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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.
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Rajan Grover. Editorial.VI.XIV.XVII
FAVORED FRIENDS
By Rajan Grover
Foreign policy of a country is like a river which never flows straight. It has natural bends on its way. This holds particularly true for India-Israel relations. From voting against Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1949 to establishing formal diplomatic relations with it in 1992, the relations between the two nations have developed slowly, steadily but surely to reach at the present level. The proposed 3-days visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel next month (July 4, 2017), the first by an Indian PM, to mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties with it, will finally give the stability and direction to the relations between the two democracies, which they genuinely deserve.
In the Indians' perception, Israel stands unique and tall as a nation. It enjoys huge respect and admiration because of its zero tolerance approach towards terrorism and armed hostilities thrust upon it by its Islamic neighbors of Arab world since its inception. According to an international poll conducted in 2009, 58% of Indians expressed sympathy with Israel compared with 56% of Americans! The common man and the popular electronic media can often be seen pitching for adopting Israel's strategy to fight against Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. India's last year’s supposed surgical strikes into Pakistan were seen by many as India coming out of its shell and going the Israeli way. Prime Minister Modi is fully aware of the sentiments of the general public of his country. So this proposed visit will be keenly watched and observed not only in the two nations but far beyond in world at large.
It will be, however, naive to see the India-Israel relationship in isolation. It is essentially to be seen through the larger context of Arab-Israel conflict and other fast emerging regional contours of engagement in this volatile region. A brief history of this conflict which is in fact, a British legacy of modern era, may help the reader to understand this issue in totality.
The latter half of the 19th century, saw the extraordinary rise of nationalism in Europe. Based upon the identity and nationalism of various groups, new nation states were formed like Germany and Italy. The Jews, scattered and prosecuted in different parts of Europe, also felt the need of a state for the Jews in their ancient Holy land of Palestine. This feeling of nationalism among the Jews which later came to be known as Zionism or Zionist movement, initiated the Jews to migrate, though in small numbers to Palestine which was a part of Ottoman empire at that time. The British which had hitherto no direct connection with this geographical area, appeared on the scene during World War-I.
In exchange for the support in the war, they came with the Belfour Declaration for the Jews scattered in Europe, promising the support for establishing their Homeland in Palestine. At the same time they also promised the Arab independence if they revolted against the Ottoman Empire (Hussein-McMohan correspondence). At the end of war, Britain won control over the area of Palestine, including present Jordon and Israel, from Ottoman Empire. This area was known as British mandated Palestine, the mandate being an authorization to govern the conquered territories, which they did till 1948. During the war the British had though made promises to give both Arabs and Jews the lands, after their victory they claimed that they didn't commit to give either side the whole land. They tried to satisfy both parties by giving the area east of Jordan river to Emir Abdullah to rule, which is the present country called Jordon while encouraging the Jews to migrate in the remaining British mandate Palestine.
The Holocaust of World War-II, further accelerated migration of Jews to Palestine. Communal violence and tensions between the Jews and the native Palestinians were growing. Having failed to control the situation, Britain referred the issue to the newly formed United Nations. The general assembly of the UN recommended the partition of British mandate Palestine into two states between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposed partition while Palestinians rejected it. In 1948, as the British troops were leaving the country, Zionist leaders unilaterally declared the state of Israel as was proposed by UN. The neighbouring Arab countries of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon etc. invaded this newborn country of Israel.
The subsequent Arab-Israel wars (6 day war & Yom-Kippur war) further complicated this situation for which Arabs themselves are to be blamed. Israel came out stronger after every war and it continues to hold the conquered territories of proposed Palestine. The rise of right-wing political leadership in Israel (likes of Netanyahu and Ariel Sheron) and in Palestine (Hamas overtaking the relatively moderate PLO-Palestine Liberation Organisation of Yaser Arafat fame) has also diminished the chances of a settlement. As of now, there are no real hopes of a breakthrough on the deadlock over the questions of Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem in near future.
Now even after its independence from recognition of Israel in 1950 to the early nineties, India had stood with the Arab world considering Israel as untouchable. Following are the reasons for our apathy towards it:
1. The dominant political dispensation of this era of the country (Indian National Congress) considered ideologically Israel as a state based on religion and hence an analogue of Pakistan.
2. India's soft corner for socialism and its tilt towards the Soviet Union during the cold war perceived Israel as a country of other block under the influence of US.
3. As an active and founder member of Non Aligned Movement (NAM) and because of its principled stand against the colonialism, India considered Palestine as an oppressed country of third world.
4. The Kashmir dispute was being propagated as a Muslim issue and was often debated at the UN. To secure the support of Arab nations and to counter the influence of Pakistan, it was necessary for India to appease them.
5. To safeguard the interests of huge Indian workforce employed in Gulf countries, which was a major source of foreign exchange, pro Arab policy was necessary.
6. To ensure the continuous supply of oil from Arab countries and hence meet the energy security of the country.
7. Another domestic factor was India's large Muslim population which has been sympathetic towards Palestine. Any normal or favourable relation with Israel could mean losing the Muslim vote bank by the political leadership. It could also disturb the communal harmony in the country.
Clearly India's policy thus far has been of appeasement, guided by the internal and external constraints of the day. However, in early nineties, there was a realization among both Israel and Arabs to seek the peaceful settlement of the issue guided by talks and negotiations. After the end of cold war, India too had started to cozy up to US. India, under the leadership of former Indian PM Narsimha Rao saw an opportunity like many other countries and established the diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. The real turning point in relations came in 1999 during Kargil war with Pakistan when Israel extended unconditional material and technical support to India. (Even US had declined to share the GPS data about the enemy positions). There has been no looking back since then. From 2014 when PM Modi came to power, the relations have expanded dramatically. Israel is now the 2nd largest arms' supplier to India after Russia. India is no longer apologetic and shy of its relations with Israel that are changing from secret to public.
Of late, with the middle-east in turmoil due to being Islamic state and the Shia-Sunni sectarian divides, there is a demand from certain hawkish elements to set free and disconnect Israel from the Palestine issue. This is the last thing we should do. India needs a strong endorsement to its candidature for permanent membership in Security Council from the Arab nations that have a huge presence in the General Assembly. Iran, where we are developing Chabahar Port as our counter to Gwadar Port by China and Pakistan, is the most important country in this region in our security dialectics.
As Pakistan joins the alliance of Sunni countries aka Muslim NATO, Iran becomes more important than ever before. Incidentally, there is no love lost between Iran and Israel. We must take care that relations with Israel do not come at the cost of other countries in the region. We had recognized Palestine as a state long ago. Instead of deserting their cause, India should compare the plight of these native Arabs of Palestine with that of Kashmiri Pandits, who were forcibly driven out from the Kashmir valley by Muslim extremists. Unlike the Palestinians, the Kashmiri Pandits never took to arms and they still continue to suffer in silence. This will also blunt the Pakistani propaganda of equating India with Israel as an occupying force in Kashmir. It is being conjectured that PM Modi will not meet up with any Palestine leader during his impending visit to Israel.
Though there are many areas of co-operation between India and Israel other than defense, agriculture, irrigation, pharmaceuticals, space-technology and counter-terrorism to name a few, Prime Minister Modi should focus on one area which needs immediate attention and that is cyber security. Israel is considered a superpower in the field of cyber security, whereas India is a late entrant in this field. The future wars, it is a foregone conclusion, will be fought in cyber space, inflicting maximum damage to the adversary without firing a single gunshot.
The recent disappearance of India's Sukhoi-30 Fighter near China's border after taking off from Assam has raised serious doubts of a cyber attack by hostile China. Power distribution, space, banking, aviation and railways are the other vulnerable sectors to such cyber attacks. India's top priority must be to gain expertise in this field and ensure that Israel doesn't sell the same defense platforms and equipments to China for economic purposes like Russia has started to do so. It will also be in Israel’s own interest to desist from doing so. India needs to continue with renewed vigor its ties with Israel and give a fillip to the evolving nexus with other friendly nations.
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