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.
Agencies MUMBAI: The #Metoo movement has engulfed India’s up-and-coming poetry star Shamir Reuben. The 23-year-old poet has been accused by multiple women of graphic sexual texting. He has been accused of asking underage girls to send him nude photos. The latest to level allegations of sexual misconduct is Mumbai student Sakina Bootwala, 19, who says in an Instagram post that Reuben started ``sexting’’ her after they met at a social event in 2015. “With the whole Weinstein thing and people speaking out so much, I thought it was high time that we stop his (Reuben’s) hypocrisy – he posted something in support of the #metoo campaign. It’s high time he got called out on (his misconduct),'' she was been quoted as saying by Mumbai Mirror. Bootwala's post opened the floodgates as at least 30 women have contacted her to tell about `sexting' by Reuben. She said Reuben ``came across as a sweet guy’’ and ``he started off with a compliment. Then the conversation became a little uncomfortable…” Another woman says, “He forced me to send nudes and engage in sexual conversations through messages. I never did. Then he came to Delhi and asked me to meet him and then he tried kissing me in an auto.’’ Yet another woman has written, ``He began to manipulate me and boasted so much about how he had it so easy with most girls…Eventually I distanced myself but he kept messaging me and I lost all respect for him. It’s heart-breaking to see your ideals stoop this low.” And yet another 21-year-old Pune girl has been quoted by Mumbai Mirror as saying, ``I started speaking to Shamir when I was 16. We remained on a cordial basis for around two to three years. Around a year ago, in a particularly low period of my life, I messaged him one day seeking emotional support, perhaps a listening ear or simply just a distracting conversation. It took him no time at all to steer the conversation towards flirting and, even more quickly, to a sexual place. This involved hypothetical questions along the lines of ‘How would you react if I was kissing you right now?’ to asking for nudes. Asking is perhaps a mild word for what it was – let’s use haranguing. I told him I wasn’t interested, that I wasn’t in the mood, that it was inappropriate, and that I was in a relationship. Nothing seemed to matter. He kept on. The insisting repeated the next night. “He harangued me to a point where I agreed to ‘sext’ him. This primarily involved him talking about what he was fantasizing about and me sending monosyllabic replies. Later when I confronted, he conveniently put the blame on me that I wasn’t clear about my stand on the matter.” But the young poet has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct. In a facebook post on Thursday, he said, “I genuinely do not believe my messages or actions would cause them hurt, and I sincerely hope that I can be forgiven by all those that I may have inadvertently wronged. Several things said are an incorrect portrayal of past events during 2013-2016, and the messages shared form part of longer conversations.” Interestingly, Shamir became known for supporting feminist causes. He penned 'I don't want a daughter anymore' in 2016 in dedication to Delhi gangrape victim Nirbhaya. He has also supported the #MeToo movement. Shamir has been suspended from his job as head of content and social media at Kommune which is a a collective body of artists, producers, patrons, collaborators and art lovers. He was supposed to attend Story Fest Chandigarh, but his invitation has been cancelled.
Pat: In India, ladies are discovered carrying circular arm bands of varied colours, popularly often known as Chudi, which signifies Hindu woman's marital status. In India, not often would you find a woman sporting lower than two bangles. 
