Whaddaya know? Ginger Baker made it to 80

[Steve F.]

You gotta admit, they sounded fantastic (especially Jack) and showed to the world that they could still bring it. I'm mesmerized every time I watch it.

Not going to see them at MSG when they did that run of shows is one of my great musical regrets. They sounded really great on that DVD.

I saw Jack about 18 months before he died with Spectrum Road and he didn't look great, but he played great and he sang great.

[progholio]

Happy birthday, Ginger. I never would have guessed you'd make it. Hat's off to ya!

I might bet good money he will be the last man standing.

[Zeuhlmate]

Jack & Ginger 1989 (and Holdsworth)

[ronmac]

Not going to see them at MSG when they did that run of shows is one of my great musical regrets.

Mine, too.

[pb2015]

Ironically, they reformed to help Ginger make some money, from what I understand. Sure, there were other reasons, like they weren't getting any younger...

You gotta admit, they sounded fantastic (especially Jack) and showed to the world that they could still bring it. I'm mesmerized every time I watch it.

I seem to remember hearing that both Jack and Ginger needed money for medical and maybe personal problems.

[pb2015]

Jack & Ginger 1989 (and Holdsworth)

Jack and Ginger promoting that album on the David Letterman show.

[GuitarGeek]

I seem to remember hearing that both Jack and Ginger needed money for medical and maybe personal problems.

So it was sort of like when The Who got back together in 1989. Townshend admitted at the time he was "doing it for the money", but we eventually found out what really happened was Enwistle was in danger of losing his house, and that was the real reason they did it.

[rcarlberg]

Thirty-two posts about Ginger Baker, and so far nobody's mentioned what a MONSTER drummer he was (is?), especially back in the Air Force and Africa '70 days.

I am less impressed with his Ginger Baker Trio, which is on the whole a pretty modest affair. I DO greatly enjoy "Horses and Trees" and "Middle Passage" though -- very evolved stuff!

[ronmac]

^^ Not only one of the true greats, but a dedicated student of his craft.

[Lopez]

He may not be a virtuoso human being, but he certainly is a virtuoso drummer.

[rcarlberg]

Hate the sin, love the sinner

[Dave (in MA)]

I DO greatly enjoy "Horses and Trees" and "Middle Passage" though -- very evolved stuff!

As do I, but those were largely Laswell/Skopelitis creations with Baker behind the drums and under his banner. ISTR reading somewhere that one of those albums is built around GB drum tracks leftover from the Public Image Ltd. album that he was on, but damned if I can find any citations.

[Yodelgoat]

When I was a Kid I bought that Ginger Bakers Air Force 1 album in a cutout bin. I have often counted that as the worst music purchase I have ever made. Man, that album sucked. I'm almost tempted to get it again, just to remind myself how bad it was. For as big a name as he had, that was awful. At least to a 12 year olds ears who was expecting to hear something akin to Cream.

[rcarlberg]

The PLAYING on those two albums is top notch. The SONGWRITING is weak and not up to Cream’s or Blind Faith’s or even Graham Bond’s level, IMO.

[rapidfirerob]

Did he start a bar fight on his birthday?

[GuitarGeek]

As do I, but those were largely Laswell/Skopelitis creations with Baker behind the drums and under his banner. .

Kinda like the Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports album, which was really a Carla Bley album, but they put Nick's name on the front cover so they could get a better recording budget and more promo, etc.

[JJ88]

With the 2005 reunion, the Royal Albert Hall shows went smoothly. Apparently the Bruce/Baker friction started to surface again over the course of the MSG shows. Clapton also regretted doing those US shows.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...n-shows-80235/

[Scrotum Scissor]

Did he start a bar fight on his birthday?

There's a legendary tavern on the UNESCO-listed Bryggen in Bergen, my original hometown, named Sjøboden (the Seabooth). Sometime in 1986 there was substantial commotion after "[…] some geezer claiming to be a star musician" had been evicted rather brutally from the place after apparently harrassing a set of young women inside while stone drunk. A local music journalist, Bård Ose, managed to identify that man as Ginger Baker. Ose is quite renowned, both in Bergen and Norway as such, although he was young and getting started back then; he authored an extensive article on the subject of "fame and province" and, among other things, raised the question as to why we were always taught in school that former drug-addicts never relapsed to drink. Which was obviously not always the case. And least of all here.

I've been thrown out of Sjøboden myself a couple of times as well, albeit not too violently.

It's the place with the fake clock tower here:
imageresizer.jpg

[TheH]

^^

Had a few Drinks there once too (on the outside), not to many though as I allready spent a fortune
on the hotel (just a few meters to the left from there). I obviously behaved nice as they didn't threw
me out

[Halmyre]

I might bet good money he will be the last man standing.

Keith Richards says "Hold my beer...".

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Bah, Ginger'll kick ol' Keith in the prostatic teeth utilizing a technique he could seek out while doin' freakout in Nigeria sans criteria for being meek.

[aith01]

There's a legendary tavern on the UNESCO-listed Bryggen in Bergen, my original hometown, named Sjøboden (the Seabooth). Sometime in 1986 there was substantial commotion after "[…] some geezer claiming to be a star musician" had been evicted rather brutally from the place after apparently harrassing a set of young women inside while stone drunk. A local music journalist, Bård Ose, managed to identify that man as Ginger Baker. Ose is quite renowned, both in Bergen and Norway as such, although he was young and getting started back then; he authored an extensive article on the subject of "fame and province" and, among other things, raised the question as to why we were always taught in school that former drug-addicts never relapsed to drink. Which was obviously not always the case. And least of all here.

I've been thrown out of Sjøboden myself a couple of times as well, albeit not too violently.

It's the place with the fake clock tower here:
imageresizer.jpg

Thanks for the anecdote.

Looks like a cool place! Do you go back to visit often?

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Not much. I went back this summer to see my ageing (S.O.B.) dad whose wife left him recently in order to knick all his possessions so that her daughter and son-in-law can get it before my sister and I do, but I tend to stay for as short a while as absolutely necessary.

Too many memories from 12 years living in the city centre first as a drunken student and oddball bandmember, second as hubby and dad myself - until I left the city with my then-family in 2002. I get sentimental from going there. Not the best thing.

[JJ88]

Just announced on his Facebook page that he is critically ill:

https://www.facebook.com/jinjahbaker...type=3&theater

[ronmac]

Bummer, man.