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: Ritesh Batra, the director of the amazingly received The Lunchbox discusses the film's success and its aftermath:
Q: Never before have I seen such reviews for any film?
I know I saw the ratings. But I have not read the reviews yet. I didn’t want to get cocky with the praise. The love for the film has been very overwhelming beyond anything I expected. Most people have loved the film. They’ve been very generous. I knew it would be liked. But I didn’t know it’d be loved so much.
Q: What do you think made the film so endearing to the public and critics?
It was always important for the film to work in India. Now that it’s happened it’s very gratifying.All the love that the film got outside India—it was sold all over world at Cannes in May—would not have meant anything if it didn’t succeed at home.I think it worked in India because it’s a sincere attempt to look at Mumbai and its people. I spent time with the dabbawallas in 2007 and then again closer to the making of the film. I just spent time with them. Initially I wasn’t planning a film revolving around the dabbawallahs. I was planning a documentary on them. I hoped to find a character within the dabbawallah’s community. Then when they started relating their experiences, the story of The Lunchbox emerged.
Q: But I believe the chances of a dabbawallah actually messing up the correct address for a lunchbox as shown in your film, are quite dim?
It’s impossible, actually. So I attempted the impossible. The dabbawallahs never mis-deliver. So in the movie also we walked that line between a mistake and a miracle. We never explain how it happened (the mis-delivered dabba that triggered off a relationship between two people who never meet).
Q: Do you think chance or destiny plays a big hand in what we do and get in life?
It definitely does. Even the way everything came together for the making of my film is not short of a miracle. Every actor, everyone involved with the film thought our film would take the road to the Oscars. That’s why everyone was so vocally disappointed when we were not selected. It’s not as if anyone had anything personal against the film (The Good Road) that was selected and its director Gyan Correa. I know him very well. He’s a great guy. We all reacted so heatedly because we were on the road to what the Western press calls the road to the Oscars, like Slumdog Millionaire was. No one did The Lunchbox for the love of the money. We were all in it for the love of the film.
Q: You had on-board so many producers?
Yes, the film’s budget is very small. And only 50 percent of the money came from India. The rest we had to generate from outside India. There was also a German and a French producer. So that money which was raised from France and Germany had to be used in those countries. That is the rule. We did the sound in Germany. We also had a German music composer. And we did the colours in France.
Q: Now are you hoping the financial structuring to produce your films would be less complicated?
I’d still like to make my films around the world. Such a collaboration brings a lot to the table. Every producer adopted the film. There was no creative confusion.
Q: Tell me about your own love story? Are you a romantic at heart?
I’d like to believe I am. It’s really about just loving every character in my film.
Q: Bharati Achrekar as an unseen neighbour of the protagonist...that was a stroke of genius?
Living in Bandra(Mumbai) there is the whole tradition of using baskets to pass around kitchen items. I was very intrigued by that.Bharatiji was my only choice for the voice. She has such an iconic presence. She is part of India’s nostalgic culture. I still remember her in Wagle Ki Duniya. Bharatiji, Nawazuddin and Irrfan were all my first choices.
[caption id="attachment_75106" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Nimrat Kaur (above) plays a very active character and Irrfan plays a passive character in the film, says director Ritesh Batra.[/caption]
Q: How did you think of Nimrat Kaur for the female lead?
I had seen her in a play and small part in a movie Peddlars. I met a lot of actresses. She was one of them. I’m very lucky I found her. Ila the heroine needed to be someone with whom the audience would want to remain in her small flat for two hours. Nimrat plays a very active character. Irrfan plays a passive character. While trying to change her own life she ends up changing his. I also needed an actress who could give all her time. Nimrat prepared for four months.
Q: Is it possible for two people to fall in love without seeing one another?
Yes if it can happen in books why not in real life.
Q: I believe the love for cooking shown in The Lunchbox is extended to your own life?
Yes, I love to cook. This film was born out of my love for food. I cook in my kitchen at least once a week. How do I rate myself as a cook? Very harshly. I’d definitely read the review about my cooking if they ever came out.
Q: You haven’t told me about your own love story?
Before that, I find my parents’ love story very inspiring. They’ve been together since 1973 and still very much in love. My own love story started in the US where I met my wife. She is Mexican. We were both studying in the US. We moved to Mumbai two years ago. Mexican and Punjabi lifestyles are similar. Their love for food for example.
Q: You mentioned the road to the Oscars. Were you keen on taking it?
The best way to not win an Oscar is to make a film to win it. The strong Oscar buzz for The Lunchbox started when we were at the Telluride film festival. Last year the French film Amour which won the Oscar for best foreign film was Sony’s. At Telluride they screen only 24 films. Our film was one of them. Then the Oscar predictions started coming from The Hollywood Reporter and The New York Times. Now all of us should stand by Gyan Correa’s film.
Q: You seem to have done something wonderful?
I think I’ve done something right.
Q: What next?
I am writing another story set in Mumbai. I don’t know much about yet. But I don’t know where the story is going. I am just going along. I love Mumbai. It’s my home.
