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HAIL TO THE KING..GINGER BAKER

Several posts have already started on the recent death of the greatest drummer in history, Ginger Baker. Some may dispute that but I don't give a damn about other opinions on Baker. Why was he the King of drums? Very simple to answer.
Their are a lot of great drummer's such as Neal Peart and Buddy Rich who have/had great rudiment and technical skills. 
Perfect rolls on the snare, high speed chops up and down the toms, and a lot of crashing on the cymbals. Same old style over and over from a variety of drummers. Zzzzzzzz...wake me when its over. During the 1950's jazz drummer Louie Bellson used two bass drums which inspired Baker in the early 60's to use two bass drums when he was with the Graham Bond Organization which included Jack Bruce at the time. When Ginger Baker was in his late teens, he was a professional bike racer who had extremely strong legs and competed in pro races on the tracks in England. He invented a whole new style of drumming that was a game changer in the world of music by blending African rhythms, jazz rudiments and rock and roll techniques into a whole new style never achieved by anyone else. He played each drum as a musical note like the keys on a piano, blending patterns into rolling harmony's just like a song. Combine that with the fastest legs on two bass drums in history. Listen to Toad on the Wheels of Fire album, which is Bakers' greatest solo in history, and the speed of his legs are so fast towards the end of the solo that his bass rolls sound like two high speed trains competing  with each other. Many years ago, the drummer of the Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart, said this.." When Cream came to America they were like Vikings taking heads. "  Also, a statement by Jack Bruce in a interview in 1991, 
" What we achieved as the Cream can never be bettered by anyone. "  Hail to the King of Drums.
audiozen
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,311 posts
 

Buddy Rich called Ginger a "clown". But then he didn’t like many other drummers, or musicians in general.

I like Keith Moon’s answer to an interviewer who asked him if he could play in the Buddy Rich Big Band. "No", he replied, "and Buddy couldn’t play in The Who."

I saw & heard Ginger live twice (in ’67 and ’68), Keith Moon twice (’68 and ’69), and Mitch Mitchell twice (’67 and ’68). All different: Keith Moon an absolute possessed madman, master of kinetic energy. Along with Buddy Miles (in The Electric Flag), the "punchiest" drummer I’ve ever seen. Ginger played like no one else I’ve heard (kind of "floppy". Listen to his feel on "Strange Brew".), including his hero Elvin Jones. Though he knew the rudiments, he played almost entirely single-stroke. Mitch was a pretty-much traditional Jazz-style player, crisp technique, applied to Psychedelic Rock music. The best ever in that style (more specifically Fusion) imo was Tony Williams.

The most influential Rock drummer from that era (late-60’s into the 70’s) was of course John Bonham, perhaps because his playing is most-easily duplicated (Buddy reportedly did a spot-on imitation). Bonham, Moon, and Ringo were best friends and drinking buddies. Ringo was a huge fan of Levon Helm (The Band), appearing at the end of The Last Waltz, bogging down the tempo of whatever song he played on (his playing became unbearably "slow" in about 1966).

When John Hiatt was offered the choice of any drummer he wanted for the recording of his Bring The Family album, he picked Jim Keltner, a master of song playing, a very different thing from what the above did. IMO the best living song drummer is Harry Stinson, member of Marty Stuart’s band The Fabulous Superlatives. So tasty! Many of y’all may not understand why anyone would feel that way, listening to drumming as if it’s an athletic event, rather than an artistic one. No offense intended ;-) .

pfeiffer
57 posts
 
technical expertise is one thing and emotion is another.  The question, who is the greatest drummer? is a like trying to compare Michaelangelo's Mona Lisa to Picasso's Guernica and declaring one better then the other...its meaningless.  I was 19 years old when I first heard the Cream and the emotion and history of that music, and Baker's drumming in it, is impossible to quantify for me as it is a part of my growing up in this world.  If I could spend all day staring at the Mona Lisa or listen instead to the Cream all day (I have seen the Mona Lisa) I would chose the Cream!
audiozen OP
831 posts
 
Good point about John Bonham. Buddy Rich the greatest drummer? Maybe, if you judge him for speed. But hes' old school. Very mechanical playing like so many other jazz drummers from his era. But no way could he ever match Bakers' foot work on double bass drums. Richs' finger work was phenomenal on the snare until I saw John Bonham in late 1968 in Seattle when Led Zeppelin was on their first tour. 
 That night they opened up for Vanilla Fudge. Bonham did perfect rolls on the snare with one drum stick at very high speed and I have never seen any other drummer since with that level of skill. I bought my first drum kit in 1969 and put my sticks down in 1980 and I was an absolute concert junkie and over the years I have witnessed at live concerts all the top rock drummer's from that era and the one drummer that should be right up there with Neil Peart, Buddy Rich, and Ginger Baker is Bill Bruford with Yes.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
On the Kalahari you don’t have to be the fastest Wildebeest  you only have to be faster than the slowest one. Same with drummers, as long as the drummer fits the group, he’s golden. With that criterion in mind there’s been a bunch of terrific drummers. AND they probably aren’t interchangeable.
audiozen OP
831 posts
 
Why did Buddy Rich call Ginger Baker a clown? Because Baker really ticked off Buddy Rich for a very good reason. Back in the late 60's I use to "read" my older brothers' Playboy magazines. (sure I did!). During that time period Playboy had their annual international musicians poll and you filled out a form in the magazine and mailed it in. Every year Buddy Rich was voted #1 and then for several years in a row Ginger Baker dethroned Rich in the poll and took the #1 spot. Not bad for a clown! Way to go B.B.!! (Bozo Baker).
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