#ginger baker’s air force

[krispyweiss]

Sound Remembrance: Denny Laine is - And Shall Remain - in My Ears

Linda McCartney. John Lennon. And Denny Laine - these are Paul McCartney’s three great partners.

Linda McCartney and Lennon are known to virtually everyone. Laine, who died Dec. 5 at 79, remained fairly anonymous. Which is remarkable when one considers Laine was Paul McCartney’s third-most-important partner and the only individual not named McCartney to be a member of Wings throughout its decade-long run.

By the time McCartney recruited Laine for his then-new, post-Beatles band, Laine was already a well-established musician who had co-founded the Moody Blues - that’s him singing the band’s first hit, “Go Now” - the Incredible String Band and played in Ginger Baker’s Air Force. McCartney and Laine met when the Moodies and the Fabs toured together in the middle-’60s and McCartney, knowing talent as he did, rang Laine, who accepted the proposal.

Like McCartney, Laine was an accomplished multi-instrumentalist. And like McCartney of the 1970s, Laine sung with a powerful rasp.

Sound Bites was 9 when Wings Over America came out. And though the budding blog listened to that triple LP until the grooves were worn away, it was years before he realized it was Laine, not McCartney, singing lead on such songs as “Richard Cory,” “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” and “Spirits of Ancient Egypt.” It wasn’t that Denny Laine sounded exactly like Paul McCartney; it was that Denny Laine had a voice that it seemed Paul McCartney could’ve sung with.

But he didn’t.

Though he was with the Moodies for just two years, Laine’s import was such that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - which typically screws over early members of inducted bands - included him when the group was enshrined in 2018.

But despite a resume many musicians could only dream of, Laine remained pretty much unknown and would add a parenthetical from Paul McCartney & Wings/Moody Blues when touring as a solo act. The blog got to see Laine performing in a bar - a disgrace; he should’ve been playing theaters - in Ohio in 2017 and came away with two questions:

What would the Moody Blues have become if Laine had stayed?

And what would’ve become of Wings if Laine had left?

The first answer: Sadly, we’ll never know.

The second answer: McCartney in the ’80s.

12/15/23

[foldback]

Ginger Baker's Air Force

I picked up this record last week (for a whole $6, you might notice) after years of seeing this in bins and always moving on. But this time I made the leap and took and chance, and this thing is wild. A 10-piece band, with two other percussionists on top of Baker, plus Steve Winwood, Chris Wood and Rich Grech from Traffic, and an entire horn section, it's all over the place. Rock, jazz, blues, Afrobeat, fusion, they tackle a lot. And it's a double-live album recorded at their second show together.

I spent my morning before work ripping it so that I can have it on my phone. Maybe I wouldn't have been ready for this when I first saw it at a flea market at 17 or 18, or maybe there's a lesson there to try things that seem unwieldy at first. Who knows. But this is worth checking out, is my point.

[rastronomicals]

1:37 AM EDT July 28, 2023:

Ginger Baker's Air Force - "Man Of Constant Sorrow" Single, Polydor 56380A (?)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[magicalflower67]

Ginger Baker's Air Force - 12 Gates of the City (1970)

[balladofsallyrose]

You're totally right about that one actor that resembles young Steve Winwood! Biopic now

YES !!! the movie needs to be in pre-production now, what else is there to lose? the guy is perfect as Steve Winwood, but if he could pull off a brummie accent + find a guy that sings like ray charles to dub him.

Give him the Biopic that he deserves - spencer davis group, traffic, blind faith, ginger baker's air force, his solo years - it's all there

[fugengulsen]

Ginger Baker's Air Force ► Da Da Man Live 1970 [HQ Audio]

[vanderlysposts]

Ginger Baker's Air Force - Ginger Baker's Air Force 2 1970 (UK, Progress...

[dustedmagazine]

Remi Kabaka — Son of Africa (BBE)

Son of Africa by Remi Kabaka

“Kachunga!” This ebullient cry—a word that means creative, happy and sociable in a West African dialect— kicks up a hornet’s nest of trebly funk guitar, burbling keyboards and a knife-edge sharp horn section. It’s the lead-off track to Remi Kabaka’s Son of Africa, originally released in 1976 and long out-of-print, and a fitting introduction to this smoking amalgam of funk, afro-beat, jazz, pop and rock.

Kabaka was born in Ghana to Nigerian parents and spent his earliest years immersed in West Africa’s communal multi-drumming traditions. He moved to London as a teenager, however, and came into his own in that city’s rock scene. He played various kinds of percussion with Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones (including a live version of “Sympathy for the Devil”), Jimi Hendrix, Ginger Baker’s Air Force and Traffic (whose Steve Winwood plays guitar on the eponymous first track). Chris Blackwell of Island Records was enough of a fan to sign Kabaka for this album, but while Blackwell did a lot to make reggae ubiquitous in 1970s rock, he couldn’t do the same with Afrobeat. The record sold poorly and disappeared from circulation.

It's hard to see why. This was, of course, pre-Nigeria 1970 and the Fela revival, and western ears were simply not as accustomed to the polyrhythmic grooves coming out of Lagos. But even so, Son of Africa leans heavily on American funk and soul sounds. Anyone who had spent time with James Brown or Motown or classic Stax discs would find much that felt familiar. “New Reggae Funk,” even anticipates disco by a couple of years with its insinuating slink and airy falsetto. “Sure Thing” struts its consciousness funk like a lost Funkadelic cut, the blurt of brass bursting from slap-and-pop bass. The only cut that comes across as mildly exotic is the thunderous, “Aqueba Masaaba,” and it’s so irresistibly body-moving that you can’t imagine an objection.

You could spend a lot of time picking apart the threads of funk, Afrobeat, jazz and rock, trying to decide where Kabaka’s African heritage leaves off and his youth in swinging London kicks in, but in the end, it’s probably pointless. This album bangs all the way through, and if you missed it the first time, now’s your chance.

Jennifer Kelly

[thefrogholler]

Recent Artist R.I.P. Notes

Denny Laine – English singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist – associated acts include – The Moody Blues – Wings – Ginger Baker’s Air Force – 2018 inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Moody Blues – (10/29/1944 – 12/5/2023) Jimmy Ayoub – Canadian drummer – best known as original member of rock band – Mahogany Rush – led by Frank Marino – (8/18/1953 – 12/10/2023) Essra…

[clubmusicweb]

Clubfemerides del 19 de agosto

1939.Nace Ginger Baker, en Londres (Reino Unido). Batería de rock; se le recuerda, sobre todo, por haber formado parte del supergrupo Cream, junto a Eric Clapton y Jack Bruce, con los que estuvo entre 1966 hasta el final, en 1968. Luego pasó por los también memorables Blind Faith para, ya en los años setenta, poner en pie el Ginger Baker’s Air Force. Inquieto e interesado por sonidos poco…

[deepartnature]

When Afrobeat Legend Fela Kuti Collaborated with Cream Drummer Ginger Baker

“At the end of the 60s, superstar drummer and angriest man in rock Ginger Baker was on the verge of collapse. Strung out on heroin, deeply grieving Jimi Hendrix’s death, and alienated from his former Cream and Blind Faith bandmates, he needed a new direction. He found it in Nigeria, where he decamped after driving a Range Rover from Algeria across the Sahara Desert. (A madcap adventure captured in the 1971 documentary Ginger Baker in Africa). Once in Lagos, Baker started jamming with Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. The meeting of these two musical forces of nature produced a suite of recordings. ...”

Open Culture (Video)

YouTube: Ginger Baker in Africa (1971) 53:35, Ginger Baker’s Air Force 2 (1970) 49:10

[rastronomicals]

Ginger Baker's Air Force

[julio-viernes]

Otra buena versión de Buddy Holly de finales de los años sesenta, del supergrupo Blind Faith: Stevie Winwood (Spencer Davis Group, The Powerhouse, Traffic), Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds, John Mayall´s Bluesbreakers, The Powerhouse, Cream), Rick Grech (The Farinas, Family, Ginger Baker´s Air Force), Ginger Baker (Graham Bond Organization, Cream, GB´sAF) que tuvo muy a bien incluir "Well... Alright" en su único álbum de estudio, "Blind Faith", Polydor 1969. Versión chula, mod-eradamente progre y con el sensacional Winwood insuflándole soul en la voz principal. Hay que decir que Blind Faith fue un grupo que no duró y básicamente fracasó, pero sólo por cosas como esta me gusta que existiera.

[swordshapedsnacks]

Made a truly beautiful beef and veggie stew today! I feel very clever about the potato situation. I bought a bunch of German Butterballs, which are supposed to hold up well in a soup situation, and one masquerade potato, which is a very distinct purple and white variety that when boiled basically dissolves into starch. And when I cut them for the stew, my GBs were cut into big hearty bites while my masquerade was diced. It completely dissolved into the broth!

In addition to the meat and potatoes there was a yellow onion, carrots both orange and purple, parsnips, sweet peppers that aren't bells but I can't remember the name, cherry tomatoes, and a golden beet. And of course a bunch of fresh garlic, ginger, and dried herbs and spices.

I started by searing the beef before deglazing with some pinot noir. I prefer merlot to cook with as I like how fruity it is, but the store was out of the tiny bottles and I didn't want to have to buy a whole regular sized bottle for just the half a cup I needed to cook with. Neither my partner nor I are wine drinkers so it would just go to waste.

Anyway, once I got all the fond up, I added the beef back in with enough water to cover, 4 cups. And I let it go like that for a little over an hour, which is when I added the potatoes and onion, along with another cup of water, salt, smoked salt, and some paprika.

While that was going, I broiled the tomatoes and peppers to toast them a bit and deepen their flavor.

Let the stew simmer for about half an hour, then added the rest of the veggies, along with some freshly ground fennel seed, a couple of bay leaves, some Chinese five spice powder, and more salt. Gave it a last additional cup of water and another hour to simmer and it was done!

Pro tip! Both potatoes and beets will discolor if they are left exposed to air, so if they're not going directly into the pot the second you cut them, pop them in a bowl of cold salted water to prevent this!

I remembered we had bread when I got myself seconds! It's a baguette that is also from my farmers market and very good. It's made by a French guy who was so appalled by the state of bread in America he felt forced to make his own and then all his friends liked it so much he was, he claims, bullied into becoming a professional baker.

[lashton-is-my-drug]

The Clubhouse Candle Company posted a Spotify playlist, curated by Ashton, to their ig story.

August 20, 2022

Link to playlist

Here’s the playlist screenshots.

This definitely looks like how an Ashton playlist would look. Checks out 😎👍🏻

[totallycorrectbands]

"Fuck ya chicken strips."

— graham bond to ginger baker