I've never come over here before, but I saw this and couldn’t resist.

The GOAT.

There will be arguments in favor of John Bonham, of course. Bonham had tremendous power, and hand speed.

But the complexity of Baker’s work remains unmatched.

Any hypothetical poll of fans would probably put Bonham at the top of the list.

But I remember seeing a poll, decades ago (yeah, I'm old), of drummers -- Baker’s fellow craftsmen, and expert judges of his work -- and he was at the top by a large margin.

An icon, and a pioneer of the independent drum solo. “Toad” took him 2-1/2 years to write, and is still considered the finest of all time (Bonham’s “Moby Dick”, while spectacular, is derivative).

Baker’s fights with Cream bassist Jack Bruce are the stuff of legend.

Bruce was a gold-plated, forty-weight, narcissistic a-hole, and insisted on raising the volume on his amp until it was loud enough to eclipse the sound of Baker’s drums.

Baker was a hotheaded heroin/cocaine addict who wouldn’t take shyt from anybody. And he had the kind of face that you would expect to see (in a really bad horror movie) peering through your window at 3 AM in the middle of a thunderstorm.

In later years, with Bruce in Los Angeles and Baker in South Africa, each would comment that the other was “still too close”.

There’s not a whole lot of video from those pre-digital days, but there are some links which may be of interest:

(1969)

“Toad” drum solo (1966):

“Toad” drum solo (1989):
(watch Baker’s left hand from 3:24 to 3:32

“Toad” drum solo (Reunion -- 2005)

“Toad” (Wikipedia)

The Devil Looks After His Own

I suspect that, even on this board, there are not a whole lot of people old enough to remember Ginger Baker.

RIP, Sir: the world is a little less interesting for your departure.