My friends the Ralphs are friendly with Steve Windwood, and his wife. James Ralph can be very proper; but is saved by being a great conversationalist. Only with people he likes, but he likes me so….He lives for good conversation and good wine, along with good behavior.
One night, a mutual wonderful but crazy friend, Joey, invited himself to dinner at a good downtown restaurant. The Ralph’s are half Italian, and only eat at Italian restaurants, The Union Square Cafe and a few other restaurants like that. I have always wanted to pit my sister against the Ralph’s in a find the best restaurant in a half hour contest, no Zagats allowed; fifteen block area. Anyway enough fantasy.
Don’t remember where they had dinner that night. Do remember that the Ralphs were ecstatic. Joey didn’t get more drunk than anybody else; and was on exceptional behavior.
During a lull in the conversation, Joey said:
“Hey Steve I have a question that I want to ask you.”
The Ralphs began to die; they just knew it was going to be sick. Steve asked what the question was.
Joey waited a good 30 seconds to ask it. The Ralphs were ready to die.
“So, whatever happened to Ginger Baker?”
The Ralphs truly wanted to die; Steve waited another 30 seconds before answering:
“Funny, you should ask. A lot of people have been asking that question recently….”
The Ralphs were very proud of Joey at that moment, but didn’t take him along the next time that they saw Steve Windwood. Okay this isn’t a story I often tell but there was The Cream reunion, and the first song I heard on the radio this morning was a Traffic song.
Don’t think we ever found out what Ginger Baker was doing then but we do now.
Should explain that for a long time nobody seemed to know what Ginger Baker was doing, and “do you know what Ginger Baker is doing,” became a joke. And we heard it first.
There were Ginger Baker sightings; they weren’t like Elvis sightings. It was just something to wonder about in the pre-Internet days when people actually wondered about things, ocassionally. I miss those days.
Hmm I don’t understand, who’s Ginger Baker? Also I only think I know what Steve Winwood looks like, does he have long hair? Also I think I am too young to know Cream!
I like the taste of cream though. I used to go to Carmine’s on the upper east side.
Hehehe…I hink anybody who’s known anyone with any amount of celebrity can relate to this story.
So what did the Ralphs think he was going to ask? I don’t think I understand the story… is Joey supposed to be a boob who thought that Steve Winwood was in Cream or was he a pretty astute fan who knew that Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood played together in the band “Blind Faith”?
Well, be thankful he didn’t pull a Rosie O’Donnell and tell Steve how wonderful he was in “Buster.”
I knew about the Cream reunion. Ginger Baker brings back a lot of old and fond memories. It’s back when I used to tell people to stop Bogarting.
Funny, Marinade Dave. I was having a similar thought.
Ginger Baker has actually stayed pretty active in music; he’s on a lot of jazz records. He’s recorded with Stanley Clarke, among others. Although I’m sure the Cream windfall will see him safely into retirement.
So did you see Cream? I wished I could have gotten myself to want to, really I did. But I just didn’t.
I know blindfaith and cream via my fathers stuff not traffic though although i venture to guess he had those too. They went through a rebirth among people my age who thought they were cool ,aka me, when i was in about ninth or tenth grade.
I finally got around to listening to the live CD Cream recorded in London in April. Great stuff, to my surprise.
I think Ginger Baker is going to hang onto this ride as long as possible. Because I hear Cream has a dental plan.