Ginger Baker is a man with an attitude. I just rush into intersting quote of his (thanks to Lisa of Brian Jones: Censored from Our Minds -forum):


"Charlie Watts was a big fan of mine, and he left the Alexis Korner band so I could join it. “He said to me ‘I don't want to be a professional musician, there's no security in it.' So I was playing with Korner and Mick Jagger was always hanging around with his friend Brian Jones. They'd play during the break and they didn't have a rhythm section so they'd ask me to play with them.

I got on with Brian but I hated Mick. He was an effeminate little d--k with zero talent, which is where he's still at now. So I got totally pissed off at him and said ‘For God's sake, get yourself a drummer! Why don't you get Charlie Watts, he's a wonderful drummer.'"

- Ginger Baker, 1997

I had a big laugh, so I wanted to share it with all of you....><

- Doxa

Maybe an 'effeminate little d--k' but zero talent? rubbish! best front man ever!

To back up his story of seeing Mick's talents (sic), there was a time when Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce were backing up the early Stones, and had made some intentious difficult changes of rhythm, etc. and Mick was totally lost (and the story goes. Brian needed to show Mick the tempo: one two three four...)... I don't know if any of this is really true... Anyone knows more?

Anyway, of suggesting Charlie to join in - at least Ian Stewart credits himself of that one.

And yes, that Baker guy - not that he is a god-like drummer (ask Charlie Watts) -seems be a serious @#$%&.

- Doxa

"Charlie Watts was a big fan of mine"

Nice to note his never dying modesty is still in tact.

As for his Jagger comments, well, Baker is the one that appears on shows like "Where are they now" and so on. Well that's when anybody remembers to think of him that is....

I'm a Stones fan and like Charlie's drumming in that context. I'm glad he indulges his Jazz interest - but that's not his real strength.

Ginger's drumming sound/style/technique (mainly from Cream days) will be remembered into posterity. Charlie might be remembered as the Stones' drummer.

And from those Cream re-union gigs Ginger still has his heyday 'chops' - whereas sadly Charlie doesn't.

True, Four Stone Walls, but where as Charlie seems to possess dignity and class as a person, Ginger is basically a stupid idiot... (but funny he is; his comments of Led Zeppelin's reunion is as 'high class' as well...)

- Doxa

I saw Ginger three or four times in the 70's. I remember couple of shows with the Baker Gurvits Army and he used to do an almost 20 minutes solo.
I still wonder how I could be so patient to listen for twenty minutes to such a boring stuff. Should it happen to me nowadays I wouldn't hesitate to go on stage, take the drum and break it on the drummer's head!

Doxa,

What were the comments Baker made about Zeppelin?

Good thread Doxa !


"The Devil and Ginger Baker "

[www.rollingstone.com]


Baker opens up about jamming with Mick Jagger (”This effeminate little kid showed up, and I hated him”), the birth of Cream, the end of Blind Faith (which Baker insists was unrelated to his growing heroin problem) and the night Jimi Hendrix died — a night he was seeking the legendary guitarist to come get high.

In the above clip, Bulger asks Baker if he’s surprised that he’s actually even lived this long. “Amazed, actually,” Baker replies. “God is punishing me for my past wickedness by keeping me alive and in as much pain as he can.”

I have to check out what this is about :
[www.rollingstone.com]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

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bigmac7895
Doxa,

What were the comments Baker made about Zeppelin?

Sorry, my wrong, I got the wrong guy! It's Jack Bruce... but what a big mouth band it was...

Here is the interview from Classic Rock some time ago:

------
Classic Rock: The million dollar question: Are CREAM going to do anything again?

Jack Bruce: Oh yeah, I'm sure we will. But we'll have Todd Rundgren [who's just walked by] in the band by then.

Classic Rock: It's good news that there might be more from CREAM.

Jack Bruce: Well, the trouble is that I'm doing so many amazing things on my own. CREAM is just a band from many, many years ago, and we did do something [referring to the reunion shows in 2005]… Everybody talks about LED ZEPPELIN, and they played one @#$%& gig — one @#$%& lame gig — while CREAM did weeks of gigs; proper gigs, not just a lame gig like ZEPPELIN did, with all the [vocal] keys lowered and everything. We played everything in the original keys. [Becoming animated]: @#$%& off, ZEPPELIN, you're crap. You've always been crap and you'll never be anything else. The worst thing is that people believe the crap that they're sold. CREAM is 10 times the band that LED ZEPPELIN is.

Classic Rock: That's a bold opinion.

Jack Bruce: What? You're gonna compare Eric Clapton with that @#$%& Jimmy Page? Would you really compare that?

Classic Rock: To be fair, they're different kinds of player, aren't they?

Jack Bruce: No! Eric 's good and Jimmy 's crap. And with that I rest my case.

----

- Doxa

I love the way he's quite right but he makes it hard to believe

Regardless of what a grump Baker is, that recent Rolling Stone article was gut splittingly hilarious! And the comment from one person, "Ginger Baker makes Keith Richards look like on of the Jonas Brothers" is hilarious as well. That's how bad off Baker is. It seems that Baker is comfortable with his prickness, which is fine. There's no hiding that he's a grump. So it's brilliant in that way that he is so pissed off.

Because the dude ain't doin' shit.

>“He said to me ‘I don't want to be a professional musician, there's no security in it.'

Could this be the inspiration for a live album title?

Funny how you have the humble Clapton grouped with two arrogant players. I guess the creative energy was there.... but then you also have a cocky Robert Plant with a humble Jimmy Page and it was pretty creative as well.

..He says some nice things on the Stones in the afterword of "Not fade away"
by G.Giuliano...

Charlie hasn't retained his heyday "chops"?

Huh!?!?

If I need a killer blues or rock groove, I'm looking to Charlie every time. And not just his masterful, slyly intricate beats, Charlie's fills are masterpieces of feel and timing. The man understands the surges needed to propel a song like no other.

Baker's one of the original powerhouse Rock drummers, to be sure. But gimme Charlie any day.

Makes you wonder why Ginger has been essentially exiled to Africa and can't even play in Cream for an entire mini-tour and, well, he's just sitting around.

Meanwhile, Charlie has been on a, what, 2 year vacation.

I only ever saw Baker play once. It was in a tiny club on a Friday night in 1983. Guess who played there on Saturday? Buddy Rich. I saw him too. Heard a lot of drums that weekend. Would have been great if Baker had been on the Clapton-Winwood tour this past June. It was a fantastic show, but with Ginger it would have been epic.

Obviously his comments are full of it,but that doesn't take away his greatness as a drummer.

"No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o'clock"

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bigmac7895
Funny how you have the humble Clapton grouped with two arrogant players. I guess the creative energy was there.... but then you also have a cocky Robert Plant with a humble Jimmy Page and it was pretty creative as well.

I've heard some pretty damn arrogant comments from Jimmy Page.

I haven't heard much from Page to lead me to think he is arrogant compared to Percy. Just thinking some of the great lead guitar players are very humble compared to the cocky frontmen that sing.

Remember this is the same guy that used to bad mouth Jack Bruce too. No wonders Baker is always crying broke. Maybe word was out long time ago that HE is the d*** and nobody wanted to play with him. I remember reading a story along time ago that he put an add in a newspaper looking for work.

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ROPENI
Obviously his comments are full of it,but that doesn't take away his greatness as a drummer.

Nobody wants to play with an *ss no matter how great they are. I never thought I'd see the day where Dickie betts was thrown out the ABB but it happened.

I could never take anything away from Bruce, Baker or Clapton - they have chops galore. And some decent songs too; (with questionable lyrics).
But the one thing they never had, and will never have is a crowd of 75,000 every time they go play a show; a crowd that is laughing and dancing in the aisles from first note to last.

I like this part of his interview in Rolling Stone.

Flat broke, Baker started delivering drugs to support his habit. Now, instead of playing with Clapton,
Baker sold cocaine at the studio where Clapton was recording.
"It was not a very pleasant situation," Baker says. "Keith Moon died around then.
His manager came up to me and said, 'You've got to help Moony. You're the only person he'll listen to.' But I had my own problems."
Estranged from his first wife and behind on his taxes, Baker fled England in 1982 with a 22-year-old girlfriend
and settled in central Italy to try his hand at olive farming.

Olive farming - now there's an idea.

Ginger Baker is officially a Gertrude.

[thepowergoats.com]

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Toru A
Estranged from his first wife and behind on his taxes, Baker fled England in 1982 with a 22-year-old girlfriend
and settled in central Italy to try his hand at olive farming.

That's right around the time I saw him. He was playing with a couple of Italian guys. They were great. GINGER was great! Like I said, I saw Buddy Rich the very next night, and Buddy had nothing on him.

Olives! Haha..
Hello Cleveland.

Selling coke at the studio Clapton is working at instead of working with Clapton.

GENIUS.