Ginger Baker was the first guy we saw with two bass drums and the first guy to do an extended drum solo on record…
The band Cream straddled the transition from AM to FM. When the band’s first album came out, the only underground FM radio station that existed was WOR-FM in New York. We were still California dreamin’ on the last train to Clarksville. The Beatles were huge, but we all lived in one big homogeneous musical society.
Of course there were hipsters – as there have always been – like the folkies and blues lovers of the late fifties and early sixties. There were always people ahead of the scene – but it was much harder then, there was no internet, only true word of mouth – nothing went from zero to hero overnight unless it was played on AM radio, and Cream was not.
The Disraeli Gears album was released in November ’67, the year underground FM radio began to burgeon, with KMPX in San Francisco joining the aforementioned WOR.
Yup, the scene was that small. So most people were unaware of Fresh Cream. And “Disraeli Gears” too.
Then, during the summer of ’68, Sunshine Of Your Love crossed over to AM and the band and the scene exploded.
There were a few renegade radio years back then, before Lee Abrams came along and codified the rock format on FM in the seventies. It was kinda like the internet back in the mid-nineties. There were people who had modems from the eighties, and others who got the word in ’96 and instantly bought computers to play on AOL.
There was no hate, only exploration.
Never forget the influence of public radio back then, especially WBAI in New York. That’s where I first heard Phil Ochs‘s “Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends.” We twisted the dial, we looked for excitement, we found it, it drove record purchases, but most people were out of the loop.
Of course some people knew Eric Clapton, being blueshounds, knowing his work with John Mayall, but that “Bluesbreakers” album didn’t really blow up until after Cream broke through.
So, you heard “Sunshine Of Your Love” on FM. .
Now “Fresh Cream”‘s production was credited to Robert Stigwood, it’s unclear who really twisted the dials, who was really responsible for the sound – but it didn’t have the edge of what came after – it was almost like a blanket was thrown over the speakers.
But Felix Pappalardi produced “Disraeli Gears,” and it was a much better representation of the band’s sound. This was back when stereo was stereo, when instruments were in different channels, when we sat in front of the speakers, put on headphones to get the full effect. This was also when there was so much less on the records, you could hear all the instruments. You could hear Jack Bruce’s voice on “Sunshine Of You Love,” but the key to the track’s success, it’s infectiousness, was that guitar.
And not every track sounded the same. I couldn’t get over “Tales Of Brave Ulysses.” And you didn’t like all the tracks immediately. It was like they were cut in an alien world and delivered to you on this vinyl platter for you to consume, digest and understand.
By now it was 1968.
“Are You Experienced” was released in August of 1967, “Axis: Bold As Love” came out in January of ’68, so Cream was no longer alone. “Purple Haze” sat alongside “Sunshine Of Your Love” at the apex of riff-rock, which really didn’t become a genre, didn’t reach its apotheosis until Deep Purple‘s “Smoke On The Water” in 1972 – really the live version from “Made In Japan,” which dominated the AM airwaves during the summer of ’73, before everybody had an FM radio in their car – when suddenly the alternative sound was a staple on AM radio and what was left was irrelevant.
But it was still 1968.
“Sunshine Of Your Love” was a hit on AM radio and then “Piece Of My Heart,” by Big Brother and the Holding Company. Janis Joplin got a lot of ink, she was a dynamic performer and she could not be denied and when people purchased “Cheap Thrills,” with its R. Crumb cover – we knew were not in Kansas anymore, although eventually we did get bands from that state.
The screw had turned, it was a whole new world in music.
And “Wheels Of Fire” was released in August of that same year, double albums were not unknown, but this one came in silver foil and the second record was a live one.
Now Janis Joplin was the star, she had the energy in Big Brother.
But the energy in Cream all came from the man behind the kit, Ginger Baker.
Eric Clapton just stood there. As did Jack Bruce. You couldn’t help but focus on the drummer, who seemed on the verge of losing control as he stoked this freight train down the track. The sheer power impacted your gut.
And the Fillmores were open, but arena rock was still in the future.
Acts played the typical music venues, there were few purpose-built spaces. I saw Cream at the Oakdale Theatre, a tent in Wallingford, CT. They added an afternoon show after the evening one sold out. It was theatre in the round, but not in the afternoon, the place was maybe a third full. The band punched the clock, played 45 minutes, but the star was definitely Ginger Baker.
And then “White Room” became a hit and the word got out. Suddenly everybody was talking about Cream. People you thought were decidedly unhip, out of the loop, got the message. And “Wheels Of Fire” started to explode. And on side four, there was a sixteen minute drum solo entitled “Toad.”
Yup, blame “Toad” for that execrable five to twenty minutes in every live show where everybody takes a pee break and the drummer flails on. They were all inspired by Ginger Baker, he was the progenitor, they all wanted to BE Ginger Baker. Suddenly the drummer was no longer an afterthought, but a virtuoso who could express himself.
Then the band said it was breaking up and went on a final tour. I saw them at the New Haven Coliseum. I stood maybe six feet away. There were maybe a couple of thousand people there. I made a cassette of the performance, long before bootlegs, I listened to it incessantly.
And the victory lap, “Goodbye Cream,” had a bigger impact in the public’s consciousness than anything that came before, it was the zeitgeist, people bought it after the band broke up, lamenting they’d never gotten to see the act. “Goodbye” resurrected “I’m So Glad” from the first LP. “Sitting On Top Of The World” was definitive. And “Badge” was a gift for those who’d been there all along.
It was like not only the band, but its members had died – there were posthumous live records – everybody wanted more of what they could never get again.
But they did get Blind Faith.
Jack Bruce was the frontman, in many cases the writer, but he was not the star. Yes, his solo album “Songs For A Tailor” was anticipated, but despite some airplay for “Theme For An Imaginary Western,” it was ignored, and the work after that was only for cultists.
The stars were Clapton and Baker, nearly equal. And with Steve Winwood thrown in…
Blind Faith was the first supergroup. That was the definition back then, they had to coin it for this concoction, an act made up of the stars of other acts, come together to make something new and triumphant.
And of course Blind Faith imploded -but the album gets short shrift – the first side is phenomenal, everyone knows the cuts, from the explosive opener “Had To Cry Today” to Clapton’s first shining solo moment, “Presence Of The Lord” and the cover of Buddy Holly‘s “Well All Right” to Winwood’s piece-de-resistance, “Can’t Find My Way Home.”
The second side had Ginger Baker’s fifteen minute opus “Do What You Like.” Filler or a nod to Baker’s genius, who knows?
And when Blind Faith broke up, Winwood tried to go solo but got back together with Traffic. Clapton decided to play small, with Delaney & Bonnie, Ric Grech disappeared, and Ginger Baker formed his Air Force – yup, he was gonna continue to play for all the marbles.
Now testimony to the ascension of rock and roll was the fact that Blind Faith did play arenas on their one and only tour in ’69, that’s how hungry and dedicated the fans were.
Baker’s Air Force album sold, but then the act faded away, there was great playing but no songs.
Clapton joined up with Delaney Bramlett for an exquisite first album which was to a great degree overlooked, but when Eric hooked up with Duane Allman and other greats ultimately named the “Dominos,” Clapton established a place in the firmament that would never go away.
“John Barleycorn Must Die” was the most successful of the initial post-Blind Faith albums, people now knew who Winwood was and they embraced this work of art.
And then there were more acts and it became harder to focus and Ginger Baker…he was no longer omnipresent, he wasn’t gone, but he was always in our minds.
Eventually Baker played with the Masters Of Reality, in the nineties, which seemed a step down, but the truth was there was no band big enough to contain him. He was kinda like Joe DiMaggio, if DiMaggio had had an edgy personality and could still play ball. Everybody knew who Ginger Baker was, it’s just that we didn’t hear his playing that much.
He was one of the first to go to Africa.
He was drunk, he was stoned, but he was the original Keith Richards, nothing could kill him.
He played polo, he was involved in shenanigans, which were ultimately detailed in a documentary. But the legend always exceeded the present. What Ginger Baker meant, his playing, his place in the rock firmament as a legend, as a progenitor, as maybe THE progenitor, exceeded the man himself.
Yes, there were the Cream reunion shows. A triumph in London, an almost queasy afterthought in New York. He was still Ginger Baker, he could still do it, but this was nostalgia.
And now he’s dead.
How will history treat him?
What will be remembered at all?
One thing’s for sure, no one ever challenged Ginger Baker’s skill.
Oh sure, at the height of his fame, naysayers said he was bombastic, always loud, but when you’re that big there are always people who have to put you down.
And 80 ain’t a short life. This is not a guy who got cut down before his time.
But they’re dropping, if not quite like flies, they soon will be. Ian Hunter is eighty, too. He just had to cancel his Mott The Hoople reunion tour because of his health. Overend Watts and Dale “Buffin” Griffin are already dead, and Mick Ralphs has health issues.
If you weren’t alive back then, if you weren’t musically conscious back in the late sixties, these might just be names to you.
But if you talk about legacy…Ginger Baker is right up there.
He was the first. He showed what could be done with the kit. He was a trailblazer, a true rocker, one who couldn’t be contained, there was nothing corporate about him.
He was a beacon, may he continue to shine.
He was drunk, he was stoned, but he was the original Keith Richards, nothing could kill him.
He played polo, he was involved in shenanigans, which were ultimately detailed in a documentary, but the legend always exceeded the present. What Ginger Baker meant, his playing, his place in the rock firmament as a legend, as a progenitor, as maybe THE progenitor, exceeded the man himself.
Yes, there were the Cream reunion shows. A triumph in London, an almost queasy afterthought in New York. He was still Ginger Baker, he could still do it, but this was nostalgia.
And now he’s dead.
How will history treat him?
Well, what will be remembered at all?
But one thing’s for sure, no one ever challenged Ginger Baker’s skill. Oh sure, at the height of his fame, naysayers said he was bombastic, always loud, but when you’re that big there are always people who have to put you down.
And eighty ain’t a short life. This is not a guy who got cut down before his time.
But they’re dropping, if not quite like flies, they soon will be. Ian Hunter is eighty too, he just had to cancel his Mott The Hoople reunion tour because of his health, Overend Watts and Dale “Buffin” Griffin are already dead, and Mick Ralphs has health issues.
If you weren’t alive back then, if you weren’t musically conscious back in the late sixties, these might just be names to you. But if you talk about legacy…
Ginger Baker is right up there. He was the first. He showed what could be done with the kit. He was a trailblazer, a true rocker, one who couldn’t be contained, there was nothing corporate about him.
He was a beacon, may he continue to shine.
All due respect to proceed Ginger-ly no more – not that he ever did – as there was no distinction referenced ‘rock’ compared ‘jazz’ or any other nod the statement “Ginger Baker was the first guy we saw with two bass drums” as well ” and the first guy to do an extended drum solo on record”, must object to Lefty’s screed… with one my own.
The late Louie Bellson/1946 (the year Baker turned 7) begs to differ: here’s a video of Bellson a bit later, 1957 (60’s still a time and place but in the future):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBQWaCLlK9Y
Lefsetz definition ‘extended’ (drum solo on record) debatable, several drummers far back the 1920’s and after/certainly well afore Baker the 60’s solos of length, existed (too many to list.) A complimentary unsolicited opine, mine – Baker could not carry Louie’s sticks, nor several predecessors – and I liked Ginger/Cream/Blind Faith/Air Force, fwiw… R.I.P et al.)
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Top drum solos link (below)
http://anewdomain.net/90-years-of-drum-solos-11-pieces-of-eight-videos/
If you love speed (and who doesn’t), watch Buddy Rich/1970/4th video down, mark 2:55 to conclusion… top that Tesla/you too cartoon Road Runner.
‘What is it’ about genius: Rich’s legendarily mercurial drumming was matched only by a personality his only slightly less acerbic than Ginger Baker’s – also shown on video 6, Cream’s ‘Toad’
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And now (only because I miss edifying the late CG and because he would, were he still here, yo-yo-ing ‘up and down’ & ‘down and up’ re: this years incarnation swiss chiefs… a ‘best’ vs ‘most’ vs ‘greatest’ drummers as QB’s & teams etc. etc. free (flow) for all:
Ranking teams made up of several individuals (‘they won more Championships’ or ‘they won more Championships a shorter period of time’ any other in NFL history), distinct and requiring differentiation ‘more’ from ‘best’.
‘More’ (Patriots winning 6 Championships/losing 3 in Tom Brady’s 18 (now 20) year career 2001-2018 = 67%) an different measure than ‘best’ (winning % and proximity: Packers won 5 Championships/lost 1 in 8 years 1960-1967, Bart Starr’s 16 year career: 83%.) That the Packers/Starr won 5 over 7 years 1961-1967 – 3 consecutively ’65-’67 -tops what the Patriots/Brady accomplished and makes the former’s ‘better’ if you will.
Winning 2 Championships in 3 years (on two occasions), and 3 in 5 years one stretch, best the Patriots could do, Green Bay is superior terms success and dominance based on those numbers/not anything re: advantage/disadvantages each era had/has (your mileage may vary.)
Similarly 762 hrs Bonds in 9847 at bats does not make him ‘best’ or better than Ruth’s 714 in 8398 at bats – when each player had the same number opportunities /official at bats, Ruth bettered Bonds in hrs, 714 to 619 (that with or without steroids, depending on your opinion. Bonds needed an extra 837 at bats or nigh on equivalent of two more complete seasons to finally pass Ruth/hit 715.
Why I’ve always said, Bonds – as Aaron, who had 12364 at bats career but only 423 hrs when at a similar # 8398 at bats -merely ran past the finish line of a race Ruth had already run/won years before.
OK, back to drying the copious salty tears engendered last night the Colts and Cody ‘Nobody’ Brissett their outplaying the swiss chiefs and ‘Choke’ MEhomes – ‘wait till next year’, part 2020 verse 51 just up ahead…
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The Ginger Baker Documentary was really good.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1931388/
What a wild ass!
Clapton was terrified of the guy.
Interesting…when I was in high school in Tucson and buying the Blind Fair album, all I knew about Ginger Baker was that he was – allegedly – a total, drugged outwildman
That’s only because he was a totally drugged out wildman.
Check out the Doc. It is pretty funny, especially where it is not trying to be funny.
BTW, he WAS a great drummer.
I always heard about the drugged out aspect of his personality, so was surprised to heard that he made it to 80!
Apparently there was a lot more to his personality and skill set than was thought anecdotally back in the day.
And he was and nothing was done or said to make you think otherwise.
Ginger was a good drummer no doubt had a few tricks up his sleeve but by no means a super great drummer. Ginger was a wildcard, a drummer that couldn’t be contained or depended upon to get along well with others. A band consists of two or more people playing together making music. Ginger had no idea what team or the term group meant. Ginger was all about Ginger and that’s that. While Ginger was good I didn’t find him to be on any real level above many other good drummers. Being a drummer myself Ginger didn’t inspire me in any direction at all. When asked who I think are or were great drummers Ginger Baker is not a name on the tip of my tongue.
Gene Krupa was the drummer who got my attention in the very early stages of the 60’s after hearing him on different songs from the big band era and from the movie The Gene Krupa Story starring Sal Mineo as Krupa in 1959. With Benny Goodman the song Sing Sing Sing in 1936 was where Gene did his first major public drum solo totally unplanned which led to a recorded version of such in 1937 that was 8 plus minutes long and a completely unheard of length for a recorded song back then. Gene himself could be a wildcard drummer on occasion.
So I started out on a snare drum banging away (No really I started out on the white pages of the SW Bell phone book) till I could learn the finer art of really playing in school bands until………………..
I have over the years heard Buddy Rich play and yes Buddy was good but it was well into the 40’s before Buddy got fired up and was to become a name talked about amongst the drumming world what little there was of it. But the drummer who ignited the most fire under my butt and pushed me off the edge that led me to getting my first kit and “REALLY” taking my drum playing serious was none other than Ron Bushy of Iron Butterfly and his drumming solo on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida from 1968. Underground/ Psychedelic rock music was not heard much in Kansas City in it’s early development. In fact I had heard the watered down version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on KUDL but while visiting family in Moberly Missouri in December of 68 of all places which was back then really out in the middle of nowhere, that I heard the full version of it at some hell if I remember relatives house where their oldest son was a drummer who owned a nice kit and even let me play on it that had the album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida with the full version of it. I was hooked and knew a kit had to be in my future and the sooner the better. It took me two years to get it but once I did there was no looking back. Now 5 kits later I still enjoy hitting on the skins and going over to drool on occasion at Explorers on Wornall. Why was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida any different than any music of the past to inspire me to great lengths is a question I can’t answer other than maybe it was due to it being so far out there sound wise at the start of a time in the change of where music was going I really want to be a part of.
As usual Lefty isn’t real correct in his facts but some of us mainly Chuck know so well how true that is. But Kerouac isn’t 100% correct either, as it was in 1939 that Louie Bellson started playing off and on using two floor bass drums and two year later won a national contest at 17 against 40k other drummers by doing such.
I use to many years ago play with some local groups filling in and what not doing some commercial work as a sessions musician in the 70’s but public playing isn’t what I enjoyed doing, impromptu jam sessions with friends were to me more satisfying than getting up on a stage and playing in front of an audience.
Some local drummers to check out if you get the chance are Sam Platt and Sam Cronenberg both know their stuff and you can find Sam over at Explorers Percussion most days if he wasn’t up too late playing the night before.
Interesting comment.
I am not any expert at all, but, I really did like the kid on acid playing drums for Santana in Woodstock.
Wonder what happened to him?
Know who you’re talking about…he was super young,lemme check
Okay Chuck, it was Michael Shrieve….
Now are you sitting down?
While he was the second youngest musician to perform at Woodstock back then, he is 70 today!
The youngest musician at Woodstock was a gent named Henry Gross, who later on went straight to one hit wonderdom with “Shannon” a morbid tale about his dog dying. To me, Shrieve’s solo is about as good as it gets.
I remember buying the album of that dude, Rocko!
Back in the day when if I heard something or had an instinct to take a flyer on an artist, I would spring.
Which I did – much to my chagrin – in the case of Henry Gross!@
Like you SuperDave, I am a drummer boy since age 11 – my case, longer period of time than the swiss chiefs have been waiting ‘stick it’ a Superbowl opponent 😀
re: Lefsetz quote “Ginger Baker was the first guy we saw with two bass drums” and my refutation that it was actually Bellson/1946:
“Bellson did his first double bass gig in 1946” (‘we saw’ a ‘gig’ in lieu ‘contest’, latter lesser seen most folks, reason I used 1946 in lieu ’39 though was aware Bellson’s art class story (link below)
https://drummagazine.com/double-bass-legends-a-short-history/
Beyond Louie (who I place in my top 10, with aforementioned Rich/Krupa), who is/was the greatest ever? No agreement, what constitutes the measure, subjectivity, bias/preference/style points… as rating QB’s/teams/whatever, there can be no final arbiter.
My judgment, Rich remains unparalleled in terms his technical expertise. I didn’t find his creativity on par his technical proficiency, but the term freak comes to mind when watching him, still. My eyes the final arbiter, Buddy is tops… the ears have it, a handful of others moved me more.
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The article was about Ginger Baker. Not you. Way to make it all about yourself though. Slow clap….slow clap….slow clap.
Oh grow up and go buy a drum kit then you can come back and talk drumming along with who was and who wasn’t with the adults here.
Ugh. Hard Pass. I would rather be forced to read one of Kerouac or chuck’s idiotic screeds. The “adults” here leave a lot to be desired.
“Adults” certainly leaves you out, shawnie.
All due respect to the memory of Baker – or at least his talent, but such is the way of the world that news of his passing completely upstaged that of Kim Shattuck, frontwoman of the Muffs, who left us at 56 due to ALS.
The Muffs weren’t particularly innovative or influential or any of the other superlatives being tossed around here. But for awhile in the nineties, they were regarded as a very tight, solid power-pop group with hooks to spare. I saw their high-energy act at the Bottleneck and loved ’em.
Kim also worked with other groups and for awhile subbed for Kim Deal in the Pixies, a true free spirit who left us much too soon.