It’s Monaco today and the Indy 500, so there is some motorsport in my plans, but I wanted to spend a bit of time today talking about Tina Turner, who died this week at the age of 83.
Obviously she was a musical legend and had a back catalogue where everyone knows at least three songs, probably half a dozen. But she was almost possibly the most famous domestic abuse survivor in the world after she spoke out about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Ike Turner when they were married. There have been movies and documentaries about what went on – I first stumbled across What’s Love Got to Do With It on late night TV when I was in secondary school – but a couple of years ago Tina herself took part in a documentary so if you’re only going to watch one thing make it that. It’s been back on Sky’s documentary channels already this week – so it should be findable in their on demand system in this country, it’s in HBO’s catalogue in the US. Here’s the trailer:
I’m going to leave you with a link to the first ever Tina Turner song that I heard, which is maybe still my favourite. I mean I love Proud Mary, but River Deep Mountain high is something else. If you’re talking about problematic men, this song has a pair of them – not only is it from the Ike and Tina era, but it’s written and produced by Phil Spector. I love the Wall of Sound sound, but it was hard to listen to for a while. But she still performed it – including at her concerts as well as when she was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time – she was inducted twice once for Ike and Tina and once for her solo work. And Spector died in 2021 (while still serving his sentence for murder) and Ike died in 2007 so that’s made a difference for me too.
Oh I can’t resist it. Have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance too. It has Stevie Wonder playing back up in the band. And she sounds amazing.
Thanks for all the music Ms Turner, you’ll live on through it.
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