Tumult!, page 13
Nuff Said and Feel Good, both released on United Artists, quickly consolidated their superlative groove in 1972, but the vibe had started to wear a bit thin by this stage, along with their relationship, which had never been on anything but shaky ground from day one anyway. By then, they were largely together in name only. Tina Turns the Country On, her unique (if slightly surreal) solo effort from 1974, was a clear indication that she was way more than ready to get along without workin’ together with Ike.
At last, she had struck out on her own, musically at least, with her unlikely but catchy country-flavored album of cover songs, which had to be satisfying at some level. It did not of course exactly turn the country on, being mostly a lame cash-grab attempt on Ike’s part, though most listeners were impressed by her stylistic flexibility and utter lack of professional guile. Even when she flopped, people still admired her authenticity and perseverance.
For John Corcelli, it was her very mutability as an artist that also made her so special. “Clearly Turner certainly made the perhaps surprising transition from R&B to Rock and then smoothly to Pop, but my guess is that she also brought everything from those earlier musical worlds forward with her into Pop itself as an art form. And she somehow managed to accomplish this remarkable feat while not compromising anything at all along the way: she was true to herself regardless of which style she embraced. By doing so she also contributed greatly to the stylistic evolution of each successive genre she touched.”
Aaron Cohen feels it was her dedication and energetic devotion to sheer hard work that made her triumph in the end over any slight vocal limitations she may have had. “Tina Turner didn’t have the range of Aretha Franklin, or the family lineage of Mavis Staples, but she worked incredibly hard to make the most of the voice she had. And she added a physicality and theatricality to her performances that few of her contemporaries, of either gender or any race, had. She also made singers with rougher vocal qualities fit into the soul era (as did Etta James), but it’s something I couldn’t imagine Mary Wells or Tammi Terrell ever accomplishing. Tina doing so likely helped set the stage for Bettye LaVette’s reemergence later on.”
I agree and also believe that she laid the groundwork for a niche to accommodate a funky performer as raw as Betty Mabry-Davis as well, not to mention certain female rappers. Her rather amazing creative flexibility was also one of the ingredients that most impressed John Corcelli. “I think Tina’s most significant artistic accomplishment has been her ability to transcend categories altogether. In fact, Turner has firmly established her place in popular music precisely by never making compromises artistically. She has also shaped her own career and was never molded by her handlers or record executives. We must remember that Ike had always tried to ‘control’ her artistic career right from the start. When she broke free from his grasp, she finally took full control of her own repertoire and made much better and higher quality creative musical choices. That very willingness to take risks musically has given Turner’s fans a solid and satisfying discography. After all, only Tina Turner could have sung ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It.’”
But it would take a while for Tina to fully come into herself, perhaps not surprisingly, and to find her own footing once she made the attempt to present herself as a truly solo artist (on two albums while still with the Revue band) and another two follow-up solo albums while caught in a weird kind of transitional period of stylistic searching.
As I’ve suggested, her first two efforts were quite odd and almost kitschy really. Any way you look at it, and even being as charitable as possible, Tina Turns the Country On! is a slightly bizarre pastiche of wonky western tunes on which she appears dramatically out of place, mostly because she is. And Acid Queen (1975) is a novelty send-up supporting her then recent acting turn in the Who’s campy Ken Russell film, an album for which she deserves kudos just for keeping a straight face throughout. It’s a respectable choice of hard rockers for her to cover, however, mixed incongruously with a second side dish of more mediocre late Ike tunes.
TINA TURNS THE COUNTRY ON! (UNITED ARTISTS RECORDS)
Released in 1974. Produced by Tom Thacker. Personnel: Joe Lamno, bass; Michael Bolts, drums; Mark Creamer, guitars; Glen Hardin, piano; J. D. Minnis, steel guitar; Tom Scott, saxophone; Terrance Lane, percussion. Engineers: John Horton, Fred Borkgren, Steve Waldman, D. B. Johnson. Duration: 33:49 (but feels like a small eternity).
Bayou Song (P. J. Morse) 3:22 / Help Me Make It through the Night (Kris Kristofferson) 2:48 / Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You (Bob Dylan) 2:58 / If You Love Me (John Rostill) 3:00 / He Belongs to Me (Bob Dylan) 3:59 / Don’t Talk Now (James Taylor) 2:58 / Long Long Time (Gary White) 4:42 / I’m Movin On (Hank Snow) 2:37 / There’ll Always Be Music (Dolly Parton) 4:10 / The Love That Lights Our Way (Fred and Marsha Karlin) 3:15
Don’t get me wrong, now. If you made it this far in the book. you know how much I respect this artist. However, everyone sometimes make a big mistake, and this was hers—or, rather, theirs since it was her husband’s idea: a somewhat crass attempt to expand their audience base using his primary commodity: her. But country? I’m not a big fan, it’s true, but I definitely know great country when I hear it (Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, June Carter, and Dolly Parton before she went pop), and this isn’t it. They even tried describing it as country rhythm and blues, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one.
It was a tricky venture as your first debut album on your own, even if you are dissatisfied with your usually popular rhythm and blues going through a slump in sales. Weirdly, it still managed to garner a Grammy nomination for Tina for best rhythm-and-blues female vocal performance in 1974, a fact that still mystifies me to this day. This record of course did not fare well and has never been released on CD. Count your blessings perhaps, although I totally understand why completist Tina fans would want it in their collection since I have a healthy compulsive streak myself.
It should also not be confused with myriad other strange Ike attempts to cash in, even after she’d left him, with other blurred-line releases of dubious distinction, such as Tina Turner Sings Country, Soul Deep, Country My Way, Good Hearted Woman, Country in My Soul, Stand by Your Man (really!), Country Classics, You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man (poor Tammy!), and The Country Side of Tina Turner, all of which represented Ike’s persistence, if nothing else, in scraping every scintilla of sound she’d ever left behind her in his home-based Bolic Studio.
ACID QUEEN (UNITED ARTISTS RECORDS)
Produced by Denny Diante, Spencer Proffer. Released in 1975. Personnel: Tina Turner, vocals; Ike Turner, arranger; Ed Greene, drums; Henry Davis, bass; Ray Parker, guitar; Spence Proffer, guitar; Jerry Peters, keyboards; Joe Clayton, congas; Alan Lindgren, synthesizer; Sid Sharp, strings; Julia Waters, Kim Carnes, Maxine Waters, vocals; Denny Diante, percussion; Ray Milano, recording and mixing. Duration: 35:29.
Under My Thumb (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) 3:22 / Let’s Spend the Night Together (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) 2:54 / Acid Queen (Pete Townshend) 3:01 / I Can See for Miles (Pete Townshend) 2:54 / Whole Lotta Love (Willie Dixon) 5:24 / Baby Get It On (Ike Turner) 5:34 / Bootsy Whitelaw (Ike Turner) 5:06 / Pick Me Tonight (Ike Turner) 3:13 / Rockin and Rollin (Ike Turner) 4:02
Well, at least it’s not country and western (sorry Dolly). Although another kind of blatant attempt to cash in on her frenetic cinematic Tommy turn (but why should we hold that against her really?), it did have all the makings of something heavy duty. I wish they had confined the songs to all Townshend material rather than mixing and matching famous hard rock hits and then diluting it all with a side plate of tired Ike raunch odes past their prime. “Bootsy Whitelaw,” his ode to a jazz trombone legend who influenced him early on, is a strange choice of subject to include in an acid queen operetta. I would have loved her to do not necessarily all Tommy material (that would have been too trite perhaps) but maybe some other Who masterpieces, such as “Happy Jack” (a favorite of mine) or “A Quick One while He’s Away.”
As Robert Christgau remarked in his Rock Albums of the Seventies, “Her rock myth reconfirmed cinematically, Tina quickly turns out two from the Who (only fair), two from the Stones (who else?) and one from Led Zep (“Whole Lotta Love” is brilliant). With bass lines lifted whole from the originals, the singing almost doesn’t matter. And what rocks out most mythically? Ike’s cleverly entitled ‘Baby Get It On.’” The latter tune, which is already almost (but not quite) as disco influenced as Tina’s next two truly solo albums would be, was the last moderately successful rhythm-and-blues single ever for the pair together.
* * *
The period 1974–1975 was still another banner one of sorts for the troubled partnership, as they were descending into their inevitable downward spiral—and for mixed reasons. Those years would see one last excellent live record, a double album: The World of Ike and Tina Turner! from United Artists, which won a Grammy Award for best album package, in addition to a truly oddball effort, Let Me Touch Your Mind, also from United Artists, as well as Ike Turner Presents the Family Vibes—Strange Fruit, with vaguely eclectic but overused synthesizers by Ike in one of his sinister pseudopsychedelic side projects with his original Rhythm Kings band in tireless tow.
Also in 1974 came two still respectable and notable entries to their catalog, both equally historic. The Gospel according to Ike and Tina Turner, their nineteenth studio record, featuring new arrangements of traditional gospel tunes (something every secular blues/soul artist tends to do sooner or later) but again overly reliant on Ike’s new fetish for synthesizers. Still, it was nominated for a 1975 Grammy in the gospel category! And finally, literally finally (almost), came an album called Sweet Rhode Island Red, their last studio recording before they separated, which includes several new songs by Tina as well as covers of reliable Stevie Wonder tunes.
One reason I tend to use the world “finally” in italics (or certainly tongue in cheek when it comes to Ike) is the fact that he then released almost more albums of her music after she left him than he did when they were together, mostly using alternate takes, unissued songs, B-side rejects, or literally anything else containing her voice that was gathering dust in his Bolic Studio vaults.
His obsession with making her constantly record would pay off for him for decades to come, even if the releases were by then less than up to their usual high standards. Without her around, he couldn’t seem to tell the difference anyway, and, besides, she was his prized thorough-bred champion, or so he thought, and he wasn’t about to let anything she voiced ever go to waste. By my count, some thirty vault recordings on different labels, many of them European, found their way into the world after her grandiose comeback without him.
He would have released her reading from the telephone book if he could have done so. Delilah’s Power, an album produced after she left
Sixteen-year-old Anna Mae Bullock in her Sumner High School, St. Louis, class photo from 1958, at the time she first met Ike Turner and began performing. Photofest
Promotional image for their dynamic 1961 debut album, The Soul of Ike and Tina Turner, on the Sue Records label. RGR Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
Ike and Tina Turner with The Ikettes in 1966, at the time of their momentous collaboration with producer Phil Spector. Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Appearing at the Summer Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park, New York, 1967. Photofest
Live at the Musikhalle Theater in Hamburg, Germany, 1972. Heinrich Klaffs/Wikimedia Commons
Tina Turner on stage, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1972. Shutterstock
Tina watching suspiciously as Ike hams it up, Stockholm, Sweden, 1976. Roger Tillberg/Alamy Stock Photo
Performing in 1976. Shutterstock
During her separation from Ike in 1977, performing at a dinner theater prior to their divorce in 1978. Kent/Mediapunch/Shutterstock
Tina, footloose and fancy free in 1980, on the way to her mega comeback. A. F. ARCHIVE/Alamy Stock Photo
Performing with close friend David Bowie at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England, on the Private Dancer Tour, 1985. Photofest
Filming a video in 1986 featuring Robert Cray and his band, prior to her Break Every Rule Tour. Brendan Beirne/Shutterstock
Tina Turner and Eric Clapton, Wembley Arena, London, UK, 1987. fattkatt from england/Wikimedia Commons
Tina with her new paramour Erwin Bach, 1989. Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix Alamy Stock Photo
Tina performs with Mick Jagger, with the Temptations in the background, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 1989. Alan Davidson/Shutterstock
Studio Portrait, 1990. Johnny Boylan/Shutterstock
Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, George Michael, and Sting, Fourth Annual Rainforest Foundation benefit concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, 1993. Ron Frehm/AP/Shutterstock
Tina Turner and Elton John perform a duet during the VH1 Fashion & Music Awards show in New York, 1995. Adam Nadel/AP/Shutterstock
Tina with good friend Oprah Winfrey at the opening night of The Color Purple, Broadway Theater, NYC, 2002. © Andrea Renault/Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com
President George W. Bush congratulates Tina Turner during a reception for the Kennedy Center Honors in the East Room of the White House, Sunday, December 4, 2005. From left, the honorees are singer Tony Bennett, dancer Suzanne Farrell, actress Julie Harris, actor Robert Redford, and singer Tina Turner. White House photo by Eric Draper
With husband Erwin Bach, German Media Awards, Baden Baden, 2005. Frank Rollitz/Shutterstock
Tina Turner 50th Annniversary Tour, Birmingham, 2009. Philip Spittle/Wikimedia Commons
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical press night, Aldwych Theatre, London, UK, 2018. David Fisher/Shutterstock
Tina with Adrienne Warren, opening night on Broadway, Fontanne Theatre, NY, 2019. Andrew H. Walker/Variety/Shutterstock
(except for the title song, which was already a single from two years before, when they were touring in Europe), was released one year after she escaped him, in 1976, in order for him to capitalize on his soon-to-be ex-wife’s Midas touch. During this time, Ike was spending more time at Bolic Sound than he was with Tina and their children at their home in Inglewood. Tina, meanwhile, had looked inward to alleviate her own problems and soon found solace after her introduction to the contemplative teachings of Buddhism and chanting.
In July 1976, Ike intended on signing a five-year contract with a new record company, Cream Records, for a reported yearly amount of $150,000. The contract had a key “personal” clause, meaning Ike would have to sign the contract in four days, thus keeping Tina tied to Ike for at least five more years. She couldn’t take five more minutes. On July 2, 1976, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue traveled by plane to Dallas, where they were to perform at the Dallas Statler Hilton. While on the airplane, the two became embroiled in an altercation that led to a physical fight in their limousine.
The duo presented different accounts as to what went on that day. Ike accused Tina of being negligent to help him with a nosebleed due to constant cocaine, with his incongruous solution being to do even more cocaine. Tina claimed Ike was annoyed that she was eating chocolates while wearing an all-white outfit, causing Ike to slap and punch her. The couple did agree on one thing, however: that Ike had been up for five days straight on a cocaine binge.
Following Ike’s punch, Tina recalled fighting back for the first time, scratching and kicking him. Ike seemed stunned, alleging to a musician associate friend that the two “went around like prizefighters for a while.” Both Ike and Tina were bleeding by the time they arrived at the hotel. After going up to their suite, Ike retired to a sofa. Once Ike had fallen asleep, Tina grabbed a few toiletries, covered herself, and escaped from the back of the hotel, running across an active freeway before stopping at a local Ramada Inn hotel.
She claimed that she later hid out at several friends’ homes for a time, insisting on helping them with household chores and duties regardless of their attempts to prevent her from doing so. Christian Wright characterized her combination of haughty and humble very well in Trouble Girls. “Tina Turner had been a star but she had never been a diva. When the friends putting her up would tell her to stop cleaning, that the maid would do it, she persisted, she needed to pay her way. She didn’t think less of herself for it, she said, because it helped her survive. She was proud of it.”
On July 27, 1976, Tina Turner filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. About time. Ike and Tina fought for a year in divorce court arguing over money and property. By late 1977, Tina decided to stop her pursuit of any financial earnings, including an apartment complex in Anaheim, California, and another apartment elsewhere, stating to her lawyer that her freedom “was much more important.” Tina also agreed to retain only the use of her stage name, which came in handy for her upcoming reincarnation.
The divorce proceedings ended in November 1977, and the divorce was officially finalized in March 1978. Having the self-awareness of a clam, it simply never occurred to Ike that it wasn’t the fault or flaw of the people around him for “abandoning” him all the time but was actually simply the result of his being such a horrible human being. That would have required too much self-reflection.
