Ike Without Tina

One of the blues compilations that I've picked up recently surprised me with some vintage Ike and Tina Turner tunes, sort of on the border of blues and Fifties rock and roll, giving me a new appreciation for how much the duo has contributed to the genre. I played a couple over my last two radio shows. "I Smell Trouble" is vintage Tina blues, her voice trading dominance with Ike's penetrating lead guitar, while "Poor Fool" is closer to a standard doo-wop ballad, although it is hard to tell if Tina is singing lead or one of the "Ikettes."


Ike Turner was pushed into the background once Tina left the band and the marriage, tarnished by his depiction as a wife-beating monster on the big screen (What's Love Got To Do With It?), as well as his admitted fondness for cocaine. According to the San Diego Country Medical Examiner, it was "cocaine toxicity" that was the primary cause of Ike's death at the age of 76 on December 12,2007. Turner was already suffering from "hypertensive cardiovascular disease" and "pulmonary emphysema" as well, certainly a sad end to a controversial life.


He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931 but Ike's career didn't get off the ground until the late 1940s, when he started playing with his band The Kings of Rhythm. The band is credited with recording what some say was the first actual rock and roll record - "Rocket 88" at Sun Studios in Memphis in 1951. Ironically, while enjoying his first taste of fame with the Kings in the St. Louis area, Ike Turner was busy signing up artists like Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf for Sun and other independent labels - meaning Ike's "Svengali" persona existed long before Tina. They first met in St. Louis , when a teen-aged Tina - better known at that time as Anna Mae Bullock from Nutbush, Tennessee - belted out a B.B. King song in front of Ike.


She was hired as an Ikette, but became the lead singer after "A Fool in Love" made it to the top three R & B singles in 1960. Ike wasted no time in showcasing her talent by changing the band's name to the "Ike and Tina Turner Revue", and changing Anna's name to Tina Turner. Although Ike claims they never actually got married, another version of their story claims they tied the knot in Tijuana in 1962. Ike and Tina proceeded to churn out several number one R & B hits like: "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "River Deep - Mountain High" and "Nutbush City Limits". Fed up with Ike's constant abuse, Tina walked out in 1976 and was granted a divorce in 1978. In Ike's 2001 autobiography "Takin' Back My Name", Turner admitted that he slapped and punched Tina but never beat her - although that sounds like beating.

Ike's career has been rocky to say the least, as he blamed his offstage behavior on his addiction to drugs and alcohol. He was in jail on drug charges in 1991 when he and Tina were inducted into the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ike no sooner got out of jail in 1993 than he was back touring and recording.

Was Ike Turner a consummate artist/promoter who knew how to recognize talent or a coked-out monster with a towering ego? Like most artists, he was multi-faceted; like many performers, it may be preferable to judge Ike Turner on his public contribution and downplay his private life. One way or the other, the minister's son from Clarksdale made his mark on the evolution of blues/soul/funk.