Ginger Baker played with Eric Clapton, married four times, battled heroin and had a fling with Germaine Greer... as he dies at 80, here's why the drummer was the ultimate rock wildman
- London-born Baker was in Cream alongside Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce
- He was the son of a bricklayer killed in the WWII when Baker was just four
- Sir Paul McCartney said: ‘Ginger Baker, great drummer, wild and lovely guy'
He was the archetypal rock hell-raiser – bedding groupies, out of his mind on drugs and slagging off fellow stars with a fiery temper matched only by his flaming red hair.
But Ginger Baker – who has died aged 80 – was considered one of the most innovative and influential drummers of all time.
Born in south-east London – the son of a bricklayer who was killed in the Second World War when Baker was just four – he taught himself drumming and found global fame and fortune with ‘supergroup’ Cream alongside Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce.
Ginger Baker – who has died aged 80 – was considered one of the most innovative and influential drummers of all time
Among countless conquests of women he termed ‘tasty chicks’, including a foursome with three groupies of guitarist Jimi Hendrix, he even bedded feminist academic Germaine Greer. Baker later said of the encounter: ‘She’s a really nice girl, Germaine. I’ve always thought the world of her.’
Baker repeatedly lost or burned through the millions he made. He battled heroin addiction for decades, went through four marriages, and launched a series of failed business ventures in exotic corners of the world after tiring of performing.
He had to leave a music studio he launched in Nigeria after being shot at by police, his olive tree orchard in Italy after falling out with the mafia, and the polo ranch he ran in South Africa after being defrauded by a young bank clerk said to have been his lover.
Born in south-east London Baker (centre) taught himself drumming and found global fame and fortune with ‘supergroup’ Cream alongside Eric Clapton (left) and Jack Bruce (right)
And while he is revered as a founding father of heavy metal, he sneered that the genre should have been ‘aborted’.
He once shouted: ‘I hate f****** rock music. It’s so banal. I’m a jazz drummer.
‘You have to swing. There are hardly any rock drummers I know who can do that.’
Baker repeatedly lost or burned through the millions he made during his career
Last night Sir Paul McCartney led tributes, saying: ‘Ginger Baker, great drummer, wild and lovely guy. Sad to hear he died, but the memories never will.’ Ironically, famously arrogant Baker – whose autobiography was entitled Hellraiser: The Autobiography Of The World’s Greatest Drummer – had himself mocked McCartney for being unable to read music, while describing his Beatles bandmate George Harrison as ‘a musical moron’.
Baker’s daughter Nettie confirmed on Saturday that he had died peacefully after being critically ill in hospital for some weeks. He had two daughters and a son.
In recent years he had been living in a modest detached house in Kent after returning from South Africa short of cash following a bank fraud and series of court cases. He had endured serious heart problems for three years, and had long suffered deafness, which he blamed on over-loud performances.
He was born Peter Baker in Lewisham in 1939, weeks before the outbreak of war. When he was just four his father was killed while serving with the RAF.
Baker’s daughter Nettie confirmed on Saturday that he had died peacefully after being critically ill in hospital for some weeks. Pictured left to right: Bruce, Clapton and Baker
Ten years later, the youngster was handed a letter his father had written to him. It told him: ‘Your fists are your best pals.’
He seemingly took the message to heart, partly by being always ready for a fight – but also by using those fists to grip the drumsticks that made his name. Baker had told how he had always enjoyed beating out rhythms on his desk at school, but his first passion was cycling, and his first job was in the art department of an advertising agency.
Among countless conquests of women he termed ‘tasty chicks’, including a foursome with three groupies of guitarist Jimi Hendrix, he even bedded feminist academic Germaine Greer (pictured in 1968)
After wrecking his bike in a crash in London, a friend suggested he try drumming. When he did so with a kit at a jazz club, his very first un-tutored effort, one of the professional band members turned to another and said: ‘Christ, we’ve got a drummer.’
He bought himself a toy drum kit for £3 and soon turned professional aged 17 and gave up his day job. Before long he was a regular at Ronnie Scott’s club in Soho. It was on London’s jazz scene in the 1950s that he was introduced, on the same night, to African rhythms and to heroin. Both were to remain an obsession for decades. He only gave up heroin for good when living on his Tuscan olive farm in 1981, after 29 failed attempts to quit.
Already well-known for his wind-milling musicianship, Baker graduated to rock stardom in 1966 when he formed Cream with Clapton and Bruce. They gave themselves the name because they believed themselves to be ‘the cream’ of musical talent. At times they outsold the Beatles, with hits including Sunshine of Your Love, I Feel Free and Strange Brew, with Baker’s extended drum solos a key feature. Yet after just two years they had broken up.
Baker fell out with Bruce for decades, furious at earning less money than him from royalties, and even blaming him for the band’s huge banks of speakers and his hearing loss. Cream lucratively reformed, briefly, in 2005, but never again.
Already well-known for his wind-milling musicianship, Baker (centre) graduated to rock stardom in 1966 when he formed Cream with Clapton (left) and Bruce (right)
After Cream, Baker played alongside Clapton again in the short-lived band Blind Faith, with Steve Winwood as singer-keyboardist. He later played with John ‘Jonny Rotten’ Lydon’s band Public Image Ltd.
But much of the last half century of his life was consumed by his wild love-life and business adventures. The spirit of his life was captured by an award-winning cinema biography released in 2013. Entitled ‘Beware of Mr Baker’ after a sign he put up at his polo ranch in South Africa, it opened with him whacking the director in the face with his walking stick, breaking his nose and chasing him into his car, after hearing that the film would feature interviews with old bandmates.
Despite being likened in looks in his later years to Albert Steptoe, he was long popular with the opposite sex. He and first wife Liz once enjoyed a threesome with the girlfriend of one of his bandmates. He boasted in his autobiography that he had a foursome with three members of Hendrix’s harem.
Clapton, Baker and Bruce (pictured left to right) gave themselves the name because they believed themselves to be ‘the cream’ of musical talent
And after catching the eye of rising feminist Germaine Greer in the crowd at one of his gigs in 1969, she became another surprising notch on his bedpost.
The first marriage to Liz ended when he began an affair with his daughter’s boyfriend’s sister, called Sarah, aged 18. They eloped to Tuscany, and married in 1983. He divorced her after finding she had cheated on him.
At the age of 50 he was living in California – though barred from permanent residence in the US thanks to several drug convictions – and he married for the third time to Karen, the young blonde friend of his hairdresser. It soon ended acrimoniously. When he refused to pay her after their divorce, she kept his gold discs.
Baker (centre) fell out with Bruce (right) for decades, furious at earning less money than him from royalties, and even blaming him for the band’s huge banks of speakers and his hearing loss
He moved on to South Africa to launch a polo farm, but was fleeced by a bank clerk young enough to be his daughter, and who claimed to have been his lover, Lindiwe Noko. She was found guilty of fraud, but he never got his cash back. He had an affair with a prostitute before in 2010 taking his fourth wife, yet another South African woman, again many decades his junior, Kudzai Machokoto. When he returned to Britain several years ago, she accompanied him.
Whatever the ups and downs of his businesses and love life, Baker retained a strong sense of his own worth as a musician.
As well as mocking the Beatles, he described Mick Jagger as ‘a bit of a girlie prat’ and Elvis Presley as ‘one of the biggest berks that ever lived’. He retained his greatest derision for fellow drummers. He was furious when told that Rolling Stone magazine had rated him as history’s third best drummer after John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and Keith Moon of The Who, and snorted that most of his rivals were nothing more than ‘bashers’.
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