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Goodbye Ginger...
Oct. 7th, 2019 08:22 amA bit more Cream has gone off...
I spent a good portion of my musical life looking for a drummer who could play like Ginger Baker, in the context of the kind of music I wanted to do - someone who would not just sit there & keep time, but push & propel the music, adding & changing things just with little, but hugely noticeable variations... In 30 years of playing, I found one guy who came close... & he was every bit as much of an egotist & arrogant prick as Ginger reportedly was
But Mr Baker was, as even his estranged son has to admit, a great drummer... So many of today's standard rock rhythms came from him - not least the over-used 'Manchester' beat, used by the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays & Inspiral Carpets, but first heard on the live version of 'Crossroads' (literally 'kicks' in at around 3.13) in 1968, as Ginger used it to double time the song to its end
And like most sociopath misanthropes, he could be a charming bastard...
I spent a good portion of my musical life looking for a drummer who could play like Ginger Baker, in the context of the kind of music I wanted to do - someone who would not just sit there & keep time, but push & propel the music, adding & changing things just with little, but hugely noticeable variations... In 30 years of playing, I found one guy who came close... & he was every bit as much of an egotist & arrogant prick as Ginger reportedly was
But Mr Baker was, as even his estranged son has to admit, a great drummer... So many of today's standard rock rhythms came from him - not least the over-used 'Manchester' beat, used by the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays & Inspiral Carpets, but first heard on the live version of 'Crossroads' (literally 'kicks' in at around 3.13) in 1968, as Ginger used it to double time the song to its end
And like most sociopath misanthropes, he could be a charming bastard...
