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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 Grille
Rajan Grover. Editorial.VI.XXIV.XVII
Trump’s Comic Cuba Policy!
By Rajan Grover
President Trump is living up to his reputation of being unpredictable. Last week, speaking at Miami, the de facto capital of Cuban Americans, he announced his highly controversial decision of reversing US-Cuba policy started by the Obama Administration in 2004. Though it does not completely reverse the policy but it surely aims to make harder the travel and trade with the island nation
Cuba is the only communist country outside Asia, the last bastion of erstwhile USSR in western hemisphere right near the mainland US. The enmity and distrust between the two countries has its origin in cold war era. It all started in 1959 when Fidel Castro had overthrown the US backed regime of Fulgenico Batista in Havana and established a socialist state aligned with Soviet Union. Inspite of Castro’s communist ideology, the US recognized his government.
However, Fidel Castro nationalized America owned properties, increased taxes on US imports and started increasing trade with Soviet Union that it considered its ideological mentor. The Americans also responded by reducing sugar import from Cuba which is rightly called the sugar bowl of the world. It also imposed a ban on all exports to it.
President Kennedy further expanded the domain of restrictions to travel, turning it into a full embargo against Cuba. The US also tried a failed attempt to topple the government by covert means (Bay of pigs incident).This further fuelled Cuban nationalism and Soviet Union got a chance to discreetly install nuclear missiles in Cuba against the US.
In October 1962, US surveillance aircraft detected these installations which started a 13 day showdown between Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev taking the world almost to the brink of nuclear war. This episode in modern history is known as “Cuban missile crisis”. The Russians finally agreed to withdraw the missiles after getting a pledge from the Americans not to invade Cuba. It would be interesting to mention here that during these tense 13 days when the big powers were fully drenched in this crises, China chose to attack India denying her any outside help or mediation.
Successive US governments tried to isolate Cuba economically, politically and diplomatically using every possible overt and covert means, in a hope to force a democratically elected government there sans Fidel Castro .Since Soviet Union was standing like a rock behind Cuba, it survived all the tricks of US. By now Fidel Castro had assumed an iconic status throughout the world as a symbol of defiance, resistance and rebellion against the mighty America. He was considered a close friend of India and former Indian PM Indira Gandhi shared an excellent personal chemistry with him. When Fidel Castro died in 2016, the Indian social media was full of his stories showing that there is no dearth of his fans in India also.
During 2008 US elections, the presidential candidate Obama expressed his desire to turn a new leaf in US-Cuba relations. He promised to meet Raul Castro, who had recently replaced his ailing brother Fidel Castro in Havana .After taking office Obama eased restrictions on remittances and on travel to Cuba. Meanwhile, the new Cuban leadership also showed the willingness for reforms. Due to heavy foreign debt, global economic crisis and dried up Russian financial aid, Raul started to liberalize parts of state controlled economy. He further decentralized the agriculture sector, encouraged access to consumer goods and relaxed restrictions on small businesses. This had a huge positive impact on Cuba’s private sector.
Obama and Raul surprised the world in 2014, announcing that their governments would restore full diplomatic ties. The thaw continued between the two countries Obama removed Cuba from the list of terrorism sponsoring countries which was a major irritant for Cuba. In early 2016, Obama visited Havana, a first by an American President in last about 90 years. With embassies of two countries in place, US airlines also started their operations between the two countries.
American President Obama also repealed the “wet foot, dry foot” policy where unauthorized Cubans reaching the US shores were allowed to live there permanently. Now such Cubans are be treated at par with other undocumented immigrants of the world. Cuba also welcomed it and agreed to take back all Cubans removed by US in future. There was a strong desire of normal relations between people of both countries. There was also a consensus among the both political parties in US to improve the record of human rights in Cuba along with its other reforms. With the death of Fidel Castro in 2016 and Raul Castro expressing his desire to leave the office in 2018, things were moving in smooth ways till the famous announcement of policy reversal on Cuba by President Donald Trump causing a storm in the cup.
This regressive step by President Trump has few takers, which aims to cut off income to the military intelligence and oppressive regime in Havana. The new policy clearly prevents US companies from doing business with Cuba’s Armed Forces Business Enterprises (G.A.E.S.A) which is involved in almost every sector of the economy, especially in hotels and other tourism related fields. The business lobby of US is calling this decision a betrayal of ‘America First ‘policy, knowing well that China will occupy the space ceded by US.
An American embargo of 56-years has not brought democracy to Cuba and has not done anything substantial to improve human rights and has not removed the Castros from power in Cuba. Trump’s emphasis on human rights in Cuba is laughable when he is bending backwards to have good relations with Saudi Arabia and China which are the worst violators of human rights. While the President is interested to improve relations with Russia, how can he justify his opposition to improved relations with Cuba?
In fact, America’s policy towards Cuba has been hijacked by some influential Cuban Americans like Florida republican senator Marco Rubio and representative Mario Diaz-Balart who strongly advocate the hard line against Cuba regime. Interestingly, Marco Rubio is on the powerful senate select committee on intelligence which is investing Russian interference in 2016 elections. There are speculations in US media about a possible deal on this issue .A newspaper from Miami went to the extent of publishing an sensational article having a headline ,”Did Rubio trade the integrity of US for a Cuba policy shift from Trump ?” So reversing the US-Cuba policy is not just keeping a poll promise by Trump but in fact, must also be seen in the context of Trump’s efforts to improve his political credentials in US.
However, with communism on decline throughout the world and the winds of change in Cuba, it suggests an early end to the embargo. There is also a window of opportunity coming very soon for President Trump who personally wanted to establish a hotel and a golf course in Havana before the elections, when Raul Castro retires in early 2018 as promised by him. Meanwhile, Americans can wait a bit more for the free flowing supply of their favourite Havana cigars...
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