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.
___________________
Patrick Moore is a freehand drawing artist and freelance music writer.
Porn star Sunny Leone makes Bollywood actresses bold and daring
By admin 02 Feb 2021
Sunny Leone Bollywood effect: Indian actresses are now getting bold, kissing on-screen with a little less inhibition and coming out in size zero bikinis
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI: Who cares if Bollywood’s two sexy sirens Vidya Balan and Kareena Kapoor tied the knot recently. We are in a Sunny Leone-obsessed young India!
Look how quickly this Indo-Canadian porn star, who was born in Sarnia in Ontario, has made it big in B-grade Hindi cinema that whip the A-grade movies in box office returns, though not in intellectual film critic star ratings.
It does not matter if Sunny Leone is married or unmarried, speaks or lip synches or even remains silent as long as she delivers what we want. Mind you she is still learning to speak Hindi.
Now let us look at our mainstream actresses. Is anyone ready for the Leone-like leap? Not yet. But they are getting bold, kissing on-screen with a little less inhibition and coming out in size zero bikinis to offer any age male audiences the big screen female body-fix, in keeping with competition.
The politically correct explanation to queries by the media is script demanded the stripping and smooching or it is interest of good cinema and a reflection of society.
One does not come across too many tiny bikini clad women in real life in India, excluding foreigners on Goa beaches.
[caption id="attachment_79863" align="alignnone" width="544"] Actress Vidya Balan as a sexy siren in the film Dirty Picture.[/caption]
Still, Indian screen beauties have struggled in the past to fit the supposed Indian male cinemagoer mental stereotype that obsesses about virgins and virginal women. The actresses needed to be single and available, in the mind of the Indian audiences, to be acceptable as heroines, was the definition.
Thus, most Hindi movie diva careers were done once married, as teens, twenties or thirties. Even if they wanted to act, the producers were reluctant to cast them as heroines or even accept a desperate offer for a skin showing item number.
They could, upon insistence and personal equations, play the role of dull and thus low paying whining, crying and often dying mother, younger sister or sister-in-law of the main hero, who could be much older in real life. Only, the gorgeous Dimple Kapadia could make a comeback after breaking off with hubby Rajesh Khanna.
Actors, of course have carried on forever, wrinkled, double chinned, though to take on current super star, the middle aged Salman Khan, the paunch probably needs to go. Marriage, families, extra-marital affairs have actually contributed to male actors aura transforming them into more desirable, dependable, attractive package that buttresses female following. This phenomenon of course goes to show that understanding psyches of women is not an easy process.
Amitabh Bachchan heroines regressed to play the role of his mother as well. The legendary actor successfully danced around trees with women he could grandfather, like Salman Khan does today with girls he could father.
In South India actors Kamal Haasan and Rajnikant serenade women they could great grandfather. This brings us back to Balan and Kapoor or even the absolutely ravishing mother of a young boy Chitrangada Singh.
There is Kajol or the stunning comeback by the 80s siren Sridevi, mom to two girls now and item number specialist Malaika Arora.
Today, Indian Hindi movie actresses, closely linked to men, married, with kids, think nothing of discontinuing their careers.
Have Indian male audiences changed? Maybe they have, maybe they have not. The female stereotypes in real life are undergoing transformation for sure, given emergence working, career driven, economically independent, smart, educated women in our midst.
There could be a Leone effect. Having watched her and her online peers’ innumerable times, movie goers probably appreciate meat in female roles, women who crack jokes, act, deliver good dialogues, dance well, emote, are part of a bigger story line rather than essaying a show of body parts.
[caption id="attachment_88037" align="alignnone" width="640"] Kareena Kappor doing the daring song Fevicol Se in the film Dabangg 2.[/caption]
Or else Balan would not have successfully delivered a Kahani or a Dirty Picture, Kareena Kapoor a pulsating dance item number for super hit Dabangg-2, Sridevi English Vinglish and Arora the Munni song.
Maybe the assessment is incorrect. But, it is very good to witness Indian actresses aspire for a longer career run while being mainstream, commercial and relevant. It is healthy, though it is still unlikely that Hindi songs will feature aging women prancing about with boys old enough to be their grandsons, unless it is Rekha.
Actress Vidya Balan as a sexy siren in the film Dirty Picture.[/caption]
Still, Indian screen beauties have struggled in the past to fit the supposed Indian male cinemagoer mental stereotype that obsesses about virgins and virginal women. The actresses needed to be single and available, in the mind of the Indian audiences, to be acceptable as heroines, was the definition.
Thus, most Hindi movie diva careers were done once married, as teens, twenties or thirties. Even if they wanted to act, the producers were reluctant to cast them as heroines or even accept a desperate offer for a skin showing item number.
They could, upon insistence and personal equations, play the role of dull and thus low paying whining, crying and often dying mother, younger sister or sister-in-law of the main hero, who could be much older in real life. Only, the gorgeous Dimple Kapadia could make a comeback after breaking off with hubby Rajesh Khanna.
Actors, of course have carried on forever, wrinkled, double chinned, though to take on current super star, the middle aged Salman Khan, the paunch probably needs to go. Marriage, families, extra-marital affairs have actually contributed to male actors aura transforming them into more desirable, dependable, attractive package that buttresses female following. This phenomenon of course goes to show that understanding psyches of women is not an easy process.
Amitabh Bachchan heroines regressed to play the role of his mother as well. The legendary actor successfully danced around trees with women he could grandfather, like Salman Khan does today with girls he could father.
In South India actors Kamal Haasan and Rajnikant serenade women they could great grandfather. This brings us back to Balan and Kapoor or even the absolutely ravishing mother of a young boy Chitrangada Singh.
There is Kajol or the stunning comeback by the 80s siren Sridevi, mom to two girls now and item number specialist Malaika Arora.
Today, Indian Hindi movie actresses, closely linked to men, married, with kids, think nothing of discontinuing their careers.
Have Indian male audiences changed? Maybe they have, maybe they have not. The female stereotypes in real life are undergoing transformation for sure, given emergence working, career driven, economically independent, smart, educated women in our midst.
There could be a Leone effect. Having watched her and her online peers’ innumerable times, movie goers probably appreciate meat in female roles, women who crack jokes, act, deliver good dialogues, dance well, emote, are part of a bigger story line rather than essaying a show of body parts.
[caption id="attachment_88037" align="alignnone" width="640"]
Kareena Kappor doing the daring song Fevicol Se in the film Dabangg 2.[/caption]
Or else Balan would not have successfully delivered a Kahani or a Dirty Picture, Kareena Kapoor a pulsating dance item number for super hit Dabangg-2, Sridevi English Vinglish and Arora the Munni song.
Maybe the assessment is incorrect. But, it is very good to witness Indian actresses aspire for a longer career run while being mainstream, commercial and relevant. It is healthy, though it is still unlikely that Hindi songs will feature aging women prancing about with boys old enough to be their grandsons, unless it is Rekha.
