Jaime Danehey

Tina’s Theme!

Forget about “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” this is the most iconic song on the album.

It was written by Holly Knight, who is the rock talent behind “Love Is a Battlefield” and Tina’s later hit “The Best.” (She also wrote Rod Stewart’s “Love Touch,” that ’80s hit with the video set in a courtroom. And if you think that’s a bad song, keep in mind the stuff he unleashed upon the world in the ’90s. If only he’d stayed with material as harmless as “Love Touch”!)

In “Better Be Good to Me” Tina blows my mind right off the bat. She starts out with an overheated description of a dramatic love affair:

A prisoner of your love / Entangled in your web. / Hot whispers in the night / I’m captured by your spell . . .(whispered) Captured!

It’s that last “captured!” that charms me. It’s like a wink at the ridiculousness of the preceding descriptions. Then Tina adds just a touch of sarcasm to her tone:

Oh yes I’m touched by your show of emotion. / Should I be fractured by your lack of devotion?

After that the song gets real and begins describing what a more sensible relationship would look like, the give and take of a modern romance between equals.

I can’t resist pointing out a discrepancy between the lyric sheet and Tina’s performance. Those little differences always make me imagine the singer changing the meaning to better match their own feelings. Here it is:

As written:

And I think it’s only right / That we don’t meet at night. / We stand face to face / And you present your case.

As sung:

I think it’s oh-so right / That we don’t need to fight. / We stand face to face / And you present your case.

Soon she turns up that bold voice with:

But did you think I’d just accept you in blind faith? / Oh sure, baby! Anything to please you! / But you better be good to me!

She kills me on this song! Women’s liberation! Feminism forever! That’s how it’s got to be now!

I love the little guitar hook that replays throughout this song. Unlike a lot of the instrumentation on this album, it doesn’t sound dated to me at all. It’s a nice counterpoint to the melody of Tina’s singing. Thanks, Jamie West-Oram! The whole thing rocks. When I hear it I’m tempted to get one of those lion wigs.

I know the secret combination!

It’s Tina’s birthday today, so in her honor I thought I’d write up a few songs from her fabulous solo album, Private Dancer. If you haven’t listened to it in a while, I recommend a revisit. It’s still powerful–whatta comeback!

Anyway, the song I want to highlight first is “I Might Have Been Queen,” which wasn’t a single, but it’s the song she chose to begin side one of the album with. It’s a rock song about reincarnation and Tina gives a controlled, yet dramatic, performance.

As you may (or may not) know, Tina is a believer in past lives. According to her autobiography, one of her comforts during the pain of her marriage was to sneak off and meet with seers and psychics. One told her, and she came to feel within herself, that in one past life she had been an Egyptian queen, specifically Hatshepsut.

Reading about all this in her autobiography it seemed a little comical–what could be more ’80s than a celebrity who believes in reincarnation? However, in Tina’s case it’s more complex than that. This idea that she had been a powerful person in a past incarnation was part of the fire that helped her leave Ike and start over from scratch. It was part of a new story she was telling herself about her worth, her ability to change and be happy.

Years later she was talking to her new record’s producer, Rupert Hine, and his girlfriend, Jennette Obstoj, about her beliefs and then they wrote “I Might Have Been Queen” for her. She mentions in her autobiography how meaningful the song was for her.

Anyway, back to the listener’s perspective: the track starts the album off on a mysterious note and slowly shows you the strong and self-assured Tina in store for you on this LP. (Keep in mind that the album that preceded this was her disco flop, Love Explosion.)

For every sun that sets / there is a new one dawning. / For every empire crushed / there is a brand new nation / Let the waters rise / I have ridden each tide . . . And I might have been queen / I remember the girl in the fields with no name. / She had a love. / Ohhh but the river won’t stop for me.

I really love the river in this song. What a perfect way to refer to her past (”Proud Mary”) in a wholly new context. She isn’t out hustling in this song, the river is a mystic metaphor for time. Time keeps passing and she has the chance to recreate herself.  I feel like I can feel hope coursing through Tina in her delivery.  It’s awesome.

In the end she proclaims that she is a “soul survivor,” and a chorus starts a refrain:

A Soul Survivor / On the river / But it won’t stop

This is one of my favorites from the 1965 live album. It’s a cover of a brilliant Ray Charles song from the ’50s, specifically it’s a cover of Ray’s live version of “A Fool for You.” (His studio version is quite a bit more polished, less sad and bluesy.)

Oh man, this is such a good song, I love both live versions. In typical Ike and Tina style, they keep upping the ante in what was already a sad, sad song.

“A Fool for You” starts out slow and bluesy, mostly just piano, drum, and voice, with some horns gradually ebbing in and out. Where Ray’s delivery is worn out and sad, Tina has a little more life to her. It’s one of those passionate, early Tina performances that tear me up. But she’s going to use that extra spirit to pile on the heartbroken hyperbole.

I really like the part of the song where the pace picks up a bit, and the lyrics stop and start between percussion or horn exclamations. The words describe waking up missing the lost love, and putting on a big cry. Note the differences in our two versions:

Ray sings,

I said you even cry so loud
[drums!]
Yeah
[horns]
You give the blues to your neighbor next door
[drums!]
Yeah
[horns]
Ever since you were 5 years old, now baby
[drums!]
Yeah
[horns]
I want you to know that I’ve been a little fool for you little girl
[drums!]
Yeah

Tina sings,

And I KNOW THAT YOU EVEN CRY SO LOU-OU-OUD!
[drum and trumpet!]
Yes you will, mmm
[horns]
That you’ll have the preacher, I said you’ll have the preacher, drinkin’ wine next door
[drums and trumpet!]
Yeah, yeah
[horns]
But I wanna tell you that EVERY SINCE, EVERY SINCE I WAS 2 YEARS OLD!
[drums and trumpet!]
Yes I was, now, mmhm
[horns]
I keep on trying to proo-oove that I’m a little fool for ya baby
[drums and trumpet]
Yes, I am, mmm

Now that’s a fool for love!

This is a live recording, and you can hear some women respond when Tina sings, “I wanna know what makes me be a damn fool for you.” This reminded me of an interesting thing I read in Ike’s autobiography. He said that when he added Tina as the singer in his band, lots of women resented her (’cause Ike was such a heartthrob) and didn’t respond well to their performances due to jealousy. So he purposely gave her songs that would make her seem more sympathetic to female fans. I remember he mentioned their version of “All I Can Do Is Cry” as an example. I think the choice of “A Fool for You” was part of this strategy, too.

Live! The Greatest, Wildest Show of All
The Ike & Tina Turner Show
Soul and Rock That Do Not Stop

Yes, thanks to the excellent stock at Offbeat Music, I finally own the 1965 Ike and Tina live albums. (Originally two separate releases, volumes I and II are combined on one CD, released in 2006 by Warner Bros.)

Now people, when you see a track called “Tight Pants” on an Ike and Tina album, you know you are in for a treat. This is a steady rockin’ number, featuring Ike’s always-solid blues guitar. This song is real fun to sing along to:

Put on your tight pants, baby / Put your toupee on your head, oh yeah / Put on your tight pants, baby / Put your toupee on your head, all right / You CAN BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR / Baby you know you’re gonna knock em dead.

In the first verse Tina exhorts her man to bring his .45 “in case some fool might want to fight.” But Tina, how in the world is he going to carry a gun in those tight pants? Is there a shoulder holster involved? Or maybe he keeps his gun in the car?

Sidenote 1: This CD reprints the original liner notes for Vol. I, written by a California DJ named Curtis (Gene) Price. On the spectrum of crazy DJ-penned liner notes, this is relatively sane. However, it makes me think how much I’d like to go back in time and be a DJ in the ’60s. I’d just sit around with my turntable and typewriter and crank out wacky liner notes. Maybe I’d hang out with Richard Meltzer and make up new, nutso rocknroll slang. Yeah, that’s it. . .

Sidenote 2: Robbie Montgomery, one of the original Ikettes, is featured as a singer on this live album.  Just last weekend I was in St. Louis and discovered that my aunt and uncle and cousins have fallen in love with the food at Sweetie Pie’s, Robbie’s soul food restaurant.  She opened a location on Manchester, in an old ice cream parlor.  I’ll have to try it next time I get out to St. Louis.  They rave about the catfish.

Poor Kent Records, they did not get much good material out of Ike and Tina when they signed them in the early ’60s. At this time Ike, the canny businessman that he was, was maximizing profits by recording all over the place, pumping out songs for several labels. They released two LPs on Kent, both in 1964–one was a live record and the second was The Soul of Ike & Tina. In case you noticed, that is the exact title of their first LP, released on Sue Records in 1961. That is a clue to what you’ll find here.

This is the LP that features the song “Something Came Over Me,” a sequel/rip-off of their earlier hit on Sue, “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.” It also features “Am I Fool in Love” a sequel/rip-off of their first hit on Sue, “A Fool in Love.” These songs sound exactly the same, just with some new lyrics. Ike was not too worried about what he was giving to Kent Records.

But don’t get me wrong, I like the 1964 The Soul of Ike & Tina record OK. It’s fun and kinda dance-y, perfectly fine for any fan of their early work.

The song I like best is “Hard Times,” which manages to rip off both “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” and “A Fool in Love,” but is still a good song on its own. Tina does the exact “HEY HEY HEY HEY HEEEEYS!” from “A Fool in Love” in this song, and meanwhile the Ikettes are singing “Maybe it’ll work out fine!” But who cares? Because this song has some great lyrics, and I like the piano part, too.

How can you resist a song that begins with Tina yelling the following?

Come here fella! Just because I don’t say nothin’ about the things you do, don’t you think I’m no fool. ‘Cause just one of my ideas would crack your head wide open!

I adore that last line. Awesome.

The overall storyline of the song has Tina kicking her man to the curb, but with a difference. She’s got this great careless attitude in this song, where she’s making out that she never liked him all that much anyway. . .

But I’ve always known that you was no good / I only took you just to show you I could / But hard times / Achin’ heart / Baby, that’s my name!

When she sings “hard times, achin’ heart, baby that’s my name” she sounds sarcastic, not sad. She is over it!

I’ve known for quite some time / That you were rotten and outta your mind / But I went along just to see would you change / It’s in your blood to be a rotten man.

Ms. Hard Times Achin’ Heart is pretty good at trash talking, huh?

As the convoluted marketing text on the LP sleeve exhorts me, I’m “more than somewhat delighted” with this song. Pity the guy at Kent who had to hype this record, but “Hard Times” is a keeper.