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 last day’s shooting for Zanjeer on Monday, May 13, was also the final day of Sanjay Dutt’s shooting before he goes into prison. Understandably, it was a very emotional moment, laden with much talk of assumed bravado, false optimism and genuine nostalgia. Says an eyewitness from the set, “The final shots of Zanjeer were taken at the Chandivali Studio in suburban Andheri. Look at Sanjay Dutt’s spirit! He drove all the way from his residence in Pali Hill to the studio which is a good two-hour drive, leaving behind his wife and kids with whom he wants to spend the final days of freedom. But since everyone else had flown in for the final shot from different cities Sanjay had to be there.” For that final day of shooting Priyanka Chopra had flown in from Goa, Ramcharan Teja from Norway and Srihari - who plays Dutt’s role in the Telugu version of Zanjeer - came in from Hyderabad. The atmosphere on the sets was “charged, emotional but controlled.” Says the eyewitness, “Everyone kept the spirit light and even. We all felt the weight of what we were doing. I mean, sh.t man! This was Sanjay Dutt’s final shot for the next three years. I don’t know how we all kept laughing and joking. Gifts were exchanged and everyone tried to keep calm. But everyone was disturbed. Many times we saw tears well up in Sanjay’s eyes. It was a very, very sad moment.” Sanjay Dutt left the shooting with a smile asking everyone to pray for him. The actor will surrender before a special TADA court here on Thursday. When he goes to jail, his life will change drastically. As a prisoner, he will have to choose a profession such carpet weaving, carpentry or leather work. For his labour, he will be paid Rs 25 daily. He will also be allowed to get Rs 1,500 per month from his family who will be allowed to meet him once a month for 20 minutes. The actor was first arrested in April 1993 after an AK-56 rifle and a 9mm pistol were recovered from him. He spent 18 months in jail. The AK-56 was part of a consignment of weapons smuggled from Pakistan into India to cause the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993. The serial blasts, which were aimed to revenge the destruction of the Babri Masjid and subsequent riots in Mumbai, were planned by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who is hiding in Pakistan. In the 13 blasts that rocked Mumbai, 257 people were killed and over 700 injured. Sanjay Dutt was sentenced by a special court in 2007 under the Arms Act for possession of illegal weapons and sentenced to six years in jail. In March this year, the Indian Supreme Court upheld his conviction by the special court, though it reduced his jail time from six to five years. Since Sanjay Dutt has already spent one and a half years in jail (in 1993-94), he will be in jail for three and a half years. READ NEXT: 12 Bollywood stars who went to jail
