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Ginger has died

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Whatever else we can all agree, he was a great , great drummer.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/tributes-paid-creams-ginger-baker-died-2554354

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    • Who could ever better this?

      Pressed Rat and Warthog have closed down their shop.
      They didn’t want to, ’twas all they had got.
      Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
      And Pressed Rat’s collection of dog legs and feet.

      Sadly they left, telling no one goodbye.
      Pressed Rat wre red jodhpurs, Warthog a striped tie.
      Between them they carried a three-legged sack,
      Went straight round the corner and never came back.

      The bad captain madman had ordered their fate.
      He laughed and stomped off with a nautical gate.
      The gate turned into a deroga tree,
      And his peg-leg got woodworm and broke into three.

      Pressed Rat and Warthog have closed down their shop.
      They didn’t want to, ’twas all they had got.
      Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
      And Pressed Rats collection of dog legs and feet.

  6. He was quite a character, to say the least. Once again I’d like to recommend the Beware Of Mr Baker doc, if anyone has missed it.

    Bless him, despite everything.

    • Some of the best Fela Kuti stuff was when he and Tony Allen were plAying with Afrika 70 at The Shrine in Lagos.

      Now that would be a time and location to be taken back to.

      Thanks to Pierre for posting this on The FB page.

      • @Junior Wells , thanks, you beat me to it.
        As I knew Fela Kuti music (The way my friends knows I discover music), I never got (took)a chance to discover Ginger Baker before his death. Fela Kuti died in 1997 of aids, so, it’s pretty much the same.

  8. So Ginger Baker

    Never really liked Cream past 14 years old cos Clapton kinda bores me too. However I do like music documentaries so I went to see ‘Beware Of Mr Baker’ as part of the London Film Festival. It’s quite a sad tale of a man who eventually pissed off so many people that he found himself alone in Africa with a horse breeding business that was failing as was his health

    Ginger and the director did an onstage Q&A afterwards with many of GB’s family and old estranged friends in the audience. . An old mate asked a question and was being generous to Ginger but the director must have misunderstood his London accent and started hurling abuse at the guy

    “This man is one of the most generous men I have ever met!’ he bellowed. At this his first wife yelled ‘He left us destitute!’ ( a fact that had been underlined in the film we just saw). Another audience member asked about Ginges opinion on a couple of jazz drummers who were dismissed as ‘fucking shit cunts’.

    The Q&A dissolved and I took the back way out of the NFT. I couldn’t help but notice that Ginger & director had done the same and were having a furious nose to nose row in a darkened corner nearby.

    I left before I was witness to more hooter mashing.

  9. His Times obituary listed all the people he hated! Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before.
    Of all the 60s acts Cream do the least for me.
    My favourite of their songs is the one they most hated – “Anyone For Tennis.”
    I can take or leave Clapton after The Yardbirds.
    They all seem to have got to the 1970s before everybody else … not a compliment.

  11. No redeeming features ? Well, as that video above attests, when he went to Nigeria he set up a studio, at his own expense, to record and promote Nigerian bands. EMI fucked him over and they ended up having to get presssed by Island in London. He also paid for Fela and his band to come to London to be recorded.

    That’s redeeming for me.

    • He was one of the factors that made world music happen and fusion happen. He was one of very few musicians in 60s rock that was actually respected by jazz musicians.

      He had severe addiction and anger problems. He raged both against the light and against the dying of the light. But in the chaos of his life he probably did more than anyone else in the 60s to make western youth realise that there was musical excitement to be found other than that provided by skinny white boys with tight pants.

      One of the greats, like him or not.

    • From Nigel Schofield’s Facebook page
      A memory of Ginger.
      When I was working in radio, Ginger Baker called in to plug a gig that evening in Bradford on the drive time show. We shared a chat and a coffee after his appearance and then off he went to the gig.
      That evening I had a session with two local guitarists, both still in school. We’d just started when the light flashed to say someone was at the door. I went to answer it. It was Ginger who’d found the venue looking deserted with no sign of advertising. They’d hung around for a while and decided nothing doing, so he came down to see whether we could announce the gig was cancelled. I got a message through to the presenter who was on air.
      Ginger then asked what I was doing and if I fancied a curry. I explained I was recording a session. “Could they use a drummer”, he asked.
      I asked the lads, who said they had some songs they did with a drummer. They were pretty gobsmacked when Ginger walked in with some of his kit. He played on their songs,….and then at their request did TOAD.
      Then we all went for a curry.
      A good night…
      RIP Ginger.

  12. This is a note from Art Tripp in regards to the passing of the great Ginger Baker. Thanks to Kitty Marimba for sharing it with us . . .

    I was saddened to hear of the demise of the great Ginger Baker. He must have had a tough final few years, but he did make it to 80. I credit Baker’s influence for my transition from musician to performer, especially during the Trout/Decals era.

    In the Spring of 1968 the Mothers and Cream played a big gig at the Chicago Coliseum, which was during Cream’s final tour. Frank had told me to expect to be called on for a “monster” drum solo. Sure enough, midway through the set he pointed to me, and I took off, playing all over the kit with complicated rhythms and free form style. I was pleased with my playing.

    After we played it was Cream’s turn. Frank and I went back behind the huge sheet-like backdrop which also served to block off part of the end zone seats. Therefore we were watching the band, magnified by the spotlights, in shadows against the backdrop. Midway in their show Clapton and Bruce left the stage for Baker’s drum solo—a regular feature. Clapton came back to sit with us for a few minutes.

    It was the first time I’d seen original hard rock showmanship from a drummer, with hair flying all over the place and arms flailing in the air. What he was actually playing was very good, but not particularly inventive. It reminded me of Gene Krupa and Louis Bellson’s styles. But what an exciting show he put on! As he finished to thunderous applause, I realized right then what the audiences wanted to see.

    That experience never left me. Although I changed my style of rock ‘n roll playing somewhat, to simplify the patterns, it wasn’t until a few years later when I started drumming with CBMB that I purposely started exaggerating my style and hamming it up—more “caveman” like. Almost immediately fans started appreciating my playing more. In fact I recall a review from an English critic who’d seen us at Royal Albert Hall. He commented on my primitive, pulsating rhythms, and jungle style. He actually believed that my arms were unnaturally longer than average! That’s when I knew I had arrived. And it never would have occurred to me had I not seen Ginger Baker that night in Chicago.

    ~Art Tripp

  13. Arf! Thank you making me become a worse player and thus more popular…. Love to hear Ginger’s response: ‘Who the fucks Art Tripp? Blakey I’ve heard of but not Tripp.’

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