He's Wasted and He Can't Find His Way Home

Beware of Mr. Baker: Ginger Baker Does Doc

If you took away his cane, drummer Ginger Baker would be any documentarian’s dream subject. Everyone who owns an old Blind Faith or Cream record has heard him tear it up. Mad as a hatter and feisty as hell, Baker has spent the last five decades embodying the cliché of e-z living as a rock star. (And the girls do indeed come easy, and the drugs do indeed come cheap.) Thing is, Baker did it long before it became cliched, in a style that yielded high drama and plenty of breakage. 

The bellicose beat-keeper became famous for scrapping with bandmates and pretty much anyone who crossed him, to the point that few would work with him, despite his prodigious talent. As archrival former bandmate Jack Bruce once put it, “It's a knife-edge thing between me and Ginger. Nowadays, we're happily co-existing in different continents... Although I was thinking of asking him to move. He's still a bit too close."

Daring novice filmmaker Jay Bulger not only braved interviewing the wild man for a month at Baker’s South African ranch, but also chatted with family and friends, most of whom confirm the dual-diagnosis of insanely talented and demonically mental. In phoenix-like fashion, he lost and regained fortunes—and wives, homes, and even countries—multiple times throughout his life.

Beware of Mr. Baker employs a perfect balance of music, talking heads, history, archival footage, and animated re-enactments that are deftly rendered and fun to watch. Bulger interviews a small army of rock and heavy metal musicians, including Clapton, Stewart Copeland, Mickey Hart, and John Lydon. It’s amusing to see and hear this parade of pancake-makeup-ed zombies, if only to confirm that livin' the life really does accelerate the aging process. The entire film compels watching, as Baker’s life story takes a number of unexpected twists and turns, some of which involve African stepchildren and a string of polo ponies.

photo: Miller & Maclean

Through the mayhem, Baker’s lived a life driven by bile and gusto. And lots of pharmaceuticals. Having kicked smack about 29 times may explain why he’s perennially in a bit of a mood. But despite his compromised liver, many dub Baker the consummate musician. Though he considers himself a jazz drummer, he's also laid down a whole lotta rock and Afro beats, most notably with Fela Kuti. 

Bulger has managed to uncover plenty of dirt from and about the madcap redhead, who’s now 73, half-deaf, propped up on pills, and living in South Africa with wife #4, a 28-year-old Zimbabwean hooker-turned-Internet bride. 

As a former rock critic, I’ve seen just about all the rock docs out there. This one stands as one of the best of 2012.

I’d also suggest Netflixing Benjamin Smoke, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and Tom Dowd and the Language of Music.