Beware of Mr. Baker

Ginger Baker is not only one of the greatest drummers ever but also a character who waits for a movie to be made about him. One day maybe a fiction movie will be made, until them we have 'Beware of Mr. Baker' - the documentary made by Jay Bulger. Rock documentaries are now quite 'en vogue' and there is a good reason for this. The big rock stars of the 60s and 70s, well, the ones who survived are now at the age of writing or telling on screen their memories. The younger generations may have heard little about 'Cream' or 'Blind Faith' but they do have an opportunity not only to watch part of their concerts (luckily filmed concerts technology developed just in time to catch much of their sounds, moves and the atmosphere of their live shows) but also to hear fist hand their version of the history of rock. And fans like me are definitely delighted.

'Beware of Mr. Baker' is centered around the interview reluctantly given by Baker at his ranch in South-Africa. He is one of those anti-social partners of discussion that you sometimes pity the interviewers about. He certainly loves to complain about his family, other musicians, life and fate in general - one of these guys who seem to love themselves much less than the world lives and admires them. We learn much more about his life from interviews with members of his family (his first wife seems still to have a crush on him, his son's best memory is having made music with his father) and with other musicians. It's the story of a life damaged by drugs abuse and a pattern of behavior that preempted Baker from establishing good working relations with any of his colleague musicians and eventually led to the early breaking of all bands he played in. Yet, it is also doubtful if in the absence of this temper and even of the use of drugs his music would have been the same. And music is what is left at the end from such personalities. Great music in the case of Mr. Baker.

I have just seen this film at a BFI screening, with Jay Bulger and the fearsome Mr Baker himself turning up on stage afterwards for a fractious Q&A that ended with shouting, swearing, recriminations all round, and Jay Bulger seemingly storming off stage. The perfect end to a brilliant documentary!

The story is fascinating and engaging throughout, with Ginger Baker himself coming across as a complex and contradictory character. While you're appalled at much of his behaviour (he comes across as a pretty damn terrible father/husband/work colleague), you can't help but admire his incredible energy and drive, his prodigious musical talent, and his refusal to ever let life beat him down.

The sparing use of beautiful and rather poetic animation works very well, and Jay Bulger himself refrains from including himself too much in the finished film - and when he does take centre stage for a moment, it's an extraordinary (and violent!) moment.

By the way - Jay, if you're reading this, I'm sorry people shouted at you after the screening. Perhaps, given the subject matter, it's only appropriate that the whole thing ended in acrimony. And hats off to you for getting a cold, reserved audience of Brits so fired up and vocal.

Great work - loved the film.

Ginger Baker just liked banging things around. And as soon as some directed him in the way of drums - and some of the premier jazz drummers of the 1950's, which was kind of the apotheosis of jazz - he was set for life. And this life included being apart of two of the major rock bands of the 1960's (Cream and Blind Faith) along with others, then became a figurehead of African drumming in the 1970's, and then... semi-obscurity, polo, playing with some band that got lost in the shuffle of the 90's grunge scene, polo, ex-wives, polo, and um... I said polo right?

Though Cream was sort of cited as the grandfather or forefather for heavy metal (hey there's Lars from Metallica in the doc), Baker comes off more like a craggly jazz-man-cum-punk-rocker, who didn't give a f**k and even gives the director of his documentary a piece of his mind with his cane! Kind of a prime example of a man who you know you wouldn't want to spend more than two minutes with - hard to feel sorry for a man who wasted all his money, and Cream reunion money no less (I couldn't afford those tickets man!) on horses and dogs (he says they are more trustworthy and loving of humans) - yet he really is just one of the drummers that changed the game for everyone.

Also fascinating to find out a musician from the 60's - and husband and father - who really could have just torpedoed all of his good luck from the era in two decades afterward. A good documentary on what the Brits could call a 'right old nasty bastard.'

Beware of Mr. Baker (2012)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Highly entertaining documentary taking a look at the troubled career of Ginger Baker, a drummer who is considered by many to be the greatest to ever live. The documentary shows why he helped make groups like Cream so memorable yet the film also shows why he ended up broke, unable to find a job and being rejected by many who admired him. BEWARE OF MR. BAKER is an exceptional documentary because it doesn't try to cover up Ginger Baker's rather problematic life but it's also not exploitation by only showing how "crazy" he is. Instead I thought filmmaker Jay Bulger did a wonderful job at really giving you a honest and complete look at this man who is probably his own worse enemy. We get interviews with Baker, his three ex-wives, his son and daughter, Eric Clapton as well as countless other drummers including those in The Police, Pink Flloyd, Black Sabbath and The Rolling Stones. The film has plenty of archival clips of the young Baker coming into his own and it also ventures into his career in South Africa where he was pretty much working for nothing. His love of animals is also on full display as well as him mocking himself for his attempted acting career. If you're a fan of classic rock then this here is certainly a must-see. There's no denying that Baker managed to influence pretty much every drummer who came after him yet very few know who he is.

Beware of Mr. Baker is a fascinating, humorous and at times fairly moving piece about one of rock and jazz's greatest drumming ancestors, Ginger Baker. From the truly unholy amount of multi-decade long substance abuse, this is a man who should be long dead, and yet here he still is, able to tell his story when he feels like it. Baker goes down as a largely unsympathetic man that no one feels the need to speak politely of, nor does he expect or want them to. Beware of Mr. Baker is a fascinating film mostly because of the sheer amount of people director Jay Bulger manages to track down to speak about Baker...