Ginger Baker, Cream, has passed away

[Mord]

 It grieves me to report that one of the greatest drummers of all time is gone. Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith) has left our world. R.I.P., Mr. Baker, you will not be forgotten. He was 80 years old.

[Mike Scott]

R.I.P., Ginger!

Here's a good docu on him.

https://youtu.be/d7h8CqYXEx0

[marsattacks666]

R.I.P., Mr. Ginger Baker.

[Paul L]

I saw Beware of Mr. Baker a few weeks ago: wow, can you say "anti-social"?? Still, another legend has jumped the planet. RIP.

[Hepcat]

Oh man! Very sad. I really enjoyed the music he made with Cream and Blind Faith.

[Flower]

It's too bad that his abrasive personality broke up some great bands.  I doubt if he ever thought that he'd live to see 60, let alone 80.  Not that 80 is that old in today's society.

R.I.P. Ginger, give my regards to Jack Bruce.

[Hepcat]

Oh man! Very sad. I really enjoyed the music he made with Cream and Blind Faith.

Interesting about the Cream. While originating in the mid-1960's when Top Forty AM radio was still incredibly good, they didn't have a major impact on the hit charts. They instead were trailblazers in the progressive rock movement that eventually became known as "album-oriented rock". The Cream were actually seminal in drawing me into album-oriented rock.

It may be tough for younger rock music enthusiasts to believe, but "rock journalism" was basically non-existent prior to the 9 November 1967 launch of Rolling Stone magazine. Moreover it was several years before Rolling Stone became widely available on newsstands across the breadth of the country. Stereo Review which I looked through at the local library reviewed rock albums sporadically beginning sometime in the late 1960's and the music section in Time magazine to which we subscribed also carried the occasional article. It was through an article in Time magazine in late 1967 or early 1968 that I first learned of the Cream. They were described as bringing a bit of the Chicago blues scene to whatever venue they played (or something like that).

When I therefore heard Anyone for Tennis? on the radio, I therefore listened in rapt wonder/attention. I knew it was supposed to be good but somehow it wasn't as described. Not surprising though since Anyone for Tennis? was neither representative of the Cream's music nor was it very good.

Anyone for Tennis?

But then Sunshine of Your Love hit big in mid-1968. It was a real ear opener for me:

Sunshine of Your Love

When I then heard White Room on Thomas Aquinas' half hour progressive rock show a few weeks later, I immediately went downtown to Bluebird Records and bought their Wheels of Fire album:

White Room

While listening to Wheels on Fire on my Seabreeze suitcase stereo that day, my older sister by nearly seven years came into my room and commented that our tastes in music had clearly diverged entirely. She was still an Elvis Presley fan although she really loved my High Tide and Green Grass album by the Rolling Stones.

So like I say Cream were instrumental in introducing me to album-oriented rock. Together with other bands/artists such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Grateful Dead, Butterfield Blues Band, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Traffic, Jeff Beck Group, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Nice, (Peter Green's) Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Spirit, Spooky Tooth, Leslie West and Johnny Winter that had very few if any Top Forty hits, the Cream drew me into more serious "intellectual" variants of rock music. My first exposure to most of these bands was in 1968-69 on Thomas Aquinas' progressive rock show on CFPL-AM. So that was my personal Golden Age when album-oriented rock began to diverge from still very good Top Forty hit radio. And of course I'm still a classic rock fan to this very day.