SIX FOOT DEEP, HEAVEN HIGH!
There had to be a catch.
Rolf Harris and Superstar Billy Graham dying in the same month felt too good to be true. As it were an apology in advance for a real sad one coming up. That prophecy has materialised with the death of indomitable icon Tina Turner, aged 83. It is confessedly poetic that the death of a serial abuser sees his time in the obit spotlight overtaken by perhaps the most celebrated instance of an abuse survivor forging through hell and turning her life around, coming back stronger than ever.
And I guess I’m no stranger to sending off big-haired, survivor music legends. 😉
The Tina Turner story didn’t do it easy. It did it rough. And it didn’t even start easy. Anna Mae Bullock was born in rural Nutbush, Tennessee, and her family life was turbulent with her parents aloof and her mother suffering abuse from her father. She spent much of that time raised by her grandparents, and developed an appetite for singing at her church. After her grandmother died, she returned to her mother in St. Louis and started to frequent local nightclubs. A frequent headliner at the clubs was Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm.
Tina took the mic one night and left such a showstopping impression that she joined the band proper. As “Little Ann”, her first record was pressed with “Boxtop” in 1958, and was soon rechristened “Tina Turner” by Ike. Tina’s raw, powerhouse voice and unbridled stage presence became the nucleus of their act, now refashioned as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Mid-tempo R&B numbers such as “A Fool in Love” and “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” were moderate Billboard successes, but above all else they flourished as a live act with a nonstop, draining touring schedule. They married in 1962, but Ike’s horrors quickly became apparent – he womanised, abused cocaine, and frequently beat Tina at the slightest sign of disagreement. Tina’s first taste of what freedom could be like came, ironically enough, from another of the most monstrous husbands of this music era.
Phil Spector was amazed by Tina’s talent and wanted to utilise her voice for his trademark Wall of Sound. Phil Spector was concurrently abusing Ronnie Spector and torpedoing her own career. Yet, like the KKK hating Fred Phelps, Spector was leery of Ike’s volatile presence and refused to let him in the recording studio. The end product – the magnificently soaring “River Deep, Mountain High” – was a towering feat for both artists, and my personal favourite Tina Turner song (I know, you’re shocked that it’s the Spector-produced one I like most). It proved Tina had the chops to go solo, but it wasn’t the hit it needed to be. Though a moderate UK hit, it struggled on US airwaves, which Ike used as leverage to keep Tina convinced her career was contingent on him.
The UK success of the song was enough to further catapult their career, and touring with the Rolling Stones increased the publicity for Ike & Tina. A breakneck, furious cover of “Proud Mary” became their biggest hit yet, and the hits machine kept on turning with the Tina-penned “Nutbush City Limits”, a funky ode to her hometown. She also mesmerised as the trippy Acid Queen in the 1975 film adaptation of The Who’s rock opera Tommy. Ike’s abuse and worsening cocaine addiction continued to take a severe toll on Tina, and she attempted suicide in 1968. She credited a newfound faith in Buddhism with helping her survive her final years with Ike, and eventually giving her the strength to leave.
Though the fear of both retaliation and career loss kept her terrified of leaving, the last straw happened in mid-1976. Ike lost his shit during a car ride and fought with Tina. Enough was enough. She fled with 36 cents to her name and never looked back. The road to reclaim her stardom was arduous, and she scraped by doing anything to keep her financially afloat. Touring as a nostalgia act. The Hollywood Squares. The Sonny & Cher Show. But recruiting Olivia Newton-John’s manager Roger Davies as her own would prove cunning career acumen, and she’d slowly yet surely claw back to superstardom in the 80s, making a splash with her wild hair and trademark legs. Public backing by the Stones and David Bowie snowballed, and she’d make her first solo chart impact with Al Green cover “Let’s Stay Together”.
The Tina Turner comeback defied gravity in many ways. Tina Turner could’ve come back as an oldies throwback and it still would’ve been something to celebrate as a reclaiming of her agency and a delightful middle finger to Ike. But in a decade when many 60s artists were running on fumes, Turner’s comeback material stood toe to toe with her earlier output. The likes of “What’s Love Got to Do with It” and “Private Dancer” kept her vocal grit while delivering a lyrical depth further textured by her own life experience. She resumed her film career as the ruthless boss of Bartertown in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which was accompanied by another smash hit in “We Don’t Need Another Hero”. She charted nonstop throughout the remainder of the millennium, adding to her hits parade “Typical Male”, “The Best”, “I Don’t Wanna Fight”, and “GoldenEye”, among many other Top 40 records.
She published her autobiography I, Tina in 1986, which laid bare Ike’s abuse to the public for the first time and gave hope and inspiration to other survivors of domestic abuse. It was adapted to film with 1993’s acclaimed What’s Love Got to Do with It. Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne’s powerful performances were both Oscar-nominated, and though Tina had issues with how she was depicted in the film, she lavished praise on how Bassett’s performance captured her spirit. The well-deserved honours kept rolling in – Grammys, dual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions (first alongside Ike, and much later as a soloist), Kennedy Center Honors, the “Queen of Rock and Roll” nickname.
Turner moved to Switzerland in 2013, and married longtime partner Erwin Bach later that year. Though her steely constitution had been through so much that she long felt indestructible, by the mid-2010s she started to display signs of mortality. She suffered a stroke in 2013, was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016, and received a kidney transplant in 2017. She outlived one son in 2018, and another last December. It is a sad loss, but her legacy as singing great, survivor, and the ultimate comeback will keep on burning.
And of course, to paraphrase Herbert Hoover, she outlived the bastard!
21 teams felt on the back of her recent losses and health issues that Tina’d be taking on a new direction this year. Among those standing better than all the rest (even if they didn’t want to lose her) are Pity da Foolz, Dead Ringers, the curiously named You Have 1 Year To Die…Your Time Starts Now, and a continued perfect streak for Hits Of 36 Years Ago And Hits Today.
Tina Turner
26 November 1939 – 24 May 2023, aged 83
21 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀 6 POINTS)