I imagine Tina’s shopping for a bright-red dress just about now…
Probably not- she’s probably just “Hmm. Ike’s dead.”
I just hope she doesn’t pull a Cher, who did the big tearful meltdown eulogy at Sonny’s funeral.
Then filed a $1.6 million claim against his estate that if paid would have left his wife and small kids nearly indigent. (Due to bad investments/funding his own campaigns/odd business dealings he didn’t die broke, but neither was he a multimillionaire; his estate was worth about the amount of megamillionaire Cher’s claim.)
I wish I could find it on YouTube, but David Allen Greer (sp?) on In Living Color did one hell of a parody of Ike doing a Tina Turner video (What Ike Had to Do With It, I think) and it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen.
You must understand, the force of my backhand, make your jaw bone crack
Ain’t gone take no more sass from your black monkey ass… (forget the rest of that line)
What Ike hat to do, hat to do wid it
Why take your lip when your lip can get busted?
USA Today quoted her manager as saying she hadn’t had any contact with him in 35 years - which I think it a bad estimate, since they divorced in 1976 - and has no other comment.
I couldn’t find that on youtube. But I did find a clip of Ike & Tina on the Midnight Special, performing Proud Mary. Given Tina’s later revelations, the ‘prologue’ she inserts in the song (“We never ever do things nice & EASY. We like doing things nice & ROUGH!!”) is so horribly ironic. No wonder it tends to get snipped out whenever the song is played nowadays.
I don’t think Sonny ever slapped the hell out of Cher.
Thanks, N&I Superman, for that YouTubey; it took a bajillion years to load on my slow dialup, but soooo worth it. That was exactly the kind of stuff that Ike did to change the whole world musically. Yep, Tina was the dynamic incredible singer, but Ike was the bandleader that made it all happen.
An interesting musical aside; Pinetop Perkins, the pianist who greatly inspired the young Ike(from the Wikiplace) is still going strong at 93 years old.
Pinetop has been nominated for two Grammys this coming year. He is one of the oldest last living bluesmen, and a wonderful man. I’m hoping that the bit of press of him being Ike’s mentor will tip it over to him getting the Grammy.
Here’s another photo, featuring his incredibly beautiful Piano hands.
Hmm. I guess one of the best jokes in my Simpsons script just passed into the realm of bad taste:
About four years ago I happened to see Ike stepping out of a limo in downtown Memphis. elelle covered this better than I could, but the man had amazing talent in addition to his well publicized flaws. “Rocket 88” still makes me dance. And I can’t dance.
He may not, but I sure did. Had to do with a bagel I found in my bed during the height of our affair. It’s why we’re not together now.
But I’m much better these days.
Dang, thanks for sharing. I saw Pinetop with Muddy in 1980 and didn’t know he was still pounding the ivory.
Or the line from the movie Liar Liar:
Early (NBC) David Letterman skit with the Book Lady, right about the time Tina was making her comeback:
“Womens Be Thinkin’ Too Much” by Ike Turner.