Ok, let's speak ill of the dead, I'm sure Ginger's more robust humor can take it:
I just read in the CD booklet of Hawkwind's Levitation (1980) how it came that Ginger Baker's stint in the space rockers was as short as it was.
After having endeared himself to his new band mates by taking an extremely vicious dog along on tour which terrorized everyone backstage, Ginger decided that it might be a good idea to bring his old pal Jack (Bruce) into Hawkwind, so to say as "Ginger Baker's Cream of Hawkwind"; he had coincidentally met him during a German TV show and they had reconnected/made up again (for a while ...).
As Hawkwind were already equipped with a bassist named Harvey Bainbridge, this posed a slight problem which Ginger promptly decided to solve in his own inimitable way by badmouthing Harvey as "
the worst bass player on earth". When he pressured Hawkwind to
fire Harvey, their reaction somewhat back
fired; they had Harvey - of all people - inform Ginger of the unanimous
band decision that Ginger's services were herewith no longer required.
Ginger took it with his usual good grace, commenting both benevolently and humbly in the aftermath
"the worst bassist on earth fired the best drummer on earth".
Darn, so we missed out on Jack Bruce following Lemmy's cowboy booted footsteps and hearing him sing as well as play Silver Machine.
