C&L's Late Nite Music Club with Ike Turner
guest blogged by SteveAudio
Here's a video that shows Ike & Tina at the height of their combined powers, in 1966, doing the Phil Spector-produced "River Deep, Mountain High":
One of the original bad boys of rock died today:
Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76. Turner died at his San Marcos home, Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's career, told The Associated Press.
There was no immediate word on the cause of death, which was first reported by celebrity Web site TMZ.com. Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional blues album category for Risin' With the Blues. But his image is forever identified as the drug-addicted, wife-abusing husband of Tina Turner. He was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie What's Love Got To Do With It, based on Tina Turner's autobiography.
As is often the case, bad behavior can overshadow creative achievement. Many people have forgotten this about Ike:
Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, Rocket 88, in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar.
I never worked with Ike, but I had an engineer friend tell me a harrowing story about an all-night cocaine-fueled recording session with Ike and a really big pistol. Scary. Here is Ike and Tina performing The Beatles' "Get Back":
Man, what a great song. Great music, maybe not a great man, but rest in peace Ike. And what a voice on Tina.
Tina Turner "Private Dancer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rum_zoWvcm4
Tina was just a wimp.
I bet Ike smashed a bottle over St. Peter's head and pried his way through the Pearly Gates.
ike turner & the kings of rhythm -- a black man's soul
*classic*
By request, Jonathan Richman: I Like Gumby -
http://www.thesequencers.us/various/jonathanrichman_ilikegumby.mp3
A little info on the album that it's from -
http://wayoutjunk.blogspot.com/2006/06/green-album.html
Ike- Ik
Man..I'm in no way non-violent and love me some dirty hard rock but...I don't know if you oughta be showcasing ol' Ike. I've seen overly sensitive feminist postings (imo) at your great blog so I'm surprised you'd lionize this dude.
Wait, let me quantify that. I'm not anti-feminist postings, just thought some were a little overboard.
Still..Ike?
Punchy @ 6:
Nah - we all know abuse of women is a laugh riot! Lighten up!
Good night.
Have to say...he may have made a contribution to music, but the fact remains he regularly beat the crap out of his wife = he's a piece of shit. Good riddance.
Stanley Rosenthal @ 5:
I lurve Jonathan Richman I saw him in a small club in London. Just a great friendly funny show.
Bad behavior can overshadow creative achievement.
Yeah he just beat the crap out of Tina year after year let's brush that under the rug. Ike never apologized for it anyway.
Ike Turner? What are you thinking?
I meant "qualify" earlier. Super effing important that I make that clear.
F Ike!
fiver @ 13:
Probably just a momentary lapse of reason.
I'm sorry I lost any respect for the guy I once had once it all came out in the open. He really was a vicious sob.
No wonder Tina was ripped...it still didn't help. He was a bastard.
I'm sure theres lots of things we don't know about.....but still......he never should of hit her....
Punchy @ 7:
You're going to have to show me where we've lionized him. He made a contribution to music. He passed away today. We're acknowledging his death. No one has said that he's admirable or a great guy.
John Lennon was cruelly estranged from his eldest son. Bing Crosby beat his children. Frank Sinatra had mob ties and almost certainly used them. Jim Morrison was a massive drug abuser. No one questions their contribution to music although they all had personal failings as well.
If there was no Ike, there would have been no Tina. For that alone, I recognize the part he played in shaping modern American music. Would I want to know him personally? No.
Imaginary (for now) Right Wing Blog:
Really C&L, WTF are you thinking?
[So you didn't read Nicole's post? Right above yours? He is not being honored. He died, his passing is being noted, and his music is being featured. No one at this blog is calling Ike a great guy or a fine human. NO ONE. I think the post makes it clear. Just because he was a Grade A jerk doesn't assign his musical achievements to someone else. That's what we're talking about here at Late Night Music Club. The music-Sitemonitor]
Nicole Belle @ 20:
My thoughts exactly. Unfortunately most people know only Ike Turner as an abuser, which is his own fault, really. Nevertheless he did make a great contribution to music apart from his work with Tina, which should be recognised.
Rockn'roll isn't all about Elvis Presley
Amy Winehouse Tears Dry on Their Own
Brand New Bag/I Feel Good: James Brown
Short and sweet!
Ike and Tina 1972-Get Back
Speaiking of washed up assholes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b_sdhNWHsw
Living well is the best revenge
Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With
I met Ike one time while shopping at an organic grocery store.
He backed his Mercedes right into the handicapped spot and walked in with a young bimbo.
He was not that tall, but he scared the crap out of me when he and I were close and he said, "hey man, how's it going?"
Mike V. @ 28:
Rotten to the core. I'dve found a cop to tow his arse. And his Merc.
Sitemonitor @21
I did read Nicole's post, although not until after I posted @ 21. I suppose I should have hit "Refresh Comments" before "Submit Comment" yet sometimes when I've tried that in the past I lost what I typed.
I'm sorry, but Nicole's response @ 20 didn't quite cut it for me. Setting Ike Turner as the featured artist on the Crooks and Liars' Late Night Music Club then claiming he "is not being honored" is confusing at best. Also, being a "bad boy of rock" implies lovable mischief far more than it does misogynistic brutality. At least Ike never commented on Hillary's pant-suits, that might have been over the line.
Anyway, I like it that this thread is about the music and don't want to belabor the point. But this is still potential grist for the right wing mill (and not unjustifiably so).
Yeah, that phrase also rubbed me the wrong way for the same reason.
So let's all celebrate Tina, a survivor in many many ways, Ike haters! Start posting music!
Tina Turner - Better Be Good To Me
Tina Turner w/ Carlos Santana The Game of Love
rocket 88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0
rot in hell ike
when arthur lee died, this site didnt give him his props for over a week
ike dies and bang...there it is
eff him
Thanks fiver it's
Simply The Best Tina Turner
Check her out on Proud Mary in 1982; the back-up singers/dancers less than half her age can barely keep up.
...makes me tired just watching (that and work tomorrow). Good night.
speaking of life and death of great rockers, skippy celebrates zappadan with peaches in regalia.
Kids: The "bad boy" phrase I used was meant seriously, as in he was a bad man, not in the sense of "Dude, he's bad!".
And I can't speak for John or Nicole, since although they are good friends of mine, this is their blog and they kindly allow me to post here sometimes. But the title of this series is Late Night Music Club, not Late Night Music Club of Music By Artists I Think Are Nice People. There have been, since the dawn of time, artists whose personal lives ranged from tragic to felonious.
Jerry Lee Lewis who married his 13 y/o cousin, a clear case of pedophilia and child abuse. Jerry's in the R'n'R HOF.
James Brown was convicted of armed robbery at 16 y/o, had various arrests and legal troubles from gun, knife, drug, and domestic violence. JB is in the R'n'R HOF.
Ozzy Osbourne: drugs, alcohol, domestic violence.
Eminem: Domestic violence
Scott Weiland, who I know, has been busted repeatedly for drugs, alcohol, and domestic violence.
Should I go on? There are many, many more. Unless you are prepared to slam all these, and countless other artists who clearly can be assholes in their personal lives apart from their art, then the outrage about Ike seems pretty selective. And that's just music, I didn't even mention any actors, painters, dancers, or any other arts.
And the point is not whether or not he was a prick. The point is that he was a part of music history, and he died. That's all.
[Deleted. Not funny. At all-Sitemonitor]
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa but really...
ike obviously had a serious flaw, and by the fact that 95% of all people who know his name associate it with domestic assault, his reputation is surely tarnished indefinitely. however, the other 5% of us out there recognize his flaw, but also listen to his music and recognize him as a musical visionary. liking his music doesn't amount to condoning spouse abuse... just like dancing to any track off "Thriller" doesn't mean you support child abuse. at some point the artist's music stops being theirs, and belongs to all of us... for those out there who don't have it already, Ike Turner's music belongs in your collection.
(recommendation: ike turner & the kings of rhythm -- a black man's soul)
Good-bye, Ike Turner. Loved your music, man. Loved the way you put your arm around Pinetop Perkins at the Chicago Blues Fest after a sensational performance a few years back, tears streaming down your face. But most of all I love you for reminding Sam Phillips on the floor of Sun Records at Memphis (Scorsese's Father and Sons) just precisely where the music came from. You may have been an honery bastard most of the time, but when the blues had a baby and it called rock n roll you were not only in the delivery room, you were the obstetrician.
A genius. As fucked up as his violent insanity was, those are some of the same intensities that fueled his music, and his music was the catalyst for the making of a great many babies (of all colors), probably saved quite a few marriages (and broke up some others), and anyhow gave context and sense during times of horrific U.S. violence overseas, as now.
Still relevant. Still great dynamic soul music, hugely loved all over the world.
mike @ 40:
No one 'deserves' domestic violence.
It's not a behavior which is excused any more. Assault is assault.
SteveAudio @ 39:
Was he by any chance a Mormon?
Cause I hear it's OK if you're a Mormon.
Cloudbusting @ 22:
Yeah, but no other massive drug abuser was Jim Morrison.
Scott Weiland - Barbarella
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQyUtRikwxw&feature=related
Fünf Sterne Deluxe - Dein Herz schlägt schneller - 1998
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUsmfvZe024&feature=related
Sebastien Tellier - La Ritournelle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsk8QQj5Nrc&feature=related
Dead Can Dance -The Host Of Seraphim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tluogv9EGTQ&feature=related
On the PBS series "Rock And Roll", Ike Turner raises his ugly head long enough to disparage Chuck Berry's entire career. *Maybe* Turner's "Rocket 88" was the first rock and roll song, but Berry was the poet laureate, first great songwriter and first guitar hero of rock and roll.
"Ike" sweats a lot for someone on stage in her underwear!
Lessee, we have hundreds of people in elected office who are
supposed to stop torture but are either hiding behind weasel words
and supporting it, or overtly proudly supporting it,
people whose names make the paper every day with glowing reviews.
We have an occupation on behalf of our country where a hundred civilians die a day.
Yet it's beyond the pale to note the death and significance of
a vicious c***s***er wife beater who also happened to make several
huge contributions to rock and roll? (Trivia note, Phil Spector,
another "bad boy", dropped out of the public because of the
failure of River Deep, Mountain High" to top the charts).
So no celebration of Gandhi because he was horrid to his son?
No talk of Werner von Braun with the moon landing because he also did the V-1/V-2?
Forget Winston Churchill because he also gave us Gallipoli and Dresden?
Ignore Alfred Hitchcock because he viciously destroyed Tippi Hedren's career?
Life sucks, deal with it and listen to the music or not.
I was curious though as to Tina's reaction, and found:
"Tina is aware that Ike passed away earlier today," the rep told TMZ. "She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made."
Ike Turner's CONTRIBUTIONS TO MUSIC ARE COMPLETELY INDISPUTABLE.
Yes, he wa a bastard to Tina. But that is not the only thing he ever did.
In defense of C&L's Late Night Music Club, should they never honor any artist
who has had a checkered past? Then we might as well narrow it down to NOONE.
Thanks C&L. Let's remember Ike for all he has done, as well as what he failed to do,
but let's at least give hiim some acknowledgement for his accomplishments.
Ike, I hope God is a angry black woman and I hope she whips your ass! Rest in peace.
Beau Jangles @ 37:
WTF is moronic about not only surviving, but prevailing in an environment where you are abused and belittled?
We on C&L are using the event of Ike's death to honor Tina Turner, who is inextricably linked with Ike. Get over yourself.
One of the original bad boys of rock died today
OK I get the purpose of mentioning Turner, but that sentence was wildly offensive. There is a perception in our culture when we talk about "bad boy" types that this is something we actually prize. There's a pose and a stereotype about the "bad boy" that is more often than not used to praise the guy in question, not damn him. Calling someone a "bad boy" suggests while technically the behavior is considered wrong by the society the truth is we validate and support this behavior because we shower attention on these guys and hold them up as icons for being the way they are.
Ike Turner? Was not a "bad boy" type. He was a bad man with a number of problems who also contributed to the development of American music. Using that phrase about him reduces what he actually did by relegating it to contributing to a stereotypical image of a slightly out of control heroic figure, instead of recognizing the criminal aspects of his multiple problems with drugs and violence and treating them with the seriousness they deserve.
That's putting it mildly. I know I'm late in commenting on this quote, but, "bad boy" seriously glosses over the fact that he beat up his wife. That's nothing to laugh at or minimize.
Site Monitor: No one is laughing or minimizing it. Scroll up to see Steve Audio's comment.
SteveAudio @ 39:
Unfortunately artistic talent is often bestowed upon truly loathsome individuals. Two additional examples:
Miles Davis - Drug addict, pimp, and spousal abuser
Richard Wagner - Vicious anti-Semite who stole his best friend's wife (and holds the dubious distinction of being Adolph Hitler's favorite composer).
Both were reprehensible but they were also musical giants.
Tina freaking rocks!
Ike was a true pioneer, cultivating the gangsta thug image and blatantly exploiting women, long before there was a financial incentive to do so.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave @ 57:
If there was no Ike, there would have been no Tina.
Yeah. Right. As if Tina Turner would not have become a goddess in her own right. Shove it up your sexist ass.
Oh, and by the way: Phil Spector specifically excluded Ike from Tina's recording of "River Deep, Mountain High" because he was such a drag on Tina.
Without Tina, there would have been no Ike.
um...didn't Phil Spector, like...kill a chick ?
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