Tina Turner

Legendary "Queen of Rock n Roll" whose career began in the 1960s when marriage to Ike led to a string of classic hits, before she pursued a successful solo career in the 1980s onwards, although she hasn't released new material in a long time. She has got a new book out, her 3rd (at least) go at an autobiography. She also had a fearless attitude about cover versions. Here are some of her classic hits:

River Deep, Mountain High (w/ Ike)

We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)

Don't Wanna Lose You

GoldenEye

Addicted To Love

Tina Turner - Wildest Dreams Tour 1996 : Live from Amsterdam Arena
An hour & half runthrough of expected hits, ancient and modern, plus the odd surprising cover. Sat down in the middle section. The encore was oldies like 'Proud Mary' and 'Nutbush City Limits'. Watching this reminds me she's been very quiet lately

Tina Turner: Rio '88
From the Maracana Stadium, Jan 16, Tina buttered up the crowd, and delivered a wide range of material, both her own and covers of other people. I rarely respect her gift for making a well-known song (Help!, for example) sound unique to her. And again I wonder why she's been so quiet for so long, as I said the last time I saw one of her concerts (about a year ago).

Tina: Live!
From the GelreDome, Arnhem, in 2009 (?), with a crowd of 35,000. She worked from Steamy Windows to Nutbush City Limits, and most if not all points inbetween. Entertaining effort, though, even if I'm always reminded more than others of how quiet her career has gone.

Discovering: Tina Turner
How the so-called "ultimate survivor" started out with abusive parents, pestered Ike Turner for a break, soon became preferred by others to him, leading to his violence to her. After leaving him in 1976, she struggled until re-inventing herself with better material in 1982, scoring big hits, film success and a record-breaking concert in Brazil. After the film biopic of her life, her career went quiet in 2000, before one final tour in 2008. Now remarried and living happily in Switzerland apparently.

Video Killed The Radio Star: Tina Turner
Circuitous series which looks at individual careers by interviewing directors. David Mallet and Andy Morahan had plenty to say, though the whole "taxi dancers" motif of Private Dancer seems so silly given the more obvious modern comparisons. Her gift of fearlessness over cover versions was reflected, too, and her command of the concert form.

All You Need Is Love: Diamonds As Big As The Ritz (The Musical)
Stephen Sondheim was the point-man for this episode, though Bob Fosse and William "son of Oscar" Hammerstein were among the other contributors. Tina Turner and Ken Russell spoke about "Tommy", whilst Lionel Bart appeared briefly at the end to mention that the US does not have a monopoly on the form. Among the musicals discussed were Oklahoma, Hair, Showboat and A Little Night Music. Also, on a personal note, nice to see some of the "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" stuff from "On Your Toes".

Tina Turner - Simply The Best
A sit-down interview with BBC's arts correspondent Will Gompertz. She recounts stories from the book when prompted, and she looks very well for her age. She didn't want to marry Ike, it was a stunt of his to thwart his 1st wife. Phil Spector recognised Ike inhibited his wife, and banned him from the studio when they did River Deep, Mountain High. Tina tried suicide in 1968, but was saved. She did find the strength to leave Ike a few years later. Early albums weren't that successful, but a project with the Heaven 17 guys led to her hit cover of Let's Stay Together, and the 1980s tripped along after that. She met Erwin and despite a 16 year age gap, they stayed together, marrying a few years back. She suffered a stroke, but fought back. Her son Craig died back in July. She's lived in Switzerland for 20+ years. She mentioned Addicted to Love as a song she was fond of.

She turned 80 yesterday  Apparently she did a version of Robbie Williams' Feel a while back, which wasn't released.

Tina
An all-new documentary, which has no real new material to offer, so shouldn't come as much surprise. Ike was emotionally damaged and treated Tina like a tyrant because he feared rejection. She eventually walked out, but then found she couldn't shake off this back-story, no matter how many records, films and tours she made a success of. They did play some of Bucks Fizz' early version of "What's Love Got to Do with It?", so maybe that was novel.

Tina Turner at the BBC
A curious selection, again using videos at times which surely defeats the concept of the show, but otherwise covered the spread of her solo career, and got round the inclusion of older tracks from live concerts.

She's yet another major act who's sold off her back catalogue.

Tina Turner - Foreign Affair: World Tour 1990 - Live From Barcelona
She did several numbers from the album that gave the tour its name, which I think was one of her better efforts. She threw in some older material, and did a couple of encores. Apparently, the great John Miles was on guitar in her band.

Tina - One Last Time : Live from Wembley Stadium
From 2000, and somewhat sober compared to the above, given how much quieter the 90s were for her after the 80s. She was lightly pushing her latest album TwentyFourSeven album, but it was more a show of past highs, ending with Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits. John Miles was there again though (I suspect probably not that one).

Music Legends: Tina Turner
A curious edition of this series, whereby she doesn't even leave Ike until about mid-way through the third of 4 segments. This did at least put more focus on her early years than the later ones, but maybe that's connective with the mode of the series. She won Grammys in the 80s, and released some memoirs.

Her son Ronnie died of colon cancer. He was 62 

When Tina Turner Came to Britain
Various phases of her career, from PP Arnold as one of the Ikettes, to her post-Ike revival, working with the guys in Heaven 17, and other triumphs. Biographers, promoters, fans and directors all had good things to say about a woman who sold 100+ million records and got 12 Grammys.

Adric wrote:Very sad to hear of the passing of legendary Tina Turner. She has died at the age of 83 after battling a long illness.

Weirdly I was thinking on Tuesday evening that she seems to be one of the most documentaried acts other than Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston. Now she has gone to join them on a cloud (perhaps). Much tributes here about her being "the Queen of Rock & Roll" which is a bit belated since her profile is less about her music than about her domestic violence drama, and 80s comeback. She duetted with Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, Barry White and David Bowie, and though many other tributes played up the "Simply the best" tag, that was a cover version, as was "What's Love Got To Do With It?" As an interpreter she stood fair comparison with the many men like Rod Stewart or Bryan Ferry who make as much point out of singing others' songs as doing their own. I've owned most of her albums, and they've been good listens. She was 83, though, and her health has been in decline for a while, and she retired from performance a long time back, accordingly.

RIP 

Tina : What's Love? - Live In Concert
From September 1993, at the Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino. She rattled through a good mixture from Steamy Windows through oldies like Proud Mary, and more recent material like I Don't Wanna Fight. Worth seeing.

Lives Well Lived - Tina Turner
A show which looked at various folk who died in 2023, starting with Tina. Mark Knopfler talked fondly, since he wrote Private Dancer, whilst Beverley Knight and Bonnie Greer talked of her cultural impact and her struggle and ultimate reinvention and triumph. She didn't really get respect as an interpreter, even though she did loads of covers really (eg Let's Stay Together).

Class of '84 - Private Dancer
Series about seminal albums of 40 years ago, Gary Davies runs through tracks from the album, talks to Martyn Ware, who helped produce a version of Ball Of Confusion which helped reassert her career (after James Brown turned it down). The big tracks of the album, like Let's Stay Together, What's Love Got To Do With It?, Better Be Good To Me and the title track were all played and given their due, as some helped her win Grammys and so on.