Really sad, one of the greats in my humble opinion
Sad indeed.
Definitely a "they threw away the mold" person. Absolutely astonishing drummer. I have "Beware of Mr Baker" queued up to watch.
Awesome drummer, we’ve missed that for decades. Suspect if he hadn’t been such a vexatious personality we might have heard a lot more of him.
Some of the stories about him....
Sad news but he made it to 80 years old, which is pretty good considering - everything.
My generation were in awe of him as a rock drummer, remember seeing the Cream concert on BBC TV and his solo. Great stuff in those days and a step up from what we were used to.
Tomorrow I must have an hour in the shed playing my Cream vinyls.
I thought she died years ago. Fred’ll be sad if he’s still knocking about.
I assume your shed's indoor decor is white with black curtains....
> I assume your shed's indoor decor is white with black curtains....
Very good.
I saw Beware of ... when it came out. Great film but what an arsehole. Superb musician but other than that...
I'm looking forward to playing the double album Wheels of Fire later tonight in homage
> I thought she died years ago. Fred’ll be sad if he’s still knocking about.
That's either very ignorant, or very funny
Surely if it was the former it would make it even funnier? I was joking.
>Tomorrow I must have an hour in the shed playing my Cream vinyls.
Much has been written about Ginger's influence on the music that followed, from Led Zep to modern jazz.
Let us not forget the influence Cream had, on Chas 'n' Dave.
youtube.com/watch?v=ZX06inW2hK4&
On a less frivolous note, Disraeli Gears was an album I discovered by chance when I was at school. I shall be rocking out to it with the volume cranked, this morning.
Interesting to tune into this news as a member of the following generation.
I never knew Blind Faith produced 'Can't find my way home', a song I know from Swans in the late 1980s.
I've listened to the original acoustic now (on Youtube) and its brilliant. The lyrics stab you in the heart. As do many of the comments below the video, from fans from that time. Time sweeps us all away.
Sadly many from "our generation" (us oldies) are gone or on the way out, but they had their day and the fact their influences are still held in high regard says much for them. It was slightly different then, in that everything (in the arts) was so new and much had not been seen, done or tried before, so the impact on us youngsters was massive.
Probably 50 years from now there will be heroes from this day and age, remembered with fondness and awe?
Well, my 'heroes' are already dying! Bowie, Cassius, Keith Floyd, Pete Shelley, Mark E Smith, Johann Johannsson...
Its now nearly 30 years from the time I discovered dance music and clubbing culture and some of those DJs are still selling out. Then, like with you, the impact was massive and the scene so fresh, inspiring and hopeful. Despite many people dismissing it, at the time, as a fad, I can tune into Radio 1 as they play tunes to motivate the youngsters going out and many of those tunes sound like they could come from the 90s. Many contemporary artists like Jon Hopkins, Ellen Allien, Bicep etc. basically performing in those genres.
I think my generation has certainly left a legacy and changed music, as did yours.
Often, chilling out after clubbing, we'd play select tunes from Fairport Convention, Jefferson Airplane...my friend, who was about 13 years older than most of our group, had all these old vinyls. 'Meet on the Ledge' was always a favourite. As I've got older I've begun to better understand the depth of music we have available.
Mr Baker powering on through a bit of Hawkwind:
And let's not forget that Chas and Dave were competent session musicians, the former providing solid backing to Albert Lee in the band Heads Hands and Feet in the early seventies and pretty good vocals on occasion.
Ah, I do like Hawkwind. Only got one CD but it was my driving to the mountains music for a long time
I saw Ginger Baker live on two occasions - the first was the Cream Farewell concert in 1968 and then with Airforce at a Festival in Holywood (Staffordshire) in 1970. I thought his work after Cream & Blind Faith was really under-rated and his contribution to world music continued until his passing.
Try this youtube.com/watch?v=rsTrzMs6Dsc&
PS It was at the Holywood festival that I discovered The Grateful Dead - still a DeadHead.
It’s a great watch...but a “challenging” guy to hang around with I’d have thought. And what was all that Polo obsession about....
The Stratavarious album with Fela Kuti, which I think preceded the Air Force stuff, is excellent:
Cream on one of the greatest rock live recordings, Crossroads. Clapton and Baker effectively soloing together and Baker keeping it all together and driving it on.
You meant " Clapton and Bruce......" I think
I hope you're right about modern day musical performers being regarded with fondness and awe but I wouldn't be able to suggest any.
Yes... too late to edit now I'm afraid!
Is Nick Cave a 'modern day performer'? Not sure as his musically career started in the late 1970s!
I suppose you need time to elapse to measure influence etc.
I was pondering this one last night, there are a number of currently active musicians with a huge legacy going back 30+ years, who I'd argue will be remembered in 30 years from now. Nick Cave being one of them. And on a smaller scale, people like Kristin Hersh.
For someone more contemporary, how about St. Vincent?
> Is Nick Cave a 'modern day performer'? Not sure as his musically career started in the late 1970s!
> I suppose you need time to elapse to measure influence etc.
I'd certainly class Cave as a modern day performer, particularly as his recent work - Push the Sky Away and Skeleton Tree - has been right up there with his best. From what I've heard so far, the forthcoming Ghosteen album will maintain this standard. He continues to be at the forefront of innovation with such initiatives as the In Conversation concert tour and the Red Hand Files. I can't think of any lyricist currently writing who's producing work of the same standard. It will be interesting to see whether the writing of newish bands like Idles and Fontaines DC evolves to the same extent.
I wonder how Damon Albarn will be considered? Blur (seminal band), Gorillaz (highly succesful experimental virtual band) and The Good, The Bad and The Queen (supergroup)
Ghosteen : youtube.com/watch?v=GwlU_wsT20Q&
'PART 1 COMPRISES OF EIGHT SONGS'
With such a grammatical error Don't think I can listen to it
You don't like 'comprises of'? Could well be acceptable in Australian English (it is in Malaysian English).
> You don't like 'comprises of'? Could well be acceptable in Australian English (it is in Malaysian English).
I do not!!
jcm
I thought " is comprised of" was ok but a lot of authorities are very sniffy about it.
Strike out the 'of'. It is redundant given the word 'comprises', just as if, instead, you had said 'includes'. That said, I can see why non-native speakers might get confused given that if you had said 'consists', you would have needed to add the 'of'. Why? Mainly, because it would have sounded odd if you hadn't.
Can you see how this paragraph would be a nightmare for a non-native speaker to get to sound right?
I wouldn't use it, simply because it's tautologous. But there's plenty of English that's illogical so I can't get too worked up about it.
> so I can't get too worked up about it.
There's a character on Wiki called Giraffedata who's been attempting for over ten years to remove every instance of the phrase from the encyclopaedia. I'd never been much bothered about it before I came across him/her . . .