A Six-pack of Tina Turner

Written by Jim S.

“We never ever do nothin’ nice and easy.”- Tina Turner

Wikipedia: “Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is a singer and actress, originally from the United States and now a Swiss citizen. Turner rose to prominence as part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before launching a successful career as a solo performer.

One of the best-selling recording artists of all time, she has been referred to as The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Turner is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, and career longevity.” Indeed.

Anna Mae’s upbringing was rough to say the least. Her parents were “poor sharecroppers, who split up and left Turner and her sister to be raised by their grandmother. As a teen, Tina immersed herself in St. Louis’ R&B music scene.” She met Ike Turner (for better, then for worse) at Club Manhattan. Ike was leading a group called Kings of Rhythm who – as I mentioned in my post on Sam Phillips – are credited with maybe the first ones to do a rock and roll song with “Rocket 88.”

Apparently, other than in his singing, Tina was not initially attracted to Ike calling him ugly and skinny. But she got up and sang a B.B. King tune with the band and that made all the difference. That song wasΒ  “(Darling) You Know I Love You.)”

Now I tried hard to find the original version but couldn’t. After some sleuthing, I found out that there had been an album released for Tina’s autobiography called What’s Love Got to Do With It.” And the band just fucking scorches through it. The guitar is great and it has that great honky-tonk sax goin’ on.

The act scored their first R&B hit in 1960 with β€œA Fool in Love,” reaching No. 2. Ike and Tina didn’t become household names until 1971 with their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s β€œProud Mary,” which also earned the act a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. I may have posted this one before but come on! This is great. I saw the band in NYC around this time. I tell you if I tried to dance like this I’d be hurtin’ for certain:

Spotify link

Tina and Ike married in 1962. So let’s get this shitty part out of the way. Ike was a fine musician but otherwise a real abusive asshole. Tina said that she didn’t want to change her name or go on tour. Ike’s loving response was to hit her in the head with a wooden shoe stretcher. She said it was always a “black eye, a broken nose, a busted lip, a rib.” Ike remained abusive and unfaithful throughout their marriage. It got bad enough that Tina attempted suicide in 1968,

Tina put up with this shit as long as she could and eventually dumped Ike in July of 1976. She “fled with only 36 cents and a Mobil credit card in her pocket. On July 27, she filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.” (Tina is a Buddhist and credits that to some extent for her resilience.)

Wikipedia: “In her mid-40s, Tina staged a pop music comeback with her 1984 Private DancerΒ album and a host of singles that included the title track, a remake ofΒ Al Green’sΒ β€œLet’s Stay Together,” β€œBetter Be Good to Me,” and β€œWhat’s Love Got to Do With It.” The Grammy-winning β€œWhat’s Love Got to Do With It” reached No. 1 in the U.S. and is seen by many as Tina’s trademark song.

The studio albumsΒ Break Every RuleΒ andΒ Foreign AffairΒ followed, as well as a starring role inΒ Mad Max: Beyond ThunderdomeΒ that featured the anthemic β€œWe Don’t Need Another Hero.” She also penned a 1986 memoir,Β I, Tina, with journalist Kurt Loder that was turned into the 1993 filmΒ What’s Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne. (Tina has said that she’s never watched the film in its entirety.)”

From Dancer, this is “Better Be Good To Me.”

Oh, you better be good to me!
That’s how it’s got to be now
Cause I don’t have no use for what you loosely call the truth
And you better be good to me
Yeah, you better be good, good
C’mon, c’mon, be good to me

Spotify link

The rockers, of course, fell in love with Tina and how could they not? Mark Knopfler gave the song “Private Dancer” for her. He originally wrote it for Dire Straits and felt it was inappropriate for a guy to sing. Jeff Beck plays guitar on it and, for whatever reason, Knopfer hated his solo calling it the “world’s second ugliest guitar solo.” (Go listen to it sometime. It’s a fine solo. Jealous.)

Mick sang with her. She even played the Acid Queen in the often incomprehensible film of the Who’s Tommy. And from Tina Live in Europe, here she is with Mr. God himself, the one and only Eric Clapton doing “Tearing Us Apart.” Love this.

Spotify link

Back in the ’60s, Wilson Pickett had a hit with a song called “Land of a Thousand Dances.” Let’s hear Tina doin’ the “na-na na na-na na na” thing. (I prefer Tina’s upbeat rock and soul stuff. I like her other songs too but too much of her 80’s stuff suffers from that cheesy overproduction that was so rampant in that period.) Watch the crowd go nuts here:

Spotify link

Reluctant as I am to give Ike any more air time, I’d be totally remiss if I didn’t do “River Deep Mountain High,” the big Phil Spector production that bombed in the US. (Reluctant to give that guy any space either.) Great big tune. Released in 1966, this one had members of LA’s legendary Wrecking Crew playing on it: Leon Russell, Glen Campbell, Barney Kessel, Carol Kaye. Of the song, a discerning listener named George Harrison said it was, “a perfect record from start to finish. You couldn’t improve on it.”

Spotify link

Ike served time in prison for drug possession, released his own autobiography and died from a cocaine overdoes in 2007.

Tina had been in a long-term relationship with German music producer Erwin Bach and married him in 2013. They moved to Zurich, Switzerland where Tina has since gotten citizenship. She’s faced a number of health problems and at 80, we’re not likely to see her on the stage again any time soon.

Tina Turner has won 12 Grammy Awards; those awards include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Rolling Stone ranked Turner 63rd on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time and 17th on its list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. Turner has her own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Ike Turner in 1991 and is a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. There’s even a musical about her.

Here’s a playlist. And below that, a 2019 CBS TV interview with Tina. You may not be able to see it if you’re overseas but I hope you can

27 thoughts on “A Six-pack of Tina Turner”

  1. I find it pretty hard to be enthusiastic about those big, slick 1980s hits, although β€˜Private Dancer’ is a good call. β€˜River Deep Mountain High’ is one of the best songs of the 1960s, IMO. Combo of Spector’s production and Turner’s vocal is magical.

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    1. I listened to quite a few songs of hers and much as I like some of those 80s songs, much of the production was just too cheesy. ‘River Deep’ is famous for being a colossal flop here in the States. Sent Spector into somewhat of a tailspin.

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      1. It’s probably more a signal of changing musical tastes than quality, right? Same year as Pet Sounds, which had a pretty lukewarm reception at the time. Spector and Wilson honed their studio art rather than following everyone into psychedelia.

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        1. That argument is as good as any I guess. I like the song but I know it didn’t flow like a lot of then-popular Motown songs, which is the closest thing I can compare it to. It might have been too “Wall of Sound-y” and bombastic for the average listener. Too much orchestration whereas Motown and soul were more “to the point.” I like the song but I kinda feel that way even now.

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        2. I guess you could argue that Motown were still cranking out hits as usual in 1966 – The Supremes had some number ones. But their arrangements were a bit more muscular.

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        3. Sure. The Supremes were full force until Diana Ross left in 1970. Plus you had The Temptations, Four Tops, etc. Motown was the American equivalent of the “British Invasion” in terms of popularity and longevity. All their tunes were catchy – you couldn’t get them out of your head.

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        4. BTW, I did a three-part series on Motown a couple of years ago. If you happen to be sitting around at home bored one day it’s a breezy read.

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    1. But she can sing, man. If nothing else, listen to that blues and Proud Mary. You’re talking about Bryan Adams. My second least favorite Canadian musician after Bieber.

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  3. Yeah that blues number is more like it. And of coarse I know the Proud Mary number. You really have a soft spot for my countrymen. I have heard Adams but can honestly say never heard a Bever tune. I would guess it’s much like that stuff I was yaking to you about a while ago. I’ll leave it for others.Scares me.
    Who’s in that band on the first cut above. It is good.

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    1. The blues number? Hard to say. It’s a cast of thousands, all studio guys. The only name I recognized is David Paich who played with Toto.

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        1. Well, there’s maybe four guitarists on the album but only one sax. And you may regret asking. Turns out his name is Tim Capello and his main gig was with Tina. But Wikipedia says this: “He is notable for his muscular physique, his sexually provocative movements during his performances and for his tendency to perform shirtless, with his skin oiled and with his hair in a ponytail.,” Kinda like CB.
          Turns out he is so impressive looking they stuck him in a couple movies. Geez, acting is so easy anyone can do it.

          https://tinyurl.com/ycvsh4r6

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        2. Thanks Doc. I have to give him his dues. “Plant your feet and tell the truth” Cagney.
          That whole package thing is a whole other subject. I’m not a flash and dash guy. Sort of the Vegas thing

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  4. I think Tina Turner was a great vocalist and a killer live performer. I had the great pleasure to see her in Dortmund, Germany in the late ’80s. In fact, part of that concert ended up on her 1988 album “Tina Live in Europe.” If you listen closely, you can hear me scream in the background! πŸ™‚

    But seriously, what this woman did during her two-hour performance in stiletto high heels was simply unreal – jumping around, running back and forth. Her energy level was through the roof. She literally left it all on stage, I kid you not! She also changed her outfit two or three times – not on stage! πŸ™‚

    And while I’m generally more drawn to the songs from the Ike and Tina Turner period, the pop tunes she did during that gig sounded fantastic as well.

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    1. I mentioned in the piece that my chums and I saw Ike and Tina early on. The story is interesting. For a number of years, Schaefer beer used to host concerts at Wollman rink in Central Park. We saw a fair number of shows there. We got word that they were gonna tape an all-star show for TV there and I think we went for that reason. So it was Carly Simon, Boz Scaggs, Ike and Tina, Kate Taylor, Beach Boys. Truthfully, we weren’t really big fans of any of them at the time. It was just a night out. But yeah, Tina and the Ikettes kicked some major ass.
      My wife is a big Tina fan, especially around the ‘Private Dancer’ era. I regret we never got a chance to see her together in that era.

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      1. While I haven’t listened to “Private Dancer” in many years, I really dug that album at the time. Of course, the caveat is my taste has since evolved. At a bare minimum, I still like the title track. In fact, now that we’re talking about, I think I’m going to revisit the record!

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  7. My favorite singer of all time, and “River Deep – Mountain High” has been my favorite song since high school. I was shocked to find out that it didn’t become a hit in America, but it was a huge hit all over Europe and was the song that led to her superstardom. I’m reading Tina’s book and she describes RDMH and its success overseas as a turning point in her life, that through that song she found her voice and discovered that she could be a success on her own. Loved your post and all the songs you shared!

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    1. Yeah, it’s strange about how that song flopped. I speculated that maybe it’s because of the heaviness of that particular Wall of Sound along with maybe its lack of easy danceability. Not sure. Anyway, despite that, the lady is a force of nature. Glad you dug the post.

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