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.
News East West TORONTO: Waterloo-based Sanjeev Verma is the best-known Vedic astrologer in North America. Many of the world’s top celebrities seek advice from Sanjeev Verma. Praising him for his in-depth knowledge of Vedic astrology, Deepak Chopra says, “Sanjeev’s insights…reveal a much deeper level of understanding of the power of our conscious and unconscious thoughts.” Hollywood actor Steven Seagal says, “How these days there are so few people who have truly mastered Vedic arts, & I feel that Sanjeev has. It has truly been an honor & a privilege to work with Sanjeev & I believe with his wisdom & SKILL he will be able to help countless people who may be in need. People like him who use love as his guide are here on this earth as a treasure to make the world a better place.’’ But the soft-spoken astrologer says that all he does is to help people realize their full potential by aligning their actions with their inherent potentialities. Apart from being a master astrologer, he is also a meditation guru. Over the years, Sanjeev has used his skills in astrology and mediation to transform people’s lives and help them realise their dreams. But he is saddened when he reads about the so-called astrologers fooling gullible people by promising them quick solutions for just about problem under the sun. “They are just cheating people because astrology is not all about quick fixes. There is a scientific method to astrology.’’ Here are the excerpts of his interview with newseastwest.com: Q: What do you say about the hordes of astrologers who promise cure for every problem? A: I don’t know anything about their knowledge of astrology. But one think I know is that they are trying to play God. But that’s not astrology. I don’t mean to be disrespectful towards people making big claims in the name of astrology, but I must say that by making big promises they are stepping out of the boundaries of astrology. Q: What are the boundaries of astrology? A: Essentially, you are born with your destiny. Astrology can’t change your destiny. But what astrology can do is this: it can enhance the good part in your destiny and it can reduce the effect of negative situations in your destiny through certain processes. Q: What are those processes? A: These processes are that you create a karma against a karma. It means creating a positive karma targeted towards the negative karma. Once you put positive karma in motion, it will reduce the impact of the negative karma. Q: Can you explain it with an example? A: All suffering and bad things that happen to us are the result of our karma from the past. Supposing someone is suffering from ill-health, it is the result of the past karma. What that person can do to lessen the impact of the past negative karma is to do positive karma now and here. That positive karma can be seva, giving donations to the needy or doing some charity work or spiritual things. Q: So in Vedic astrology, everything comes down to the past karma? A: Yes. Destiny is not a fluke. Because of your past karma, you chose the universal patron, your parents and your place of birth so that you could live your karma to the fullest. Destiny is karma of the past. Destiny is like a pre-recorded DVD. When you put the DVD into a DVD player, the digital reader unfolds the story on the screen. The same way when you come out of the womb and enter the world, time becomes the digital reader of your destiny and it unfolds our story on the screen of life. The DVD (destiny) of your life cannot be altered. But with the help of astrology, some of the positive things happening in your life can be enhanced and negative things reduced. That’s where pure astrology helps. Q: But planetary positions also effect our destiny, don’t they? A: We are impacted by planetary positions because we all are part of the Cosmos. The moment you come out of the womb, all your five senses become active for the first time. The whole universe has its impact the newly born infant and its five senses. That’s why the planetary positions at our birth are important as they leave an imprint on the new baby. That imprint will never change. That becomes your destiny. You have chosen your moment of birth or cosmic timing because of the past karma. You have to accept your destiny. It is futile to change it. The problem arises when we become unrealistic and ask astrologers to change their destiny. That’s why there are tons of them making a fool of people. Q: So, how is Vedic astrology that your practice different? A: Indian astrology is basically Vedic astrology because it has come out of Vedic practices. It is moon-based system while the western astrology is based on the sun. Vedic astrology has the capacity to go into the minutest time-frame of your life. It is because the moon changes every two and a quarter of days, while the sun changes every 30 days. You can’t go into much depth with the sun-based astrology. Q: Can astrology predict – accurately? A: When we draw your life chart based on your time and place of birth, it is a map of your destiny. The astrologer is a map reader. If he is a good map reader, he will be good. But the map reader cannot change the map. When an astrologer tries to play God, he is fooling people. A good astrologer will never play God. He will only guide you to align your life energy. Let me give you an example. You want to become a doctor or your parents want to make you a doctor. But your destiny says that you will become an accountant. So if you try to become a doctor, you life will become zig-zag. In the process of becoming a doctor, you will lose your path. Q: So how do you personally as an astrologer predict? A: I look at the seed of your potentialities. If your potentiality is to become an apple, it is futile to make you an orange. My aim is to help you to take control of your life and realise your true potential, your true dream. But there is a little leeway that the Cosmos allows you to enhance or reduce the impact of planetary positions. There is sunvai (hearing) somewhere. (Sanjeev Verma can be contacted at [email protected]) READ ALSO: Fake Indian astrologers thriving in Canada
