I would listen to a vinyl of Tina Turner's "Private Dancer" which brought her comeback. Now I think the album seemed to take care of early '70s' atmosphere in which Tina glowed brighter by the way of reading soul tunes like Al Green's Let's Stay Together or Ann Peebles' I Can't Stand The Rain, while most of '80s albums of old-timers were molded into prevailing music including 'blacon', the Japanese term of adult oriented rock of blacks. In that period and also on Tina's autobiographical movie, Ike Turner, her former partner, has been considered as 'domestically violent husband'. On "Proud Mary : The Best of Ike & Tina Turner", the compilation of early '60s' Sue years and around '70's Minit/United Artists years when Ike & Tina Turner had a series of hits (it's a pity that tunes of middle and late '60s, especially Phil Spector's production "River Deep, Mountain High", are not included), you can listen to songs of Tina's throaty and drastic shouting and find photos of emphasizing her beautiful leg lines on stages or sleeves. When you find and suspect Ike Turner standing near and staring at her with his guitar in his hands, you may think 'That's plenty even without this guy'. Is it really true?
Ike Turner, originally a pianist, led his Kings of Rhythm and cut a song Rocket 88 at Sun studio of Memphis in 1951. This has impressive piano introduciton and distorted guitar and is often said to be 'the first rock 'n' roll hit ever'. This tune was put under the distribution of Chess, however, and released in the name of the vocalist Jackie Brenston. At the time labels like Sun or Modern expected Ike to be a backing musician and A&R man.You can hear others' tunes supported by Ike and ones of Kings of Rhythm on "The Sun Sessions"(mainly Sun era), "Rhythm Rockin' Blues"(mainly Modern era) featuring Rocket 88, "Ike's Instrumentals"(no-vocal compilation of Modern and Sue era), "Blues Kingpins" (mainly Modern era), "King Cobra"(Cobra days). He cut his own sides under the name of 'Loverboy' with a little poor voice, and his own compositions were "influenced" by Specialty's Guitar Slim or Percy Mayfield or Lloyd Price. Despite it, his most charming point is buoyant and sometimes blues-tinged phrasing or riffing of his Fender Storatocaster with a moving 'whammy bar'(that is, a tremolo arm). He had backings of Bonnie Turner, his first wife, or Billy Gaye(s) or Dennis Binder or Billy "The Kid" Emerson and held various arrangements ranging from early R&B's shuffling pianos to hard blues ringing guitars and slow-hands. On the sides of Kings of Rhythm, I find Tommy Hodge's deep voice and Ike's guitar well suited to each other as you can hear on (I Know) You Don't Love Me [Get It Over Baby] or Matchbox [I'm Gonna Forget About You] or Down and Out [How Long Will It Last]. Among their instrumentals it's worth listening to Ike's performance of imitating each songs' style on All The Blues All The Time, a medley of blues gems. What such a pretty instrumentalist as Ike Turner was lacking in was an original tune and a singer which brought him a hit.
Although Tina tends to collect any attention on Ike & Tina Turner's hits like A Fool in Love, It's Gonna Work Out Fine, River Deep, Mountain High or Proud Mary, "Bold Soul Sister", the best of their Blue Thumb recordings, contains renditions of blues : on 3 O'clock in the Morning Blues, I Smell Trouble or Dust My Bloom Ike keeps on forcing his guitar to cry against Tina. I feel mutual friction between Tina's positivity in which she fiercely rushes toward the future and Ike's negativity in which he tries to draw her back to the past. Their stage changed from barnstorming chitlin circuits to brilliant concerts and the difference of each nature inevitably led to their separation, however, they should have shared a groove others such as Phil Spector never knew. (2005/02/25)(2006/11/20)