More popular in England at the time than in the U.S., she recorded a raspy version of “Let’s Stay Together” at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London. At a listening party for his 1983 album “Let’s Dance,” David Bowie told guests that Turner was his favorite female singer. Rod Stewart convinced her to sing “Hot Legs” with him on “Saturday Night Live” and Jagger, who had openly borrowed some of Turner’s on-stage moves, sang “Honky Tonk Women” with her during the Stones’ 1981-82 tour. Desperate for work, and money, she even agreed to tour in South Africa when the country was widely boycotted because of its racist apartheid regime. She was 40 years old, her first solo album had flopped and her live shows were mostly confined to the cabaret circuit. Photo via Reutersīut by the end of the 1970s, Turner’s career seemed finished. Tina Turner performs on stage of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, in Moscow in 1996. “But there’s this one thing,” she warned, “you see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy. Against a background of funky guitar and Ike’s crooning baritone, Tina began with a few spoken words about how some people wanted to hear songs that were “nice and easy.” Ike and Tina’s reworking of “Proud Mary,” originally a tight, mid-tempo hit for Creedence Clearwater Revival, helped define their assertive, sexual image. They opened for the Rolling Stones in 19, and were seen performing a lustful version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” in the 1970 Stones documentary “Gimme Shelter.” Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett gave Oscar-nominated performances as Ike and Tina in the 1993 movie “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” based on “I, Tina,” but she would say that reliving her years with Ike was so painful she couldn’t bring herself to watch the movie. The Turners were a hot act for much of the 1960s and into the ’70s, evolving from bluesy ballads such as “A Fool in Love” and “It’s Going to Work Out Fine” to flashy covers of “Proud Mary” and “Come Together” and other rock songs that brought them crossover success. Little of this was apparent to the many Ike and Tina fans. When he died, in 2007, a representative for his ex-wife said simply: “Tina is aware that Ike passed away.” Ike Turner did not deny mistreating her, although he tried to blame Tina for their troubles. Turner was among the first celebrities to speak candidly about domestic abuse, becoming a heroine to battered women and a symbol of resilience to all. Tina Turner performs at sportpaleis Ahoy, Rotterdam, in the Netherlands in 1985. Before one show, he broke her jaw and she went on stage with her mouth full of blood. Provoked by anything and anyone, he would throw hot coffee in her face, choke her, or beat her until her eyes were swollen shut, then rape her. Other times, the cause of her misfortunes was Ike himself.Īs she recounted in her memoir, “I, Tina,” Ike began hitting her not long after they met, in the mid-1950s, and only grew more vicious. READ MORE: In new Tina Turner doc, the legend wonders how to ‘bow out slowly’ Tina Turner was forced to go on with bronchitis, with pneumonia, with a collapsed right lung. They toured constantly for years, in part because Ike was often short on money and unwilling to miss a concert. Until she left her husband and revealed their back story, she was known as the voracious on-stage foil of the steady-going Ike, the leading lady of the “Ike and Tina Turner Revue.” Ike was billed first and ran the show, choosing the material, the arrangements, the backing singers. Photo by Duncan Raban/Popperfoto via Getty Images Tina Turner on stage during her concert at Wembley Stadium in London in July 1996.
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