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.
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The Punjabi film Sarabha on the great Indian revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha, who was hanged by the British at the young of 19 in Lahore in 1915, has drawn a huge response from audiences even before its release in November.
Los Angeles-based Punjabi film director and writer Kavi Raz, who is known for making films on great Punjabi heroes, say, “Sarabha isn’t a typical Punjabi film (with English titles). I have created a historical document on the role of Gadar heroes in India’s independence. Sarabha was a young boy of just 19 who gave his life for his motherland. Sarabha inspired the great revolutionary Bhagat Singh.”
The film director says he is requesting the Punjab government to make this film a part of school curriculum to inculcate inspiration and pride in the future generations of Punjabis.
Born at Sarabha village (which is now part of Ludhiana city in Punjab), Sarabha sailed to the US at the young age of 15 to study at the University of Berkeley.
Once in America, young Sarabha was swept by the Gadar movement launched by Indian expatriates on the west coast of the US and Canada to free India from British rule.
Says director Kavi Raz, “I moved to the US from Britain at the same age of 15. As a young boy, I heard stories about Sarabha and other Gadar heroes from my sister’s father-in-law Hazara Singh who had come to the US in 1913 and knew many Gadar leaders in in the Bay Area. Inspired by their stories, I told a magazine in an interview in 1982 that one day I will make a film on Gadar heroes. Sarabha is the result of my efforts and research of may years.”
The film director says that it is first the time that any Punjabi film is opening in 55 theatres in the US. “I am overwhelmed by the response to Sarabha. Before its release in early November, there is a rush for advanced bookings. It is something new for a Punjabi film. People in Surrey, Fresno and elsewhere are printing and distributing posters and flyers to promote this patrotic film.”
The film, which was shot in Ganganagar in India, Canada and the US, will be released worldwide on November 3.
The director says he chose Chandigarh’s Japtej for the role of Sarabha after auditioning many actors for it.
“We wanted someone who was of Sarabha age, height and looked like him. We put Japtej through auditioned and I think he fits the role brilliantly. He has a great job.”
Kavi Raz, who also plays the role of the tallest Gadar leader Sohan Singh Bhakna in his film, says, “I didn’t want to do that role even as many told me that I will be a greta fit for the role. I tried my best tofind someone for Bhakna’s role. But in the end, I found no one and then I had no choice but to do the role myself.”
After his 2017 film The Black Prince on Maharaja Duleep Singh, Sarabha is Kavi Raz’s second film on historic Punjabis figures.
Mississauga-based Kuldeep Sharma of the Crown Group of Hotels is one of the producers of this film. His son Sameer Sharma also plays a small role in the movie.
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