Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The Truth Behind Cream’s Breakup—Nettie Baker Tells the Real Story [Highlight from Episode 372]

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The Truth Behind Cream’s Breakup—Nettie Baker Tells the Real Story [Highlight from Episode 372] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a quick highlight from our latest episode of Booked
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: on Rock Neddie Baker. Neddie is the eldest daughter of
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  Speaker 1: legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker, and was there throughout every
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  Speaker 1: stage of his remarkable career. She collaborated with her father
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  Speaker 1: on his twenty ten autobiography, Ginger Baker Hell Raiser, and
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  Speaker 1: has since written several books of her own, including Tales
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  Speaker 1: of a Rock Star's Daughter, More Tales of a Rock
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  Speaker 1: Star's Daughter and Full Cream. Her latest book, Cream, chronicled
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: documents every live performance by the iconic band Cream. By
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  Speaker 1: the summer of sixty eight, Cream announced that they would
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  Speaker 1: be splitting up, which shocked a lot of fans, and
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  Speaker 1: many people assumed that the breakup was mainly about personality
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  Speaker 1: clashes between the band members, but Eric Clapton, leader, said
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  Speaker 1: that was only a small part of the story. What
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  Speaker 1: else is going on?
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  Speaker 2: I think the clashes were, you know, weren't anything like
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  Speaker 2: you know, And many times in the book Eric says,
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  Speaker 2: we have a round and we all make up, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we love each other. So it was definitely the amount
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  Speaker 2: of work that they had to do just to overwhelm.
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  Speaker 2: They never got breaks, They never got a chance to
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  Speaker 2: write any other new music, which Eric also said was upsetting.
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  Speaker 2: So they never got a chance to do anything that
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  Speaker 2: normal bands did because they were just being pushed and
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  Speaker 2: pushed and pushed. In fact, when they went a wall
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  Speaker 2: is when they said they were going to extended all
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  Speaker 2: my dad said he felt he'd been on tour for
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  Speaker 2: a year.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: It's just like it was just far too much because
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  Speaker 2: no one was expecting it to be that big. So
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  Speaker 2: when it was that big, everyone thought, well, let's make
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  Speaker 2: as much money as we can out of it. And
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  Speaker 2: of course Eric was quite young then, and well they
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  Speaker 2: were all three very young, but you know, they got
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  Speaker 2: stressed by it. I think, just like nowadays, people don't
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  Speaker 2: do that sort of thing.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting. Ginger seemed surprised the decision to split came
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  Speaker 1: so early, and he thought the band still had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of life left in it. Jack Bruce suggested the
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  Speaker 1: band might have survived if each member maybe pursued outside
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  Speaker 1: projects while still keeping Cream together. Do you think that
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  Speaker 1: could have worked.
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  Speaker 2: I do think it could have worked, because it did
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  Speaker 2: with a lot of other bands, and I think if
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  Speaker 2: it had been properly approached, it could have worked. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that's what they were trying to do. And
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  Speaker 2: my dad and Stickwood for certain, wanted it to continue.
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  Speaker 2: And I think all three of them were very sad
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  Speaker 2: when it ended. I don't think that's really what they wanted.
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  Speaker 2: But then it was sort of like, oh, well, I
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  Speaker 2: think I'm going to leave. Okay, yes, so am I?
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  Speaker 2: And then oh do you said it? You know, young people.
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  Speaker 2: They weren't even thirty, so you know, everyone knows what're young,
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  Speaker 2: especially when everyone's drinking and smoking lads of pot and stuff.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're not really that rational. And then the
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  Speaker 2: management didn't seem to be able to hold it together,
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  Speaker 2: which is is quite extraordinary. But that's what happened.
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  Speaker 1: When you think about Cream, now, what will you remember most?
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  Speaker 2: I feel sad actually, because it's you know, things went
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  Speaker 2: badly wrong for my dad. You know, he didn't really
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  Speaker 2: pick up on that. I mean, it went wrong for
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  Speaker 2: all three of them, but they recovered in different ways. Obvious.
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  Speaker 2: The Eric picked up quite quick and became an icon,
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  Speaker 2: but for my dad it didn't really. You know, he
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  Speaker 2: sort of he lost his way and then he went
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  Speaker 2: to Africa, which was probably a terrible mistake. And he's
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  Speaker 2: not really credited for bringing that sort of African music
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  Speaker 2: into the mainstream. Either they've forgotten that. They just say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: felakutie Tony Allen. They don't even mention that it was
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  Speaker 2: my dad that brought it there. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: so it was obviously a mistake to get involved in that.
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  Speaker 2: He never got the right management, he never got the
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  Speaker 2: right people, and then you know, it's resulted in us
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  Speaker 2: spend the year researching a book for no money because
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  Speaker 2: we haven't done very well at all, So it hasn't
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  Speaker 2: you know, it makes me feel sad that it's that
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  Speaker 2: mega and I'm not living in a mansion. No, it
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  Speaker 2: does make me cross.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, your dad is so respected though among physicians
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  Speaker 1: in the fans. Is there anything misunderstood about him? I
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  Speaker 1: mean there's been a lot, yeah, documentaries I've written about him.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yes, I mean the main thing is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they say are the most horrible person ever, and that's
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  Speaker 2: because you know, when he was an old man, he
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  Speaker 2: was suffering from dementia and from elder abuse. He was
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  Speaker 2: under Social services safeguarding several times. He was not a
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  Speaker 2: happy person as an old person. He was deaf, he
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  Speaker 2: was not he was geriatric. He didn't know what was
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  Speaker 2: going on. He was being exploited by his manager, by
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  Speaker 2: people who were trying to make money out of him.
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  Speaker 2: And so that's why he came across because often he
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  Speaker 2: couldn't even understand what people were saying to him, the
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  Speaker 2: Chad Smith thing. He didn't know who Chad Smith was.
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  Speaker 2: He had no idea what was going on. He had
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  Speaker 2: no guidance. So I think, yeah, if you read this book,
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  Speaker 2: you understand him as a young man and as a
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  Speaker 2: completely different person who and a lot of people have
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  Speaker 2: good stories. But again it's you know, click bait on
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  Speaker 2: the internet, and you know, the terrible photographs for his
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  Speaker 2: album Jazz Album, why that they let out. He didn't
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  Speaker 2: like them. We didn't like them. We said to them, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: he could have done He did great art. He could
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  Speaker 2: have done art for the album. He did the sound
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  Speaker 2: of sixty five Graham Bond album that he did that cover.
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  Speaker 2: I painted that cover. So yeah, it's just a disaster. Really,
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  Speaker 2: you know, people have got the complete wrong end of
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  Speaker 2: the stick about him. Really. I mean, he wasn't easy,
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  Speaker 2: but he was a fully rounded human being. Not the story. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: he was arrogant, he was this he was that. You know,
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  Speaker 2: he was good friends with John Bonham. John Bonham worshiped him.
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  Speaker 2: You know that film was cut and edited very very
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  Speaker 2: cleverly too, and you know he Jay made a good film.
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  Speaker 2: It was Jay's film. My dad was paid for it,
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  Speaker 2: and the person who was with was they were asking
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  Speaker 2: for more money because they didn't have any. So the
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  Speaker 2: film was Jay's film. So Jay did the film how
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  Speaker 2: he wanted and it did well, but it's not accurate.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.