The chaotic life story of Ginger Baker

4 days ago
7 min read

Cream was one of the greatest bands of the 20th century. But did you know drummer Ginger Baker had one of the most chaotic lives in music history?

Peter Edward Baker was born in South London in 1939. His dad, a bricklayer, died fighting in the Second World War. Baker got the nickname Ginger because he was… well, ginger.

He was pretty sporty growing up - even wanting to be a rider in the Tour de France at one stage - but being knocked off his bike by a taxi killed that dream. His next obsession revealed itself in a set of drums that he sat at with no experience at a party for a dare. Somehow, he was really bloody good at it.

By 17, he was gigging with traditional jazz bands and making his way around the Soho music scene, until he eventually joined the band Blues Incorporated in 1962 (replacing Charlie Watts of Rolling Stones fame on the drums). This is where he met bassist Jack Bruce, who would later join him in the Cream line up …. And they immediately clashed. As in, really, really hated each other.

But they were clearly meant to be, because they agreed to be the rhythm section of a new band along with Graham Bond, Dick Heckstall-Smith and John McLaughlin. They were called the Graham Bond Organisation, and their music was a chaotic blend of R&B, blues and jazz.

So, The Graham Bond Organisation was off to a scorching start, becoming very popular in the local scene. However, they weren’t exactly professional. Both Baker and Bond were using heroin, and as you can probably imagine that wasn’t great for the longevity of the band.

On top of that, the cattiness between Baker and Bruce continued, reaching a peak when Bond convinced Baker to fire Bruce from the band. How’s that for alliteration?

And Bruce never let Baker forget that.

The Graham Bond Organisation fizzled out after Bruce’s departure, and Bond himself met an untimely end in 1974 when he was hit by a train at Finsbury Park station. He had experienced bouts of psychosis alongside his addiction and had become obsessed with the occult. He was even convinced he was Alistair Crowley’s son. As a result, many of his friends suspected his delusions led him to suicide.

Baker managed to avoid the path to sure destruction somehow, but you can’t say he didn’t try. He was still very much addicted to heroin when he formed Cream with Eric Clapton in 1966.

He had approached Clapton about starting a band and Clapton agreed on one condition. That Jack Bruce would be their bassist. Definitely meant to be.

Baker reluctantly agreed, but I imagine he was well aware that it would be frosty between himself and Bruce. After all, he had fired him not long before… and according to Bruce it had gone even further than that.

Jack told journalist Mick Wall in 2012:

“Ginger Baker had the idea [for Cream] with Eric Clapton, but Eric said: ‘Yeah, I’ll play with you but we’ve got to have Jack as the bass player and the singer.’ Ginger was like: ‘No problem.’ What he didn’t tell Eric was that the last time he’d seen me he pulled a knife on me and told me if he ever saw me again, the knife would be waiting for me.”

I for one would be a little bit wary about actively joining a band with him again.

Anyway, luckily Baker didn’t stab Bruce, because Cream obviously went on to be super successful.

Their debut album, Fresh Cream, got them a strong following. This album finished with Toad , which featured a 5 minute drum solo from Baker which he often extended even further live. This kind of put him on the map as one of the best drummers of the era.

But it was the second track of their follow up album, Disraeli Gears, that really took off.

Sunshine Of Your Love was the landmark tune for Cream, and I don’t think you will meet many people who don’t know that riff.

It wasn’t even seen as a single at first, only being released as a single after the album came out and seeing the reaction of fans. But it certainly gave them a place in music history books.

Now, Cream only lasted three years. They broke up officially in 1969 after a farewell tour, and it's not difficult to see why the project was so short-lived. Baker and Bruce never stopped hating each other, and the tension was exceptionally high by the end of the 60s.

Tales of Baker throwing drum sticks at Bruce’s head half way through a show, Bruce demolishing Baker’s drum kit with his bass, having to travel in separate airplanes and allegedly actually driving Clapton to tears during one of their fights, meant that it couldn’t feasibly go on for much longer.

On top of that, the band collectively felt that their music had gone stale and wanted to try other projects.

Baker had an idea for his next project, and this time he wanted Clapton but not Bruce (for obvious reasons).

He pitched Blind Faith, a supergroup consisting of himself, Clapton and Steve Winwood.

However, during that time Clapton suspected Baker wasn’t as sober as he claimed.

He said in 2007 autobiography:

“I took one look at his eyes and was sure he was back on it.”

To make matters worse, Clapton was going through a heroin addiction at this stage as well.

But it wasn’t actually this that led to the band only making one album. The pressure was all too much. Their management, convinced they would be the next big thing following Cream, immediately got them on a world tour with not much material to work with. Clapton felt it was premature and they were being rushed into things rather than letting it evolve naturally.

So they disbanded after just one album. But Baker, by all accounts, seemed to have a fantastic time. He insisted that he did stay clean, at least until the last part of the tour. Then it got really bad again.

He formed another supergroup, this time called Ginger Baker’s Airforce. They played jazz-rock fusion.

He kept Winwood for this one, but also brought Graham Bond back into the fold (this was a couple of years before his untimely death). You won’t be surprised to hear that Baker and Bond were still not a good combo in terms of keeping sobriety.

However, once again this project didn’t last very long. The music wasn’t commercial enough and they struggled to sell the tickets to keep touring and making money.

And then in September 1970, something awful happened.

By his own account, one night Baker was out in London. He had managed to get his hands on a bottle of pure cocaine hydrochloride that he wanted to share. He tried to ring his pal Jimi Hendrix, but couldn’t get through.

So, Baker ended up injecting it himself after he had already run out of heroin. He overdosed and very nearly died.

He woke up in hospital only to hear that Hendrix had died of an accidental overdose that same night.

It must have been a bit of a wake up call, because from this point on there were repeated attempts to try to quit.

One thing that helped with trying to get sober was when he decided to drive to Nigeria in 1971. Yes, drive. From The UK to Nigeria.

His plan was to set up a recording studio in the city of Lagos, with the intention of learning more about African rhythms and working with some of the great African musicians of the time.

He actually made a documentary about his journey through Algeria, Niger and Nigeria to get there.

He eventually managed to open West Africa’s first 16-track studio. He also worked closely with Fela Kuti, a very famous musician in Nigeria - he is often viewed as one of the founding fathers of the Afrobeat genre.

They toured together, and soon Baker became known locally as ‘Oyinbo’ - Kuti’s white drummer.

It's mad to think he wasn’t even known for Cream in Nigeria, but managed to become famous in a completely different way.

Now it could be argued that Baker’s trips to Nigeria saved his life, in a roundabout way. Whenever he went out to Africa he managed to get sober… before relapsing when he got home. He famously claimed to go cold turkey over 20 times between 1964 and the early 80s. Who knows what would have happened had he not found a connection with Nigeria.

Now after this he just kind of did his thing. He joined a few more bands, but none of them really took off again in the same way Cream did.

In the early 70s while in Nigeria, he got really into polo for some reason. He even joined the Lagos Polo Club, although he got kicked out for fielding a team of black players who went on to beat the white players (white dominated areas were heavily segregated and racist at this point).

He then bought an olive farm in Tuscany, Italy, where he finally managed to kick his heroin habit in the 1980s. Buuut he was still selling cocaine and abusing prescription morphine instead. Not much better.

As you can probably imagine, as he aged Baker developed a range of health issues, including lung disease and heart problems. But he kept going, and even formed ANOTHER band with Jack Bruce. You would think they would have learnt by that point. That was BBM - Baker, Bruce and Gary Moore.

Now by all accounts, Baker continued to be a pretty unpleasant person to be around. He dished out insults like it was his job and wasn’t above calling journalists the c word for daring to approach him. He had multiple marriages and multiple affairs. But spite seemed to keep him going.

He was part of a Cream reunion in 2005, although the New York show ended with him fighting Bruce onstage. Again.

Bruce died in 2014, but not before allegedly calling Baker and saying “I’m dying, Ginger, fuck you” before hanging up. Perfect level of pettiness there.

Baker himself remarkably made it to the age of 80, although he wasn’t happy about it. He told the Independent in 2009: