Obituary: Ginger Baker

Famed rock music drummer Ginger Baker, 80, has reportedly died.   He was best known for his improvisational work in late 1960s groups Cream and Blind Faith.

As Cream was a trio, and bassist Jack Bruce died in 2014, this leaves guitarist Eric Clapton as the last surviving member of the group, which is a miracle in itself.

As I wrote in my mention of Jack Bruce's death, Cream was legendary for the tension between Bruce and Baker while Clapton played referee.  Bruce and Baker hated each other and nearly came to blows onstage.  However, this tension went back many years prior, as early as 1962 with the band Blues Incorporated, and at least some of this was pure showbiz and part of the act.  In any case, the two ultimately lived on separate continents.

However, Baker was difficult to get along with by all accounts, but that added to his mystique.

Snip:

Peter Edward Baker — he became known as Ginger during childhood because of his red hair — was born on Aug. 19, 1939, in the Lewisham area of southeast London, to Frederick and Ruby (Bayldon) Baker. His father, a bricklayer, was killed in action during World War II.

Drawn to the drums at an early age, Mr. Baker talked his way into a job with a traditional-jazz combo when he was 16 despite his lack of professional experience. Before long, he was well established on the London jazz scene. He also had a heroin habit that would dog him for decades.

In 1962 Mr. Baker joined Blues Incorporated, one of the earliest British rhythm-and-blues bands, beginning his contentious but musically rewarding association with Mr. Bruce. When the organist and saxophonist Graham Bond left that band in 1964 to form his own group, the Graham Bond Organisation, Mr. Baker and Mr. Bruce went with him.

He was a noted heroin addict; the article mentions he claimed to have quit the drug 29 times.  In the end, though, it wasn't drugs that did him in.  Years of heavy smoking left him suffering from COPD.  While no cause of death has been made public, it would seem COPD or something related got him in the end.

A very good obituary is in the Daily Mail of all places.

Fun fact about Baker:  He once had a fling with feminist writer and icon Germaine Greer.  It isn't surprising because Greer "got around" quite a bit in the 1960s.  She knew quite a few rock musicians, and a few of them in the biblical sense.  One could call her a groupie, but she always denied she was.  Back then she was quite something, six feet tall and full of sass, and a lot of men liked that.   She was glamorous enough to have been a fashion model.   Of course, she was one of the smartest people on the planet, and a lot of men didn't like that.