What do you think?
Rate this book
Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer
Peter "Ginger" Baker is a legend. A pioneering drummer who has transcended genres, he did much to popularize world music with his fierce passion for the rhythms of Africa. He is that rare thing, a critically acclaimed musician who has enjoyed global success with not one but several supergroups to his name, including Cream and Blind Faith. Here, Ginger tells his story for the first time and without any self-censorship. It's an often harrowing, but honest journey from his humble beginnings in war-torn south London to his adopted home in South Africa's beautiful Western Cape. He tells of his life-long love of jazz, how he discovered the drums and African music, and life on the road. He also confesses to the heroin use that should have killed him in his colorful 1960s prime, working and playing with the biggest names of the time. In the 1970s, he came up with a trans-Saharan trucking scheme, was a successful rally driver, built an ill-fated recording studio, and discovered a consuming passion for playing polo. He talks candidly of the loss and recovery of his fortune, his three marriages, Cream's 1993 induction into the rock 'n' roll hall of fame, their subsequent successful reunion in 2005, and his hopes for the future.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2009
69 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
About the author
Ginger Baker
9 books4 followersPeter Edward "Ginger" Baker was an English drummer who performed and recorded within many genres of music including jazz, blues, rock and "world music".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
September 5, 2011
Easily the coolest member of Cream, Ginger Baker's autobiography makes for interesting and entertaining reading. I mean, Baker made horrible decision after horrible decision in his life so Hellraiser is kind of a tragedy, in a sense. Wives, poor business decisions and polo were Ginger Baker's kryptonite. I don't feel like he spends enough time on his Graham Bond and Cream days, but that's likely just because I'm most interested in that period of Baker's life.
I particularly like the bit on page 65 where Baker talks about what a joke Mick Jagger was and how easily Baker, Jack Bruce and Johnny Parker could throw Jagger off when given the sorry task of backing him up on stage. It's telling that Brian Jones would be the one to guide Jagger back to the downbeat. Whatever one can accuse Jagger of, it's NOT being the musical member of the Stones in any era or lineup.
It's sad to read that, according to Baker, had he and Mitch Mitchell found Jimi Hendrix that fateful night, Hendrix may have lived to rock another day. Certainly a healthy helping from that jar of cocaine would have been better for Jimi than the several sleeping pills he took? We'll never know.
And it sounds like Jack Bruce is a real *sshole.
Quite a character and certainly a hellraiser, Baker has presented his story well. It's unique, engaging and bizarre.
I particularly like the bit on page 65 where Baker talks about what a joke Mick Jagger was and how easily Baker, Jack Bruce and Johnny Parker could throw Jagger off when given the sorry task of backing him up on stage. It's telling that Brian Jones would be the one to guide Jagger back to the downbeat. Whatever one can accuse Jagger of, it's NOT being the musical member of the Stones in any era or lineup.
It's sad to read that, according to Baker, had he and Mitch Mitchell found Jimi Hendrix that fateful night, Hendrix may have lived to rock another day. Certainly a healthy helping from that jar of cocaine would have been better for Jimi than the several sleeping pills he took? We'll never know.
And it sounds like Jack Bruce is a real *sshole.
Quite a character and certainly a hellraiser, Baker has presented his story well. It's unique, engaging and bizarre.
February 17, 2012
My friend Nettie wrote with her dad Ginger.
Read
January 6, 2020I mean... it says a lot that the author of the book proclaims himself the world's greatest drummer, without a hint of irony, in the title of the book. I didn't expect this to be well written, per se, and it's not. It sort of reads as a chronological list of happenings in Ginger Baker's life: "I did this series of drugs. Then I missed something important. Then I got fired / the band broke up. Also my wife left me." Like, over and over and over again. For someone who's regarded so highly as a talented and skilled musician from the early days of supergroups and hard rock bands, it's kind of unexpected that he's so... shallow. I'd have thought some deep life experience would inform his work, but no. Hundreds of pages of writing, and you never get much beneath the surface of this man. I assume, in his life, he didn't, either.
June 25, 2012
Ginger Baker, for those of you who don't know, is one of the greatest drummers of all time...performing groundbreaking work with legendary bands like The Graham Bond Organization, Cream, and Blind Faith. I've been a big fan of Ginger Baker's for years. One of the greatest thrills of my life was going to see him in concert (with Cream bassist Jack Bruce) when I was 21 in New York.
I've always found Ginger Baker a fascinating and unusual drummer. His playing style is loose, unpredictable, and quite unorthodox. As a rock and roll drummer, Baker never pushed the power of the 2 and 4 into a backbeat. Instead, he would swing...like the jazz drummer he was at heart, and also pound the tom toms and double bass drums like an African tribesman. Even the way he held the drumsticks, and swung his right arm over the snare drum was strange. It's fun to play the drums like Ginger Baker...though I need to be in a certain frame of mind to do it, as its so very...odd, distinctive, and quite awesome in its own way...
Ginger Baker is good at so many things...playing polo, taking care of horses, building things with his hands, automotive work, songwriting, and of course drums...yet sadly, writing is not exactly one of them. His prose is sometimes hard to decipher...and poorly organized. Anecdotes are thrown together all at once...to the point where it ceases to make sense. In one page, he accidentally kills a man...then in the next paragraph, his polo improves. I don't know about you, yet running over a man with your Range Rover in Africa is kind of a big deal...not to be glossed over. Yet Baker's shoves things like that aside...and spends more time discussing his money, affairs, drug use, horses and polo games in graphic detail...
Peter Edward Baker was born on August 19 1939. Nicknamed "Ginger" due to his reddish-brown hair...Baker grew up poor, and fatherless...after his dad was killed in World War II when he was 4 years old. His first love was bicycling...and worked hard to compete in races and the like. Yet jazz took hold of him at an early age...and soon he found himself drumming on tables and chairs. On a whim, his friends encouraged Baker to jump on the drums at a party...and he surprised himself that he could actually play. A fussy student, Baker excelled in art...eventually getting himself a job at a design office. Yet when music gigs started to pay off, he left his job behind in order to hit the road playing jazz with combo after another...
Ginger Baker was/still is a massive drug addict...and has been since he was a young man. It started when he was a boy with cigarettes. That was the first addiction. When Baker began playing music, he was introduced to marijuana. Back in those days, few people knew about the dangers of drugs...so it was just too easy for Baker to move on from marijuana to smack (heroin), cocaine, and anything else available. Much of the book discussed his struggles with addiction...staying clean for a period, then relapsing back again. Drugs became an important part of his existence...as a user, and also...as a dealer. It's a miracle he's still alive, considering how many drugs he used over the years...His record is scarred with one, small drug bust in the 70's...which has haunted him with immigration issues to this very day...
Baker was never a rock and roller, per say...he just sort of fell into it. After years of playing jazz, he started playing blues with Alexis Corner in London (where he topped the bill and backed up a small support act featuring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones)...which lead to the formation of the Graham Bond Organization. It was here where he first played with his arch nemesis...bassist Jack Bruce. Yet as Bond got deeper and deeper into drugs, Ginger Baker decided to leave the band to form his own new band. Having met and played with guitarist Eric Clapton during his Graham Bond Organization days, he asked Clapton to join his band. Clapton suggested they get Jack Bruce on bass, and Baker reluctantly agreed.
From their earliest singles in 1966, to their final album in 1969...Cream were one of the greatest bands to have emerged from the 1960's. They were the ultimate power trio, with three musicians who were not just good...but masters of their craft. Their output was pretty incredible...with songs like "I'm So Glad", "I Feel Free", "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room". "Badge" and my personal favorite..."Toad", as it features a fantastic Ginger Baker drum solo. Unfortunately, Baker devotes only a scant 25 pages of his 291 page book to his original Cream years...going into very little detail about what went on. Much of it is sour grapes. Though Baker mentions how great it was to be in the band in the beginning, he laments the fact that he was never given enough credit for his contributions to the songs. This chief villain in all things songwriting, and live performance (according to Baker) is his arch nemesis Jack Bruce.
Baker presents Bruce as a selfish, irrational man...who was prone to fits of extreme anger if he didn't get his way. Ever since their days together in the Graham Bond Organization, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce clashed. Baker always felt that Jack Bruce only thought of him as just the drummer...the least important member of the band. Worse, Baker blames Jack Bruce directly for the breakup of Cream in 1968, as well as the second dismantling of the band after their 2005 reunion in London and New York. His chief complaint? At some point, Jack Bruce would insist upon turning his bass amp up way too loud...which would result in Eric Clapton turning his guitar amp up..and everything then became so loud that Baker couldn't hear himself play...and his ears would hurt. Cream ended (per Baker) when he and his good friend Eric Clapton decided amongst themselves that the volume and conflict with Jack Bruce just got to be way too much...so they decided to end the band. Ginger Baker hated their famous 1968 farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
A mere 9 pages is devoted to his next supergroup...Blind Faith, a fantastic quartet featuring Steve Winwood on keyboards and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and Rick Grech on bass guitar. Their landmark 1969 album was immensely popular, and they played huge concerts at London's Hyde Park, and massive North American venues like Madison Square Garden. The Garden gig ended in a huge riot...started by none other than Ginger Baker. Apparently, when he saw a fan being roughly manhandled off stage, Baker got up from his drums and assaulted a police officer. Baker reveals next to nothing about the band...yet goes into depth about the drugs he was using at the time.
The rest of the book shifts focus to discuss Ginger Baker's personal life and passions. After Blind Faith, Baker played with a number of groups...and still played gigs and did tours over the next 30 years, yet nothing with the magnitude and weight of Cream or Blind Faith...yet his prime focus was in other ventures. Through friends like musician Fela Kuti, he became smitten with Nigeria...eventually opening up an ill-fated recording studio down there, and living there full time. When that fell apart, he focused on being a farmer, and raising horses. Polo became his new passion...and he pursued it vigorously all over the world. Back in England, he consorted with notorious British gangster (and actor!) John Bindon...and ran afoul of the police and the tax bureau.
In the 80's he fled to Italy where he lived for 6 years in a house rent free in exchange for refurbishing it. He worked the land and the house...and also became a volunteer fireman. When his luck ran out there, he moved to California to break into showbiz as an actor (!!). He got fed up after one small role, and choose to go back to music. For a number of years, he played with a variety of bands...and lived on his ranch with his horses...and played lots of polo. He tried for years to start his own polo club...yet it was always fall apart for some reason or another. When California started to look bad (polo wise), Baker and his wife moved to Colorado.
After a number of years in Colorado, Baker began fed up with American immigration...who hassled him every single time he returned to the U.S. from abroad. So, he packed up everything and moved to KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Yet he was disgusted by apartheid, and the corrupt government...though the polo was quite good. To get away from that, he settled in Tulbagh, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa...where he remains today with his horses and his polo.
Last but not least...Baker's book is littered with stories about the women in his life. An important woman to Baker's story (aside from his Mum) was his long-suffering wife Liz...who bore him three children...Nettie, Leda and Koffi. He seems to have been closest to his oldest child...Nettie, who was later became his closest companion when it came down to all things horses. Though his youngest, Koffi...was the one who continued his father's craft on the drums. They would often perform together. However, this was not the most sound family...as Baker cheated on his wife Liz hundreds of times...maybe thousands...with any and every woman he would encounter. In his book, Baker goes into great detail about his many affairs...I now know more about Ginger Baker's sex life than I ever wanted to know. Eventually, Liz had enough of her cheating husband...so he moved on to marry his second wife, Sarah, in the early 80's. Eventually, Sarah wised up...and left him for another man. Next came Karen in 1990...who loved to spend his money, stole a few things from him...and was gravely indifferent to his well-being when he became seriously ill. After his third divorce, Baker ended up with an African woman named Kudzi, whom he might still be with to this day...
If anything, Ginger Baker: Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer taught me that Ginger Baker is quite the confusing character. He loves his cars, yet has crashed or destroyed all of them in one way or another. He struggles with money, yet resists or rebels against many commercial ventures that could make him money (including Cream reunions). He has a severe dislike of Bruce Springsteen...for reasons I still don't quite understand. He loved sitting next to Naomi Campbell, yet hated attending the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony because he had to sit for hours listening to "idiots like Jim Morrison's band pick up their awards."
Ginger Baker is a wild, defiant eccentric force of nature...With that in mind, I feel grateful that his daughter and the folks at John Blake Publishing were able to even GET a book out of him. Due to the haphazard writing style, I struggled through it as much as I enjoyed it. Even if it wasn't that great of a book...I still appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the genius drummer who influenced a thousand other percussionists...including myself. Regardless of what you may think of him as a husband, father, drug addict, polo player, actor, drug dealer, studio owner,fireman, sculptor and writer...there's no argument about his musical ability. That boy can play...
I've always found Ginger Baker a fascinating and unusual drummer. His playing style is loose, unpredictable, and quite unorthodox. As a rock and roll drummer, Baker never pushed the power of the 2 and 4 into a backbeat. Instead, he would swing...like the jazz drummer he was at heart, and also pound the tom toms and double bass drums like an African tribesman. Even the way he held the drumsticks, and swung his right arm over the snare drum was strange. It's fun to play the drums like Ginger Baker...though I need to be in a certain frame of mind to do it, as its so very...odd, distinctive, and quite awesome in its own way...
Ginger Baker is good at so many things...playing polo, taking care of horses, building things with his hands, automotive work, songwriting, and of course drums...yet sadly, writing is not exactly one of them. His prose is sometimes hard to decipher...and poorly organized. Anecdotes are thrown together all at once...to the point where it ceases to make sense. In one page, he accidentally kills a man...then in the next paragraph, his polo improves. I don't know about you, yet running over a man with your Range Rover in Africa is kind of a big deal...not to be glossed over. Yet Baker's shoves things like that aside...and spends more time discussing his money, affairs, drug use, horses and polo games in graphic detail...
Peter Edward Baker was born on August 19 1939. Nicknamed "Ginger" due to his reddish-brown hair...Baker grew up poor, and fatherless...after his dad was killed in World War II when he was 4 years old. His first love was bicycling...and worked hard to compete in races and the like. Yet jazz took hold of him at an early age...and soon he found himself drumming on tables and chairs. On a whim, his friends encouraged Baker to jump on the drums at a party...and he surprised himself that he could actually play. A fussy student, Baker excelled in art...eventually getting himself a job at a design office. Yet when music gigs started to pay off, he left his job behind in order to hit the road playing jazz with combo after another...
Ginger Baker was/still is a massive drug addict...and has been since he was a young man. It started when he was a boy with cigarettes. That was the first addiction. When Baker began playing music, he was introduced to marijuana. Back in those days, few people knew about the dangers of drugs...so it was just too easy for Baker to move on from marijuana to smack (heroin), cocaine, and anything else available. Much of the book discussed his struggles with addiction...staying clean for a period, then relapsing back again. Drugs became an important part of his existence...as a user, and also...as a dealer. It's a miracle he's still alive, considering how many drugs he used over the years...His record is scarred with one, small drug bust in the 70's...which has haunted him with immigration issues to this very day...
Baker was never a rock and roller, per say...he just sort of fell into it. After years of playing jazz, he started playing blues with Alexis Corner in London (where he topped the bill and backed up a small support act featuring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones)...which lead to the formation of the Graham Bond Organization. It was here where he first played with his arch nemesis...bassist Jack Bruce. Yet as Bond got deeper and deeper into drugs, Ginger Baker decided to leave the band to form his own new band. Having met and played with guitarist Eric Clapton during his Graham Bond Organization days, he asked Clapton to join his band. Clapton suggested they get Jack Bruce on bass, and Baker reluctantly agreed.
From their earliest singles in 1966, to their final album in 1969...Cream were one of the greatest bands to have emerged from the 1960's. They were the ultimate power trio, with three musicians who were not just good...but masters of their craft. Their output was pretty incredible...with songs like "I'm So Glad", "I Feel Free", "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room". "Badge" and my personal favorite..."Toad", as it features a fantastic Ginger Baker drum solo. Unfortunately, Baker devotes only a scant 25 pages of his 291 page book to his original Cream years...going into very little detail about what went on. Much of it is sour grapes. Though Baker mentions how great it was to be in the band in the beginning, he laments the fact that he was never given enough credit for his contributions to the songs. This chief villain in all things songwriting, and live performance (according to Baker) is his arch nemesis Jack Bruce.
Baker presents Bruce as a selfish, irrational man...who was prone to fits of extreme anger if he didn't get his way. Ever since their days together in the Graham Bond Organization, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce clashed. Baker always felt that Jack Bruce only thought of him as just the drummer...the least important member of the band. Worse, Baker blames Jack Bruce directly for the breakup of Cream in 1968, as well as the second dismantling of the band after their 2005 reunion in London and New York. His chief complaint? At some point, Jack Bruce would insist upon turning his bass amp up way too loud...which would result in Eric Clapton turning his guitar amp up..and everything then became so loud that Baker couldn't hear himself play...and his ears would hurt. Cream ended (per Baker) when he and his good friend Eric Clapton decided amongst themselves that the volume and conflict with Jack Bruce just got to be way too much...so they decided to end the band. Ginger Baker hated their famous 1968 farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
A mere 9 pages is devoted to his next supergroup...Blind Faith, a fantastic quartet featuring Steve Winwood on keyboards and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and Rick Grech on bass guitar. Their landmark 1969 album was immensely popular, and they played huge concerts at London's Hyde Park, and massive North American venues like Madison Square Garden. The Garden gig ended in a huge riot...started by none other than Ginger Baker. Apparently, when he saw a fan being roughly manhandled off stage, Baker got up from his drums and assaulted a police officer. Baker reveals next to nothing about the band...yet goes into depth about the drugs he was using at the time.
The rest of the book shifts focus to discuss Ginger Baker's personal life and passions. After Blind Faith, Baker played with a number of groups...and still played gigs and did tours over the next 30 years, yet nothing with the magnitude and weight of Cream or Blind Faith...yet his prime focus was in other ventures. Through friends like musician Fela Kuti, he became smitten with Nigeria...eventually opening up an ill-fated recording studio down there, and living there full time. When that fell apart, he focused on being a farmer, and raising horses. Polo became his new passion...and he pursued it vigorously all over the world. Back in England, he consorted with notorious British gangster (and actor!) John Bindon...and ran afoul of the police and the tax bureau.
In the 80's he fled to Italy where he lived for 6 years in a house rent free in exchange for refurbishing it. He worked the land and the house...and also became a volunteer fireman. When his luck ran out there, he moved to California to break into showbiz as an actor (!!). He got fed up after one small role, and choose to go back to music. For a number of years, he played with a variety of bands...and lived on his ranch with his horses...and played lots of polo. He tried for years to start his own polo club...yet it was always fall apart for some reason or another. When California started to look bad (polo wise), Baker and his wife moved to Colorado.
After a number of years in Colorado, Baker began fed up with American immigration...who hassled him every single time he returned to the U.S. from abroad. So, he packed up everything and moved to KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Yet he was disgusted by apartheid, and the corrupt government...though the polo was quite good. To get away from that, he settled in Tulbagh, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa...where he remains today with his horses and his polo.
Last but not least...Baker's book is littered with stories about the women in his life. An important woman to Baker's story (aside from his Mum) was his long-suffering wife Liz...who bore him three children...Nettie, Leda and Koffi. He seems to have been closest to his oldest child...Nettie, who was later became his closest companion when it came down to all things horses. Though his youngest, Koffi...was the one who continued his father's craft on the drums. They would often perform together. However, this was not the most sound family...as Baker cheated on his wife Liz hundreds of times...maybe thousands...with any and every woman he would encounter. In his book, Baker goes into great detail about his many affairs...I now know more about Ginger Baker's sex life than I ever wanted to know. Eventually, Liz had enough of her cheating husband...so he moved on to marry his second wife, Sarah, in the early 80's. Eventually, Sarah wised up...and left him for another man. Next came Karen in 1990...who loved to spend his money, stole a few things from him...and was gravely indifferent to his well-being when he became seriously ill. After his third divorce, Baker ended up with an African woman named Kudzi, whom he might still be with to this day...
If anything, Ginger Baker: Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Drummer taught me that Ginger Baker is quite the confusing character. He loves his cars, yet has crashed or destroyed all of them in one way or another. He struggles with money, yet resists or rebels against many commercial ventures that could make him money (including Cream reunions). He has a severe dislike of Bruce Springsteen...for reasons I still don't quite understand. He loved sitting next to Naomi Campbell, yet hated attending the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony because he had to sit for hours listening to "idiots like Jim Morrison's band pick up their awards."
Ginger Baker is a wild, defiant eccentric force of nature...With that in mind, I feel grateful that his daughter and the folks at John Blake Publishing were able to even GET a book out of him. Due to the haphazard writing style, I struggled through it as much as I enjoyed it. Even if it wasn't that great of a book...I still appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the genius drummer who influenced a thousand other percussionists...including myself. Regardless of what you may think of him as a husband, father, drug addict, polo player, actor, drug dealer, studio owner,fireman, sculptor and writer...there's no argument about his musical ability. That boy can play...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2022
Wow. It's amazing Ginger lived as long as he did. Between the drugs, the women and his temper, I can't believe he survived as long as he did. He admits trying to quit heroin 29 times. Eventually he did, but 29 times! Helps when you start young, as he did.
It's a shame he didn't do more in music. I mean, he did play, but he should be known by more people. His drumming in Cream was/is amazing. Unfortunately, Cream didn't last very long.
Like a lot of autobiographies of musicians that I have read, they leave me wanting to know more about their music parts of their lives. No different here.
As I said, it's amazing he lived as long as he did.
It's a shame he didn't do more in music. I mean, he did play, but he should be known by more people. His drumming in Cream was/is amazing. Unfortunately, Cream didn't last very long.
Like a lot of autobiographies of musicians that I have read, they leave me wanting to know more about their music parts of their lives. No different here.
As I said, it's amazing he lived as long as he did.
October 13, 2012
Well, now I've read all the Cream bios, and I think this one's the best. Ginger Baker is irascible and plain-spoken, as everyone knows, and he tells his stories without prettying up his own image, so one trusts his version. Ginger definitely does not like Jack, which I suppose we all already know.
The book is full of colorful tales of music, sex, drugs, polo, road-racing in Africa, and shady dealings with dangerous characters, none of whom seem to intimidate Ginger at all.
Ginger's daughter Ginette helped edit the book, and I wonder what effect his detailing of all his affairs had on this child of Ginger's first wife? Maybe Ginette will tell her own story someday.
The book is full of colorful tales of music, sex, drugs, polo, road-racing in Africa, and shady dealings with dangerous characters, none of whom seem to intimidate Ginger at all.
Ginger's daughter Ginette helped edit the book, and I wonder what effect his detailing of all his affairs had on this child of Ginger's first wife? Maybe Ginette will tell her own story someday.
December 29, 2017
I enjoyed the book because I find Ginger a fascinating and hugely flawed man. There is no disputing he is a musical genius and many geniuses are flawed individuals. I would have liked more musical history rather than polo history, but I understand how one throws themselves full force into a passion. A gifted person becomes obsessed with whatever their passion is at the moment. I commend his daughter for helping write the book as I'm sure details of the stories were hard to hear of her father, but I'm sure she was no stranger to his tales. It's an interesting book if you're a fan and a tragic view into the life a musical genius. Peter Baker is unique unto himself.
October 18, 2019
I wanted this book to be finished almost as soon as I started. Baker might be a great drummer but he’s no writer. He jumped from here to there in a very few paragraphs.
No real story line. Narcissist. I hate to put a book down before I’m through so I suffered till I’d finished it. I’m 69 yo so I am a rock fan from his Cream days but he makes himself sound like an idiot. I DON’T recommend this read. Should’ve scored it 1 star but felt a bit sorry for him.
No real story line. Narcissist. I hate to put a book down before I’m through so I suffered till I’d finished it. I’m 69 yo so I am a rock fan from his Cream days but he makes himself sound like an idiot. I DON’T recommend this read. Should’ve scored it 1 star but felt a bit sorry for him.
December 10, 2018
It would be an understatement to describe Ginger Baker's life as chaotic. He leaps from crisis to crisis, seemingly with little awareness that he is the common factor in all the things collapsing into chaos around him.
The book is entertaining but very light on the music side of his life. I know more about polo than is necessary though.
Great drummer. Less good specimen of the human race.
The book is entertaining but very light on the music side of his life. I know more about polo than is necessary though.
Great drummer. Less good specimen of the human race.
April 21, 2020
While I liked that it was clearly written in his own words, it was not well written. Basically a long string of anecdotes and terrible decisions. He was a dick, yet I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
October 26, 2019
Ginger was a character indeed. He wore many hats and went through a great deal of transition in his life. He was a racing cyclist, a music studio and horse stable builder, polo player, artist and sculptor, as well as , of course, a world renowned drummer and percussionist. I look at Ginger as a wounded bird. His insatiable appetite for drugs, women, and risk caused him much distress during his professional career, which is traced through his many band incarnations. His three divorces attest to his questionable selection of partners, excepting his first wife, Liz, with whom he fathered two daughters and a son. Seemingly difficult to get along with, Ginger's penchant for fairness, racial equality, and charity helped offset some of his human flawed behavior. The biography was written with the help of his daughter Nettie, and was not masterfully penned. I did enjoy Ginger's musical history and a look at Eric, Jack and others through his eyes. A must read for fans of Cream, Blind Faith, Graham Bond Organization, Blues Incorporated, Air Force and the earlier jazz drummers; Phil Seaman, Max Roach, and others.
July 18, 2022
Sex, drugs and … oh yes, sometimes rock ‘n’ roll
Ginger Baker was a phenomenal drummer, but his own recollections in this book speak more to rock star depravity than great playing. Several wives, many more one-night stands, massive amounts of hard-core drugs, crazy driving, dangerous drug-fueled stunts, a trail of early deaths still didn’t stop him and he lived to be 80. Hellraiser, indeed!
Go figure …
I grew up in the 60s, played in garage bands around Los Angeles and thought I was hep to the scene. Not even close.
If this era of life and music fascinates, then this book will be a fun read.
Ginger Baker was a phenomenal drummer, but his own recollections in this book speak more to rock star depravity than great playing. Several wives, many more one-night stands, massive amounts of hard-core drugs, crazy driving, dangerous drug-fueled stunts, a trail of early deaths still didn’t stop him and he lived to be 80. Hellraiser, indeed!
Go figure …
I grew up in the 60s, played in garage bands around Los Angeles and thought I was hep to the scene. Not even close.
If this era of life and music fascinates, then this book will be a fun read.
January 5, 2022
There isn’t much depth or introspection in this book. Ginger Baker runs through life like a monster is chasing him. He reveals his recklessness, his ability to be manipulated, his disregard for others, but also his curiosity, his talent, his vulnerability. This is what, where and who but not much why. We don’t know how many bodies and broken hearts he left behind. We don’t know if he even noticed the damage he was doing to others but especially to himself. He spent more time writing about horses and cars than he did on the women in his life.
August 26, 2022
Ginger Baker was a character and a great drummer. He was a "Drum Scientist" of sorts, always seeking to learn more and improve upon his skills.
He was also a royal pain in the butt. But he was a drummer, and, of the many drummers I have known, he was somewhat unpredictable, and very much an individual.
I am taking a lot of what I have read with a grain of salt, since he was telling the story. It is an interesting piece of music of the late 20th Century, and what it became for so many of us: something we will love and cherish and seek to pass on to those we love...Thanks Ginger.
He was also a royal pain in the butt. But he was a drummer, and, of the many drummers I have known, he was somewhat unpredictable, and very much an individual.
I am taking a lot of what I have read with a grain of salt, since he was telling the story. It is an interesting piece of music of the late 20th Century, and what it became for so many of us: something we will love and cherish and seek to pass on to those we love...Thanks Ginger.
July 6, 2023
Ginger Baker was rock's greatest drummers, no doubt. However, this autobiography shows Baker seemingly more concerned with you knowing how many women he had sex with and how important polo was to him than how important drumming was for him. His origins are well detailed within the book, however, giving us insight into his unique upbringing.
The book, not unlike other documentaries, tends to trail off towards the end, with details better left deleted. This is a 31-chapter book that would've been better off somewhere in the mid 20s.
The book, not unlike other documentaries, tends to trail off towards the end, with details better left deleted. This is a 31-chapter book that would've been better off somewhere in the mid 20s.
July 1, 2024
If you love horses, polo and drug addiction, you'll love this book. If you love Cream you might like this book. If you like Baker-Gurvitz Army you will be pretty disappointed. There is much more information about his life outside of music than there is of his life in music, which is all I care about regarding Ginger Baker. Pretty amazing that Eric Clapton could make it in Cream when he was working with two of the biggest jerks in the business... hate it when you find out that your heroes are assholes. :-(
May 4, 2021
Top Drummer
Very interesting read it is very much about his life not just music probably 50% is about his life outside of music living in different countries.
He had a reputation as been difficult but explaining his side of the story just makes him sound honest and blunt! Great drummer interesting life led well written
Very interesting read it is very much about his life not just music probably 50% is about his life outside of music living in different countries.
He had a reputation as been difficult but explaining his side of the story just makes him sound honest and blunt! Great drummer interesting life led well written
June 29, 2021
Beware Mr Baker!!
What a phenomenal talent, as a drummer myself I am mesmerised by Ginger’s brilliance, timing as they say is everything, and I think Baker invented it. The book is a rollercoaster ride through and extraordinary life, granting an insight into what makes the tick.
Very well written, well worth a read.
What a phenomenal talent, as a drummer myself I am mesmerised by Ginger’s brilliance, timing as they say is everything, and I think Baker invented it. The book is a rollercoaster ride through and extraordinary life, granting an insight into what makes the tick.
Very well written, well worth a read.
September 18, 2021
A good read
As most brag about the women in bios of Rock n Roll famous at least this has more sense of humor an glasses over these bits. Smoothie insider stuff but not enough info on process of each band. This was again very fast descriptions. You will note the headaches he had with Jack Bruce he mentions quite a bit. Overall I enjoyed
As most brag about the women in bios of Rock n Roll famous at least this has more sense of humor an glasses over these bits. Smoothie insider stuff but not enough info on process of each band. This was again very fast descriptions. You will note the headaches he had with Jack Bruce he mentions quite a bit. Overall I enjoyed
February 16, 2022
More than a drummer
I enjoyed learning about the British Jazz scene, especially about Graham Bond. Since I loved Cream and Blind Faith, those sections held a special interest for me. Ginger's expertise what polo was also interesting.
Whether he liked someone or not, he doesn't hold back. There's no middle ground! A very interesting read from the best drummer.
I enjoyed learning about the British Jazz scene, especially about Graham Bond. Since I loved Cream and Blind Faith, those sections held a special interest for me. Ginger's expertise what polo was also interesting.
Whether he liked someone or not, he doesn't hold back. There's no middle ground! A very interesting read from the best drummer.
March 22, 2022
Great time
Cream was my first favorite rock band! I was terribly disappointed when they broke up. Ginger writes about it all candidly pulling no punches. In parts where he disagrees with others he puts it as he doesn’t remember it as they did. I will have to read Jack and Eric’s books now to compare. It was all just Cream though. Loved this book!
Cream was my first favorite rock band! I was terribly disappointed when they broke up. Ginger writes about it all candidly pulling no punches. In parts where he disagrees with others he puts it as he doesn’t remember it as they did. I will have to read Jack and Eric’s books now to compare. It was all just Cream though. Loved this book!
January 31, 2020
A bit of Rock N Roll history
I thought Ginger Baker was dead in the 1970’s. Much to my surprise he only passed away in 2019. Where had he been? where was his body of work? Reading this biography explains all that and more. I found it enjoyable.
I thought Ginger Baker was dead in the 1970’s. Much to my surprise he only passed away in 2019. Where had he been? where was his body of work? Reading this biography explains all that and more. I found it enjoyable.
November 10, 2020
What A Life!!
Written in a frank,matter-of -fact tone telling not only the life of a rock and roll drummer but a common man enjoying various pursuits and experiencing and surviving tremendous set-backs. A quite enjoyable read!
Written in a frank,matter-of -fact tone telling not only the life of a rock and roll drummer but a common man enjoying various pursuits and experiencing and surviving tremendous set-backs. A quite enjoyable read!
July 17, 2021
I was looking forward to reading this book so much. Great disappointment.This book was badly written and did nothing to ingratiate Ginger Baker to his reader . There was not one redeeming feature in the book … except for the cover. Pity there is no option for no stars .
November 8, 2023
I couldn’t help thinking that everything written here has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Comes across as basically a massive wanker who could play the drums well. It really is car crash. Entertaining but overall….. hmmmm. Listen to the records
June 11, 2019
Could not finish it as it was so boring. Could be more interesting after the early years but that I don't know,
November 17, 2019
The cover is the best thing about this book. I don't know exactly what I expected, but a long, long litany of drugs and random sex wasn't it.
August 9, 2021
A average book about a drummer in several great bands of the 60s.i was never a great fan of Baker being more of a Jack Bruce fan . Mitch Mitchell was favorite drummer.
August 29, 2021
What a fun read! I only knew Ginger from his drumming with Cream. His adventures in Africa were crazy and the music he made with Fela Kuti is my new favorite album!
August 22, 2022
Mas Rock ´n Roll de ahí, imposible...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews