Posted on 09/25/2019 6:59:03 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Legendary CREAM drummer Ginger Baker is "critically ill" and in the hospital, his family has revealed.
"Please keep him in your prayers tonight," the family wrote in a brief statement posted to Baker's official Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon.
Baker, who turned 80 in August, has experienced a number of health issues in recent years. In 2016, he underwent open heart surgery, which forced him to cancel a run of tour dates. During recovery, a fall also left him with swollen legs and feet. In 2013, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and he is also said to ber suffering from chronic back pain as a result of degenerative osteoarthritis.
(Excerpt) Read more at blabbermouth.net ...
Me too! ELP forever.
Carmine or Vinnie? Both outstanding.
Thanks.
And that was a “top forty” song is what’s amazing.
He lived hard...a long life for someone like him
You’ll be amongst friends and hopefully his legendary temper will chill
* * *
However, the typically short lifespans of musicians, whether due to their lifestyle or other factors, would seem a high price to pay for stardom and adulation. Their fans--and they are numerous, on all continents, in all age groups--must savor their memories of live performances just as those fans of Mozart , Paderewski and Rachmaninoff did in previous centuries.
The reason being, recordings don't do justice to music performed before an audience. To add to LS's comment about Buddy Rich, no matter how well-done and technically proficient the musician, it lacks soul. You had to be there, whether it's Woodstock or Fillmore or some out-of-the-way lounge. The dynamics of a friendly audience don't normally extend to vinyl or tape. (Studio recordings, overdubbed, overmixed and over-equalized, are too-often sterile, unlikely to be replicated before an audience, and that's probably for the best.)
In Ginger Baker's case, as several on this thread have noted, he's beat the odds up until now. Many who were his fans in the '60s and still alive would express astonishment to learn that so was Mr. Baker.
His interests extend far beyond drumming and music, as reported in this lengthy article of twenty years ago in Denver's "alternative" weekly, Westword.
He was just 60 then, and as troubled as he was in his 20s, but in different ways.
May the good Lord have mercy.
I don’t think that a even a slick talking politician could have pulled that one off.
All the rockers are dying. We are getting old.
Intersting story about "Sunshine of Your Love" and Baker. Originally, Jack Bruce had the tempo of that song VERY fast - which completely changed the feeling of the song (try and imagine "Sunshine of Your Love" on amphetamines).
It was Ginger who argued "No, no, no! Slow it down - like this!" and he did the famous drum line which you can hear on the song.
Bruce didn't like it so slow, but Felix Pappalardi, the producer, sided with Ginger. The rest is history.
ff
All the heros and pillars youth are passing even before I do. My grandfather’s world, and even my father’s world, ended so long ago it seems like fiction or as if it never was.
Remember when one time mayor of Pittsburgh Sofie Masloff stated when The Who were coming to Pittsbugh,how she likes The Hows music?
Funny you should mention that: there is a youtube “drum battle” between them!
I saw Vinnie in Dayton, OH at a drum clinic. No, I don’t think he’s close to Carmine. Not nearly as inventive. But very good.
On my top five also are Prairie Prince of the Tubes, the late Cozy Powell, and Bonham #5. However . . .
Ringo is in a class by himself. Not in the same universe of technique as any in the top 20, but his inventiveness and ability to play every kind of beat or rhythm in 1962-4 is unmatched. I learned to drum listening to Ringo. He could play waltzes, cha cha, backbeats, but never really liked to solo.
Listen to how Baker plays. He plays “around a song.” He’s less a standard backbeat, driving force as he is one of the “other” musical instrument with his toms. Didn’t use his hi-hat like most rockers. Used the snare on the one beat more than almost anyone.
Anything on “Wheels of Fire” was drumming at its best. Did not like “Ginger Baker’s Air Force,” and while I heard him say many times he was a “jazz drummer,” that’s crap. Buddy Rich, Joe Morello, Gene Krupa, even the first Yes drummer were “jazz drummers.”
It’s like guitarists. Someone once asked Hendrix who the best guitarist was, him or Clapton.
He said, “I play a lick, Eric plays a lick, but Jeff Beck is better than either of us.” I believe that.
But of Krupa and Rich, I thought Krupa had much more soul.
True, but this will kill you, so to speak.
I was in an old folks home with my mother in law a few weeks ago.
You know what came over the sound system?
“White Room.”
The best part of it was talking about his time in Nigeria.
Tony Williams playing with Miles Davis’ quintet in 1967 was in another world. I saw Cream live in San Diego in 1968 with Deep Purple and Ginger was amazing. Now there’s a local guy here in the Baltimore area named Dennis Chambers who is better than any of them.
Any updates?
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