| November 13th, 2004 07:58 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
I like Ike
Ike Turner took the stage at the Sarasota Blues Festival last Saturday and paused. Before sitting down at his piano he surveyed the crowd. Many had risen from their lawn chairs, blankets and beach towels to get a better look at him. He flashed a broad, knowing grin.
Wife-beater, drug addict, jailbird, take your pick. Turner has been trying to live down his past for more than a decade.
"All I know is I won't do drugs as long as I'm black, and I'm gonna stay that color 'til the day I die," Turner said during our telephone interview before the show. "It was very destructive."
Get sober, get right with God and you got a good chance of being forgiven by the American public. Get depicted on the silver screen as the world's scariest man, though, and returning from celebrity purgatory becomes a Herculean task.
"I just turned 73 yesterday and I feel great," a trim and fit Turner said as the lights reflected off his sequined white shirt. "Ya'll ready to rock and boogie?"
The crowd of about 4,000 responded loudly.
Being inducted to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame helped re-humanize Turner. A Grammy-nominated album, "Here and Now" (2001), eased him back in the scene. And word of his potent live shows, featuring a revamped Kings of Rhythm band, has made him a must-see act among rock and blues aficionados.
"I was in England talking to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and I told them Ike Turner was coming here," AC/DC vocalist and area resident Brian Johnson said to me at the festival. "And they said 'His show is incredible, man!' They told me I better not miss it."
Turner launched into a rollicking piano riff and his tight-as-a-glove 10-man band fell right in line.
"Let me introduce you to my Rocket 88," sang Turner as he switched from piano to lead guitar.
"Unbelievable!" hollered an ecstatic Johnson as he sprung from his chair and did some crazy jig with the rest of us.
Standing nearby was Donald "Duck" Dunn. His arms were folded but a warm smile spread across his face. It was evident he had just been smacked by a rush of nostalgia.
As bassist for Booker T. & the MG's, Dunn helped shape classic soul recordings by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and many others during the 1960s and '70s while working in his hometown at the Memphis record label Stax/Volt.
When Dunn was about 10 years old, Turner brought his band, the original Kings of Rhythm, to Memphis to record at Sam Phillips' Sun studio. In 1951, they cut "Rocket 88," arguably the first rock 'n' roll record.
After delivering a seamless run of rhythm and blues, jaws dropped when Turner's fiancee and singer Audrey Madison came on stage. Sporting a leonine mane and skin-tight pants, it was like gazing at Tina Turner circa 1969. As she stormed through hits such as "Proud Mary" and "These Boots are Made for Walking" the crowd shook their heads in disbelief and cheered as if the real Tina was on stage.
Madison's vocals were just as sultry and her stage moves were equally sexy. She strutted and gyrated and with Ike and the band cooking behind her, the performance was just too hot for us to stay distracted by the weirdness of it all.
"There were about four Tinas," said a man with serious rock credentials who will remain nameless. "When Tina was sick or pregnant or something, Ike wasn't gonna miss a show. He'd just teach another girl to sing and move the same way and put her out there."
Wade Tatangelo, features writer/music critic
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| November 13th, 2004 08:10 AM |
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| Flairville |
Four Tina's? Yeah and the Stones had a fake Keith when the others couldn't wake him up! A terrible lie. |
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