutt didn't kill himself over aunty Waheeda Rehman, says Kalpana Lajmi
