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: The legendary filmmaker Kamal Amrohi’s property is embroiled in an ugly legal dispute involving his two sons the late Shandar Amrohi and the younger son Tajdar , and believe it or not, Preity Zinta whom Shandar had “adopted” as a daughter. But in a startling turn of events, Tajdar – who admits to sharing strained relations with his brother Shandar – says Preity was never interested in the Amrohis’ property. Speaking with candour, Tajdar says, “My brother always felt I was parents’ favourite child. Even in adulthood I got all the media attention. They came to me for anything people wanted to know about my father. Shandar felt complexed by the fact that I was the face of the Amrohi family. My brother and his wife had no children. From out of the blue he took a fancy to Preity Zinta. I guess somewhere somehow he wanted a strong support system for himself. Otherwise if he needed a child why not adopt an orphan? Why Preity when she lacked nothing? My brother embarrassed her with his attentions. She would be in an IPL meeting or shopping in Colaba, and Shandar would call her home urgently. The poor girl would leave her work and rush home. But he never called him her dad or anything. Shandar resented that she didn’t reciprocate his feelings.” Tajdar gives Preity a clean chit. Praising Preity profusely, he says, “The girl was unnecessarily dragged into all this. Preity was persuaded into being nice to my brother because he kept showering her with flowers and other gifts. Preity and her mother wondered why was this man was being so generous to her. When Preity finally met Shandar, he broke down and wept about his loneliness. My brother’s wife Shahida Bhabhi is a great cook. She’d make great food and Preity would sit on the floor in the traditional way and eat with them. Preity knew all the top lawyers whom she lent to my brother to fight with me and to fight those who claiming rights over our property.” Tajdar says the right with his brother dates back to the time when Shandar got into wrong habits and started secretly selling off property and shares belonging to both brothers. “He was always in need of money for his vices. Some people exploited his financial needs and tried to become a director in the film studio owned by the family. I single-handedly protected our father’s studio and property from all kinds of greedy elements. Eventually Shandar and Rukhsar sold off their stakes in the studio. But I held on. It was my father’s last legacy. All kinds of pressures were put on me to sell out. I agreed to sell off. By this time Preity Zinta had come into the picture. She was a blessing in my brother’s life. Shandar declared he’d make Preity his rightful heir. Aisa kuch toh hua nahin. So why drag her into the matter?” Tajdar confesses he too was close to Preity. “She came close to me and my family, albeit secretly as she didn’t want Shandar to be hurt. Even after my brother passed way two years ago, she kept up warm relations with me, my wife and my two sons. Preity is warm, outspoken, jokey and we love her for that. She’d watch television with my wife and children, get her nails polished in my home…She always wondered why we two brothers couldn’t see eye to eye. The thing was, I was showered with Choti Ammi (Meena Kumari)’s attentions. She openly declared I was her favourite. Naturally that didn’t go down too well with my brother. She never treated me like a stepson,and to me she was as precious as my biological mother. Both my brother Shandar and sister Rukhsar resented my closeness to Choti Ammi. To her credit, Choti Ammi being an accomplished actress pretended to love my siblings as much as me. But her partiality towards me couldn’t be concealed. When my brother and I were in boarding school in Dehradun, we’d receive gifts from Choti Ammi. The parcel only bore my name. Feelings can’t be forced. If Choti Ammi favoured me, what can I do?” Until 2003 Tajdar and Shandar stayed in the same home Rambrandt Apartments, albeit in a divided apartment with a plywood wall separating the two brothers. “We were separated in the house by a token wall. But we could hear all the conversation on both sides.In 2003 my wife, children and I shifted out.” One disputed property Cozihom, says Tajdar, was inherited by both the sons from his parents Kamal Amrohi and his second-wife the actress Meena Kumari. “The people claiming property rights over Cozihom have dragged poor Preity Zinta into the matter. They’ve already lost the case once and the honourable court has ordered them to hand over the property peacefully to me. But they’ve gone into appeal.I have offered to re-develop the property. I am being absolutely fair to them. But they are trying every means to delay. Bringing Preity Zinta into the picture is their latest trick when she has no interest in our property.” Says Tajdar, “The trust formed by my father and Choti Ammi clearly stated that after their demise the property would go to my brother and I. The trust didn’t even mention our sister. After my parents expired, the land was transferred in the name of my brother and I. Allah knows I’ve given Shandar and his wife every penny that is rightfully theirs. And Shandar’s wife, my Bhabhi has admitted this in court. READ ALSO: 5 love affairs of Preity Zinta
