#The500Blog - #214 - Proud Mary : The Best of Ike & Tina Turner - Ike and Tina Turner

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #214
Album Title: Proud Mary: The Best of Ike & Tina Turner
Artist: Ike and Tina Turner
Genre: Southern Soul, Rock
Recorded: A compilation of material recorded 1960 - 1970

Released: March, 1991
My age at release: 25
How familiar was I with it before this week: Several songs

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #392, dropping 178 places
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: River Deep, Mountain High

The adjective "undeniable" gets bandied about a bit too much when sports and entertainment pundits have exhausted their arsenal of superlatives. However, in the case of singer, songwriter, actress, and writer Tina Turner, it is apropos. Turner overcame obstacle after obstacle to become The Queen of Rock and Roll.

The 2023 posthumously released anthology Queen of Rock 'n Roll
from Tina Turner.

Attempting to capture the powerfully inspiring story of Turner's life in this short post would be a disservice. I recommend the 1993 biopic, What's Love Got To Do With It, or the excellent 2023 documentary, Tina, to learn more about this talented woman's challenging but uplifting life.

However, to summarize, she was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 to an impoverished sharecropping family in Nutbush, Tennessee. Her abusive father drove her mother from the home when she was 11 and then abandoned the family two years later.

At 17, she met Ike Turner and joined his band, the Kings of Rhythm. Within a short time, her powerful, gospel-trained voice and sexy, energetic performances made her a crowd favourite. Ike convinced her to change her name to Tina Turner so he could trademark it and manipulate her finances based on that ownership. If she ever left the band, he could simply replace her with another "Tina". This was the first of many acts of control and subjugation Ike perpetrated to maximize the profitability of the young singer. Tina lacked financial education and was paid a paltry weekly allowance of $25 by the domineering Ike, who had now become her romantic partner.

The Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Ike & Tina (rear) 

The couple married and Tina gave birth to two children. Along with two additional children from previous relationships (one from Tina’s and one from Ike’s), they purchased a home in the View Park area of Los Angeles. Despite the challenges of raising a family, Ike kept Tina to a busy schedule of recording sessions, public appearances and constant touring. Ike was a task-master and perfectionist with his band, but things were much worse for Tina.

Ike and Tina's Los Angeles home.

Her first attempt to end their relationship resulted in a savage attack with a shoe-stretcher in which she was badly concussed. The details of the next sixteen years paint a horrific litany of cocaine-fueled psychological domination and physical abuse – throughout which Tina continued to wow crowds with her powerhouse vocal performances and high-energy, sexually-dynamic stage presence -- decked out in outfits that highlighted her envious figure that left little to the imagination.

On July 1, 1976, with only 39 cents and a Mobil gas credit card in her pocket, Tina crept out of a Dallas hotel room after another brutal assault. As her husband slept off his drug-fueled rampage, Tina, then 37, fled across a freeway to another hotel where she pleaded with the manager to give her refuge -- promising payment at a later date.

Tina and Ike Turner shortly before her escape.

Their divorce was finalized in March, 1978. Tina accepted tremendous losses in the settlement; but, she would not relent when it came to keeping her stage name. She knew she would have to preserve "Tina" in order to remain relevant in the cutthroat music industry. However, as a female nearing the age of 40, she was relegated to the status of a novelty or nostalgia act. Regardless, she persisted, appearing on television game shows (The Hollywood Squares) and variety programs (The Donny & Marie Show, The Sonny & Cher Show) in order to remain in the public eye.

Tina appears on The Hollywood Squares.

It was at this time that Tina Turner began showing up on my pop-culture radar. I was 12 and obsessed with television. It was, to me, what TikTok is to my students today. I'll admit, I had also relegated Ms. Turner to the "has been" file -- despite the fact that I did not truly know what a "has been" was. Sadly, she was a victim of a societal standard that puts an expiry date on women in entertainment when they reach a "certain age". In a 2020 analysis of 6,000 actors, Time magazine found that “male actors see their careers peak at the age of 46, [while] female actors reach their professional pinnacles at age 30.”

Then, in October, 1981, Rod Stewart invited Tina to appear with him on Saturday Night Live. Decked out in hotpants and showing off her stunning gams and smoking vocal skill she immediately had my attention. The decision was an intentional and benevolent gesture from Stewart because it helped introduce Tina's talent (and sex appeal) to a new generation -- including me and my friends. Shortly after, she joined The Rolling Stones as an opening act for their American Tour. The SNL video can be seen here.

A screen capture of Stewart and Tuner on SNL. 

In 1984, at 45 years of age, Tina Turner's relentless perseverance paid off. She released her fifth solo studio album, Private Dancer. It featured seven singles, including three that were in the Top Ten, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies. I turned 19 that year and Turner's music and videos were omnipresent. My friends and I were not big fans; but we respected her talent and achievement -- despite not knowing the challenges she had faced. We also had a crush on her -- even though she was older than our parents.

Album cover for Tina Turner's Private Dancer.

The next year, she co-starred with Mel Gibson in the third film in the Mad Max franchise, Beyond Thunderdome. She was perfectly cast as Aunty Entity, the founder and ruler of 'Bartertown' in the post-apocalyptic wasteland depicted in the dystopian, science-fiction film. The movie wasn't great and there were plenty of cheesy lines to ridicule. But Turner was terrific and the sets were impressive. It's one of those films that isn't good, but is good fun.

Decked out in chainmail, Turner as Aunty Entity in 
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Turner also had another hit record on the film's soundtrack, We Don't Need Another Hero, which went to #1 in Canada. In 1988 her triumphant comeback reached its apex when she set a Guinness Record for the largest paying concert attendance for a solo artist: 188,000 fans sold out Maracana Stadium in Brazil to see her perform her hits.

Turner performing at Maracana Stadium. Brazil in 1988.

In 1986, at the height of her popularity, she met German music executive Erwin Bach and fell in love. After a 27-year romantic relationship, they married in July, 2013. She and Erwin retired to Küsnacht, Switzerland, with an estimated wealth of $250 million  (U.S.) 10 million times the $25 weekly allowance she was given by Ike for most of her early career. Turner died on May 24, 2023, but her music and legacy of perseverance live on. She was undeniable and, much like the title of one of her biggest hits...Simply The Best.