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Is There a Drummer in the House: Ginger Baker
You might be thinking this is yet another excuse for Mr. Mod to dig Clapton's Look, especially in contrast with his ugly bandmates, but I'd really like to learn more - from a drummer's perspective - about what exactly highly touted drummer Ginger Baker brought to the table. Here's one of the first songs I ever heard by Cream.
For the 37 or so years I've been conscious of (and liked) this song, all I've ever thought about when considering the drum part is the monstrous, clodhopper fill that Baker seems to play in an endless loop. Is there a drummer in the house who can explain the degree of difficulty of this one fill? Are you drummers hearing anything else from the drums that impresses you in any way? Is Baker's part supporting the song in a manner you could help me better understand?
Here's another well-known Cream track, but this time with Baker leading his own band, Ginger Baker's Airforce.
With the horns punching out the key beats, does it even matter that Baker sounds like he's doing nothing more than rolling around the toms while keeping that counter-rhythm pulse? He does open things up a bit during the first horn solo, but then, with the clock counting down to 10:28 and the the chorus part of the music coming back in, Baker reverts to those thunderous paradiddles that seem to be what he lives for. Go to the 5:03-mark, when the band is into its next song, for some more of the intense tom-tom fills that give Baker's life meaning!
Drummers, when you were young and learning your craft, did you take anything special out of the lessons set by Mr. Baker?
Follow up:
Granted, that Airforce clip was loaded with funny, outdated elements that could be seen as stacking the deck against the drumming skills of Mr. Baker. The guy did have a drum-off against Elvin Jones, in which Baker took a beating, and he developed a lot of credibility by wearing a skull cap, a dashiki, and playing with real African musicians. Perhaps he's working in a tradition that I am not equipped to judge. I'm asking you, drummers, to educate me. What do you think about this one? Plays well with others?
Or this one?
OK, I think you're getting a sense of where I'm stuck, but I'd like drummers to ask themselves why we're all cool with laughing at Neil Peart, but we keep a distance from the reputation of Ginger Baker. Certainly I'm missing something.
8 comments
saturn, who has drummed for bro jt, ladytron and over half the photon band tracks, and now bangs the skins for ex reverie, replies:
baker's not my fave, but he's a good reminder of the need to get away from the typical kick, hi-hat, snare patterns that too often serve as defaults for uncreative drummers. that clodhopper fill that sounds like an endless loop in 'white room' may sound elephantine , but it is a *part* that actually follows the riffs and various parts of the song.
baker is also a good example of how drummers should strive to play loosely, and with flow.
this gets to another point: remember his moment in time. aside from keith moon's blur, astonishing as it was, nobody else beat baker to the punch: he changed rock and roll drumming to rock drumming. all the other drummers heard HEH-VEE-NESS in his approach. it doesn't sound like that to us, but you can tell by what they say about him, that it sounded like that to them.
and if you consider that in the 2d half of the sixties, they were all still playing in clubs and in situations where the p.a. system was less than optimal, learning how to SOUND heavy on stage was really important to these guys. and baker tuned his drums differently than them. he also used his kick drum like an extra floor tom, using it in fills. people on the english scene hadn't heard anything like that. many drummers, most famously john bonham, would also use the kick drum like that, only after they heard baker do it.
he's one of those guys whose obsolescence actually proves how revolutionary he was.
Compare and contrast with Bonham, another extremely talented drummer who played in a band that swung *hard*, or Neil Peart, a technically accomplished drummer who plays in a band that grooves about as hard as Dick Cheney.
He's a jazz drummer if Buddy Rich is our idea of what a jazz drummer should be.
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