{"id":953,"date":"2007-10-30T10:38:19","date_gmt":"2007-10-30T14:38:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-02-01T18:14:36","modified_gmt":"2009-02-01T18:14:36","slug":"is-there-a-drummer-in-the-house-ginger-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/is-there-a-drummer-in-the-house-ginger-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There a Drummer in the House: Ginger Baker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You might be thinking this is yet another excuse for Mr. Mod to dig Clapton&#8217;s Look, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=carry_that_weight&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?title=carry_that_weight&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1\">especially in contrast with his ugly bandmates<\/a>, but I&#8217;d really like to learn more &#8211; <em>from a drummer&#8217;s perspective<\/em> &#8211; about what exactly highly touted drummer <strong>Ginger Baker<\/strong> brought to the table. Here&#8217;s one of the first songs I ever heard by Cream.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9V77lE6u0a4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nFor the 37 or so years I&#8217;ve been conscious of (and liked) this song, all I&#8217;ve ever thought about when considering the drum part is the <strong>monstrous, clodhopper fill<\/strong> that Baker seems to play in an endless loop. <em>Is there a drummer in the house<\/em> 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&#8217;s part supporting the song in a manner you could help me better understand?<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s another well-known Cream track, but this time with Baker leading his own band, <strong>Ginger Baker&#8217;s Airforce<\/strong>.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E-Ej7R8KV7o?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nWith the horns punching out the key beats, does it even matter that Baker sounds like he&#8217;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 <strong>thunderous paradiddles<\/strong> 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&#8217;s life meaning!<\/p>\n<p><em>Drummers, when you were young and learning your craft, did you take anything special out of the lessons set by Mr. Baker?<\/em><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nGranted, 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 <strong>Elvin Jones<\/strong>, 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&#8217;s working in a tradition that I am not equipped to judge. <em>I&#8217;m asking you, drummers, to educate me.<\/em> What do you think about this one? Plays well with others?<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Jur-OmmDk4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Or this one?<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NEl77Bdbe5A?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>OK, I think you&#8217;re getting a sense of where I&#8217;m stuck, but <em>I&#8217;d like drummers to ask themselves why we&#8217;re all cool with laughing at Neil Peart, but we keep a distance from the reputation of Ginger Baker.<\/em> Certainly I&#8217;m missing something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You might be thinking this is yet another excuse for Mr. Mod to dig Clapton&#8217;s Look, especially in contrast with his ugly bandmates, but I&#8217;d really like to learn more &#8211; from a drummer&#8217;s perspective &#8211; about what exactly highly touted drummer Ginger Baker brought to the table. Here&#8217;s one of the first songs I <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/is-there-a-drummer-in-the-house-ginger-b\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[146],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}