Ginger Baker 1939-2019

[happyuk]

Ginger Baker, famed for his brilliant drumming and combative personality has died aged 80.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xbg4Ot0sz7U

Also noted for forming a 20-year heroin habit between 1960 and 1981, finally managing to kick the habit for good after moving to a remote Italian olive farm.

Although never quite getting to the root of where his spite and bitterness originated from, his his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Baker, once said of her ex-husband’s durability: "If a plane went down and there was one survivor, it would be Ginger. The devil takes care of its own…"

[avid]

Cream, the Baker Gurvitz Army, an absolute icon, loved him since the seventies, we all go eventually, so sad, a ginormous miss.

[Redspan]

I was reminded this week that Ginger Baker joined Hawkwind in about 1980 and played on the Levitation album.

[AutumnW]

I saw a documentary about him and I have to say probably the most rotten personality of all time. If there was a Hall of Fame for Awful personality/great talent, he should be front and center.

[avid]

Compromised? So many incidents where he was drugged and messed with. Poor man was absolutely brilliant, and overcame many obstacles. Watched him live and he was riveting. A sad loss.

[thepainterdoug]

saw the farewell cream concert in madison square garden. maybe 1969 or 1970 ,

my dad took me, said," these creams are pretty good"! lol

[greybeard]

I grew up playing their stuff.
Our drummer was excellent.
Cream had the cream Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, and Eric Clapton.
The songs were really built around the bass part.
Baker and Bruce could not stand each other yet they played together later with Garry Moore, the most under rated guitarist of all time, very modest.
Chris

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TJ0Pb_78G8E

[Sue (Ayt)]

I miss the music and the spirit.
Ah, impermanence...

[Valerie Villars]

It WAS different. I miss it too. It was generous, pure and best of all, in that day there were no rules. Pack a bunch of kids into an unairconditioned warehouse with NO seating. Just cut up rugs on the floor and anything went.

I miss it too.

[happyuk]

Posted by Redspan (here)
I was reminded this week that Ginger Baker joined Hawkwind in about 1980 and played on the Levitation album.

He played on so many albums.

Check out his drumming on Johnny "Rotten" Lydon's Public Image Limited album, particularly the tracks "Ease" and "Home" it's quite breathtaking:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=e7RGMndpadw

[Caliban]

Posted by Valerie Villars (here)
It WAS different. I miss it too. It was generous, pure and best of all, in that day there were no rules. Pack a bunch of kids into an unairconditioned warehouse with NO seating. Just cut up rugs on the floor and anything went.

I miss it too.

You're lucky now if you could see the stage with all the cell phones filming the bloody thing. Baudrillard was dead on. And so was Feuerbach before him:

But certainly for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, the appearance to the essence... illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.
Feuerbach, Preface to the second edition of The Essence of Christianity

[Bluegreen]

Ginger Baker single handedly turns a 12 bar blues into a rock classic

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OX1lH0VQRaA

[Valerie Villars]

Posted by Caliban (here)

Posted by Valerie Villars (here)
It WAS different. I miss it too. It was generous, pure and best of all, in that day there were no rules. Pack a bunch of kids into an unairconditioned warehouse with NO seating. Just cut up rugs on the floor and anything went.

I miss it too.

You're lucky now if you could see the stage with all the cell phones filming the bloody thing. Baudrillard was dead on. And so was Feuerbach before him:

But certainly for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, the appearance to the essence... illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.
Feuerbach, Preface to the second edition of The Essence of Christianity

No one actually experiences anything any more. They are too busy filming the experience.

[greybeard]

Times have changed.
You could name the group from the first four bars.
It could only be Cream--The Kinks--The Hollies-- The Spencer Davis Group-the Beatles- The Eagles- The Who.
Is it my age?
Most sound much the same now-- playing more or less to a formula.

Chris