Ginger Baker, one of the all time legends of rock drumming, with a career spanning over 5 decades, one of the pioneers of the live drum solo who toured the world with his band Cream and many others, world renowned fo being one of the masters of time and rhythm, has only very recently started work on solo projects and clinic work after a long struggle with drug addiction.
Now In his early 70's, he spends most of his time at his secluded ranch in South Africa, to where he fled after having effectively been thrown out of other countries for different reasons to do with tax evasion and the like. He was known to be one of the worlds most flamboyant performers, to the point where people who saw him perform live said that they could see "The Devil" in him.
It is always sad to see a pioneering legend of an industry turn to drugs and for that to grind their career to a halt in such a way. He was always known to be of an extremely arrogant nature, he would say what he thought of you to his face. If someone had a problem with him, he wanted to come and say it to his face, not so he could sue you, so he could "hit you back". I personally don't think that the drugs would have helped this in any sense, I believe it would have made him even harder to have a conversation with. There are scenes from the recent documentary where he actually hits the journalist in the face, so there is proof of this rather than it just being word of mouth.
The independent article reads that every morning he would be living off a shot of morphine and basically live in his leather chair. I personally don't see why, knowing what drugs can leave you like, you would want to do down that road in the first place. Strangely, the article reads that after setting up his kit again (it had been moved by his girlfriend, who got a mouthful for moving it) even though he was so frail and on morphine, when he played it was like he was still on stage with Cream.
That being the case, I have come to realise that to say that outside influences like drugs, alcohol, depression etc. can effect someones "creative output" can be perceived as quite a vague term. I think that it definitely harmed Bakers social ability and possibly his drive to want to play to an audience, to want to play in a band, however if the creative ability is still in his person such to the point that he can still play drums as if not a day had passed, then I don't think its particularly fair to say that the drugs had harmed his creative output as a musician. Some people say that musicians or "creative" types write better material when they are suffering from things like depression or alcohol abuse as they are possibly more likely to show the pure feeling that is inside their mind. I personally think that it is hard to say whether these points are true or not unless you have been in that situation yourself, although to say that, everyone perceives different situations in their own way. One person could say that they had written the best songs of their career while "on drugs" whereas another could say that those songs were the worst of that persons career while they were "suffering from addiction".
Baker clearly had a massive down point in his career when he secluded himself away from the world, although I'm not particularly convinced that that was just down to the drugs. He was always known to be a nightmare to be around, so maybe it was partially his own conscious choice. The drugs clearly played a part in his health downturn, although he is still alive and playing now. He has allegedly now come off drugs, and has started doing drum clinics for Ludwig, although there are recent videos of him playing DW drums. He seems like quite a hard character to follow but its fair to say that the drugs never got the better of his drumming ability. When he talks, he sounds frail and weak, and even looks it on the surface, just not when he plays drums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=fEzlj-Y8_H0 - Baker on Drums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83XdEBl0KUg - Documentary clips
http://www.enotes.com/baker-ginger-reference/baker-ginger
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/ginger-baker-the-devil-looks-after-his-own-1879629.html
http://www.gongtopia.com/Discussion/Baker.html
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