AVB
Jesus of Cool, I'm bad, I'm nationwide
Ike Turner, who died Wednesday at age 76 in his suburban San Diego home, changed the course of modern music and scored numerous hits. Long before Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry burst into the public eye, Turner was playing rock ‘n’ roll. Some people think he even invented it with the pummeling “Rocket 88” in 1951, recorded with his Kings of Rhythm at Sam Phillips’ Sun studio in Memphis and spiked by Turner’s distorted guitar. The song, released on Chicago-based Chess Records and released under the name of the singer, Jackie Brenston, established a pattern for Turner’s career: He would always be the man behind the scenes, a crucial but often unrecognized cog in the development of blues, R&B, rock ‘n’ roll and soul over the next three decades.
“Blues men in America, we were outcasts,” he said in a 2001 interview with the Tribune. “All of our lives, since I was born, we were outcasts. Before the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds came along --- it had to come from whites in England for America to appreciate what we did.”
Turner grew up in Clarksdale, Miss., the cradle of the modern blues, but his childhood was an ugly one. He was sexually abused and witnessed the lynching of his father. He learned piano by watching Pinetop Perkins play in a friend’s basement, “and music became my life,” he said.
He mastered piano and guitar, and worked as a band leader and talent scout through the ‘50s, participating in historic sessions by B.B. King, Otis Rush, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Elmore James, Little Milton, Junior Parker and countless others. Turner moved his Kings of Rhythm to St. Louis later in the decade, playing a high-octane brand of blues, boogie and rock ‘n’ roll. When Annie Mae Bullock barged onto Turner’s stage one night between sets and demanded to sing, the bemused band leader gave the teenager a shot, and was sold. With the soon-to-be-christened Tina Turner, he had found his meal ticket.
Ike and Tina Turner became one of the biggest soul acts of the ‘60s and ‘70s, crossing over to the rock audience thanks to collaborations with Phil Spector (Tina Turner sang lead on “River Deep, Mountain High”) and the patronage of the Rolling Stones, who asked the duo to open the band’s legendary 1969 North American tour.
“It doesn’t matter if I invented rock ‘n’ roll, because it didn’t make me any money,” Turner told the Tribune. “I made $60 from ‘Rocket 88’: Six-oh. I don’t care about the glamour or the money. I don’t care about the nominations and Grammys, all that bull. I just care about making people happy --- getting onstage and getting everybody going.”
“Blues men in America, we were outcasts,” he said in a 2001 interview with the Tribune. “All of our lives, since I was born, we were outcasts. Before the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds came along --- it had to come from whites in England for America to appreciate what we did.”
Turner grew up in Clarksdale, Miss., the cradle of the modern blues, but his childhood was an ugly one. He was sexually abused and witnessed the lynching of his father. He learned piano by watching Pinetop Perkins play in a friend’s basement, “and music became my life,” he said.
He mastered piano and guitar, and worked as a band leader and talent scout through the ‘50s, participating in historic sessions by B.B. King, Otis Rush, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Elmore James, Little Milton, Junior Parker and countless others. Turner moved his Kings of Rhythm to St. Louis later in the decade, playing a high-octane brand of blues, boogie and rock ‘n’ roll. When Annie Mae Bullock barged onto Turner’s stage one night between sets and demanded to sing, the bemused band leader gave the teenager a shot, and was sold. With the soon-to-be-christened Tina Turner, he had found his meal ticket.
Ike and Tina Turner became one of the biggest soul acts of the ‘60s and ‘70s, crossing over to the rock audience thanks to collaborations with Phil Spector (Tina Turner sang lead on “River Deep, Mountain High”) and the patronage of the Rolling Stones, who asked the duo to open the band’s legendary 1969 North American tour.
“It doesn’t matter if I invented rock ‘n’ roll, because it didn’t make me any money,” Turner told the Tribune. “I made $60 from ‘Rocket 88’: Six-oh. I don’t care about the glamour or the money. I don’t care about the nominations and Grammys, all that bull. I just care about making people happy --- getting onstage and getting everybody going.”
RIP
