Beware of Mr. Baker (2012)

Growing up during the golden age of rock (63 to 74 and the death knell sounded by the introduction of Disco)debate often centered around the best bands and players. The Beatles, best group and Hendrix, best guitarist were slam dunks but argument swirled around the best drummer with Keith Moon, John Bonham and Ginger Baker all having their loyalists but one thing for certain that we all agreed on was that from the looks of him the reed thin scarecrow Baker would be the first to push off this mortal coil. Fast forward forty years and you have Baker still with us and playing while the others (plus half of the Beatles) have moved on to R&R heaven. How feisty he remains is much in evidence in this documentary about his life and career, Beware Mr. Baker.As pop rock continued to flourish in the late sixties the introduction of Hard Rock, Heavy Metal through its purveyors, Led Zeppelin, Cream and Hendrix amped things up with a sound never before heard and Baker's beat had a lot to do with it. Cream would be selling out stadiums to this day but alas Ginger was not the easiest of people to get along with and the group disbanded after only a few years followed by one of even shorter duration with Blind Faith followed by other collaborative efforts. In between the mercurial Baker would jet off to Africa in search of drumming partners, polo ponies and Bachanallian pleasures. In Beware Mr. Baker he's in his early 70s hold up in a South African compound and still displaying the volcanic temperament as the doc opens up with him breaking the filmmaker's nose. He's definitely in the twilight of life but is determined to go out as he lived, with a bang.Onery as the old coot is you still have to show an admiration grudging or otherwise for this whirlwind of passion and intensity, incredible musical talent and poor business sense who continues to push the envelope when most of us thought he'd be long gone by now. His fellow players (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce etc.) more or less feel this way. A good case is also made for claim as the greatest rock drummer.Given his reputation Baker may not have been the easiest guy in the world to be around or work with but you find yourself rooting for him at the end of this documentary. And why not, there is a lot to be thankful to him for, especially for a kid growing up in the era of Disraeli Gears.

Mister Baker here is Ginger Baker, the rock drummer, most famous for his days, from 1966-1968 with Cream. Eric Clapton was on guitar and Jack Bruce on bass. They were technically the most perfect musicians ever to play rock and roll. Clapton and Bruce are interviewed, as are others, such as Steve Winwood from his days with Baker with Traffic. The music is terrific and Baker's life is certainly interesting, separate from the music. We get a wife #1, followed up by #2, #3, and #4. The man is a disaster as a human being and father, but he is also quite possibly the greatest rock drummer ever. At an hour and a half, the film moves quickly, and the clips of Baker drumming are breathtaking. If you are a serious rock fan, this documentary is for you.

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...

When the closing credits of BEWARE OF MR. BAKER appear, alongside some funny scenes that show the constant dose of insults that director Jay Bulger received from Giner Baker during the filming, it's clear that completing a documentary about a rock n' roll legend as crazy and hostile as Mr. Baker was nothing less of a miracle, something will hardly be repeated. The good news is that Bulger's film is definitive so even if Baker were a little more accessible it would be unnecessary and absurd to search him in a near future for a new documentary about his life. The young Bulger was lucky enough to fool Baker and make him believe he worked for Rolling Stone magazine back in 2010. Bulger didn't miss the chance, and he certainly knew that going to South Africa to talk with the former drummer of Cream was the great opportunity in his life. Since the first minutes we realize the documentary is quite personal, with Bulger's first-person narration that take us to the origins of the project. Along the way we have a sort- of father and son relationship between Baker and Bulger; the honesty of both is priceless, and that relationship something quite special that delivers those moments every documentary aspire to achieve, although we have too moments that none – there's no documentary maker in the world that expects to be physically attacked by his central figure, right?If the documentary LEMMY: 49% MOTHERF*****, 51% SON OF A BICH (Orshoski, Olliver, 2010), about Motörhead leader Lemmy Kilmister, another living legend of British rock and survivor of the excesses, showed a pretty noble side of its main figure, and even his strong critique for drug use (especially heroin use), here it's impossible to do something similar. For the good (of his legend) or for the bad (of his family, Eric Clapton and everyone who knows him), Baker is pretty much the real "49% Motherf*****, 51% Son of a Bitch" of rock n' roll. Even some of his noble acts are seen as craziness – spending the millions he got for the Cream reunion on horses, and on a veterinary hospital for them, took him again to near bankruptcy. The portrait is quite fun, you just have to see Baker's facial expressions in the pictures, but has depressing touches as well that fits perfectly with the "and I'm wasted and I can't find my way home" line from Blint Faith's beautiful tune "Can't Find My Way Home". For moments, it's almost like being watching that strangely sad world of Robert Crumb in CRUMB (Zwigoff, 1994). Jazz music plays a very important role for Crumb, and in the whole work of Zwigoff for that matter, and for Baker too. In one of the most memorable tales of the film, Bakers talks about the introduction to heroin and African rhythms he had thanks to an encounter with his idol, British jazz drummer Phil Seamen. Bulger could interview people like Jack Bruce and Clapton from Cream, Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols), Charlie Watts (the Rolling Stones), and Baker's own family (his children and ex- wives). One of the brilliant touches of BEWARE OF MR. BAKER is the decision to go beyond the already memorable tales. Some words are illustrated with remarkable animation, therefore we have something I would call the rock version of WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Folman, 2008). Think again in that story about jazz music, heroin and African sounds, add to it an animation with obscure and surrealistic stuff, and you'll have a great representation of that madness and genius that made of Baker the idol of such brilliant drummers as Stewart Copeland (the Police), Neil Peart (Rush), Bill Ward (Black Sabbath) and Nick Mason (Pink Floyd). If you're into the music of any of the previously mentioned bands, I can't think in a single reason why you wouldn't enjoy BEWARE OF MR. BAKER. Also, it's a great way to discover more about Africa, its music and some of its past conflicts. Great stuff! *Watched it on 15 February, 2013