Ginger Baker looks back on his musical career with Cream and Blind Faith; his introduction to Fela Kuti; his self-destructive patterns and losses of fortune; and his current life inside a fortified South African compound.
The sign at his front gate announces: BEWARE MR. BAKER. Director Bulger has braved this dragon's lair, and brought back treasure.
It’s a broadly forgiving portrait of an impossible, irascible talent, who seems to have treated life much like his instrument.
No one said he had to be nice. He's not. And there's no heartwarming reconciliation on the cards between Baker and his grownup son, who is also a drummer. But when we are always being told that books and movies have to have "sympathetic" lead characters – well, here's a documentary that does very well without one.
Like Spinal Tap's more seriously older brother, Jay Bulger's fond but unsparingly honest film is a treat for fans and music lovers. A juicy slice of rock history.
This is a nostalgic documentary about a Sixties rock survivor but one without the sugar coating.
His music's appeal reaches far beyond rock, jazz and fusion fans (with good reason he complains about the lyricist and composer getting most of the royalties on discs he dominates), and the constantly gripping film is adroitly assembled.
His subject ultimately comes across as tragicomic; a man who knows his place in musical history, but won’t let others define it. An old dog with a gruff bark who, as Bulger finds out, still has some bite left.
General release. Check local listings for show times.