A summer evening with Ike and Tina

Listening to Ike and Tina Turner in their prime is a good way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon. But of all my records, why that one today?

50 years ago tonight, on Saturday, June 26, 1971, Ike and Tina performed a show at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin.

The show drew a crowd of about 3,500 to the Coliseum, about half full.

Some takeaways from the reviews that appeared in the two Madison papers the following Monday:

— The heavy British rock of the opening act, The Grease Band, “really didn’t belong on the bill” and was nothing to write home about.

— The Kings of Rhythm, Ike and Tina’s backing band, was introduced first. Then the Ikettes, who performed a couple of numbers. Then Ike. And then … “the hardest-working young girl in show business today! … Tina!

— One reviewer notes Tina’s introduction and immediately turns to Tina’s appearance …

Tina Turner is 31. Come on, man.

— The Ike and Tina Turner Revue summons “vicarious white fantasies of Harlem’s Apollo Theater in the early ’60s.” 

OhhhhhhhhhK.

— One reviewer mentions “Rollin’ on the River” as one of the songs performed and declares it “better than the original.” 

Oh, you mean “Proud Mary.” Come on, man.

— Tina ends the Madison show by “dancing off stage in rapid-fire strobelights and a burst of artificial fog.” But that was it. No encore. Which led to this complaint: “There were unfortunately not enough minutes of this hard work. Tina was on stage only about 45 minutes.”

I wouldn’t complain about seeing Ike and Tina Turner for 45 minutes. But had one popped for the best seats, that’s about $36.50 in today’s dollars. Whether 45 minutes of Ike and Tina in their prime is getting your money’s worth, well, that’s a judgment call for the ages.

The emcee tells the Madison crowd that the show will be roughly the same as that heard on “What You Hear Is What You Get,” a live record from Carnegie Hall that’s just about to be released. That’s the record I listened to on this rainy summer afternoon.

“What You Hear Is What You Get,” Ike and Tina Turner, 1971.

What you hear on the record as Tina dances off stage after a furious cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” is the emcee — the hype man — shouting “Miss Tina Turner and the Ikettes, ladies and gentlemen! Tina Turner and the Ikettes! Miss Tina Turner! Tina Turner! Tina Turner! Tina Turner! Tina Turner! Tina Turner!”

You know a lot of the songs on this record. I don’t know whether they performed this less-often-heard song in Madison, but on the record, Tina, the Ikettes and Ike do a slow burner of a cover of “A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Everyday),” which Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote for Martha and the Vandellas.

Dig it!

Four records at a time

It took a pandemic for me to listen to a bunch of my records. Not sure what that says about me, but there you go.

Staying home and socially distancing wasn’t too bad until the weather turned cold up here in Wisconsin and really kept us inside. So I just kept dropping record after record onto the turntable. No ripping to digital. Just let it go, man.

Four records make for a nice night of listening while surfing or writing.

Some records take me right back to where I found them, a nice memory.

Some records have startling moments. Those, I’ll circle back on and rip a little something from. Eddie Floyd’s “Down To Earth” LP was the first eye-opener. Then the scorching “Involved” by Edwin Starr. Then “Dreams/Answers,” Rare Earth’s rarely-seen debut LP. Then a couple of alternate Beatles takes from the 2017 re-release of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” 

There you have it, four records.

Four records also make for a nice visual presentation when you post to Facebook or Twitter. If you follow me either place, you’ve seen a lot of them, especially this month for Black History Month. Today will make it 23 such posts — 92 records, all by Black artists — over 28 days and nights.

From the Black History Month social posts, some records that’ll get more spins:

— “Young, Gifted and Black” is by far the best Aretha Franklin record in my crates. That was a $1 record. Looked rough, played fine.

— Didn’t know about Johnny Adams, but, man, could he sing.

— Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” has lost none of its punch.

— The instrumentals on “James Brown Plays New Breed (The Boo-Ga-Loo)” really cook.

— Ike and Tina Turner’s early live records are astonishing.

— Definitely going back for seconds on the “Cleopatra Jones” soundtrack featuring Joe Simon and Millie Jackson. That was a $3 record found in a box on the floor at a record show in Indianapolis.

— Timmy Thomas got a lot of mileage out of that syncopated beat on “Why Can’t We Live Together,” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Found that at a record store that no longer exists.

There you have it. Eight records, two nights’ worth of listening.

When I spent a couple of nights listening to blaxploitation soundtracks last week, I circled back to the first record I ever wrote about here. I’m talking ’bout “Shaft.”

I was 14 when I bought this record in 1971.

With that, we quietly mark 14 years here at AM, Then FM. Can you dig it?

I’m still talking ’bout Shaft

This week marks 10 years of doing business on this increasingly lightly traveled corner of the web.

If you’re looking for something from Ten Years After or anything from Neil Young’s “Decade,” well, sorry.

It was 10 years ago Sunday that we had the first audio clip here. Appropriately enough, it was John Williams’ theme to the old “Time Tunnel” TV show. The blog post that accompanied it was little more than practice. The image that topped that post is long gone, the boy in the picture on the verge of grad school.

It was 10 years ago yesterday that we had the first real tunes here, something from what was perhaps the second or third LP I ever bought, way back in 1971.

“Walk From Regio’s,” Isaac Hayes, from the “Shaft” soundtrack, 1971.

In 10 years of record digging since we got started here, I’ve been looking out for interesting “Shaft” covers. This is one.

“Bumpy’s Lament,” Soul Mann and the Brothers, from “Shaft,” 1971. Soul Mann actually was Sy Mann, a New York arranger, conductor and keyboard player. Strictly a studio knockoff on the Pickwick label, which I usually avoid, but fun to have found. Just a little different sound.

As for all that record digging, some good news. We are back in business when it comes to ripping all those old records, thanks to a new turntable just installed last weekend. Here’s the first thing ripped on that new turntable. Its volume may not be perfect. Still getting used to it.

“Finger Poppin’,” Ike and Tina Turner, from “Live! The Ike & Tina Turner Show,” 1965. I’m always looking out for cool Ike and Tina records, and this certainly qualifies. It was recorded live at The Skyliner Ballroom, Fort Worth, Texas, and Lovall’s Ballroom in Dallas.

When I posted on Facebook that I’d found it at the Milwaukee record show a couple of weeks ago, my friend Larry Grogan of the mighty Funky 16 Corners blog offered this instant review: “Great album. … Great snapshots of a mid-’60s soul revue, multiple singers, cover songs.”

Which reflects perhaps the greatest joy of 10 years of doing this blog — getting to know and being part of a good group of like-minded record diggers and music buffs. I’ve met JB from The Hits Just Keep On Comin’ and Greg from Echoes in the Wind in real life and still hope to meet those on the coasts and elsewhere.

More to come.

Still with us: Tina Turner

Our premise, revisited: What a year this has been. Since we last gathered here just two weeks ago, we’ve lost even more music greats. Merle Haggard, Leon Haywood and Gato Barbieri — quite a cross-section there — and still another Van Zant, country singer Jimmie, cousin to Ronnie.

Time, then — well past time, really — to wrap up an appreciation of four music greats who are still with us. These are my four. Yours may be different. We started with three elders, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. We end with …

The legend: Tina Turner.

Age: 76.

Still performing? Apparently not. It’s been almost seven years since she last performed live. That was on May 5, 2009, at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England, the end to a 50th anniversary tour that featured 90 shows.

What we must acknowledge but won’t dwell on: Ike Turner.

Where I came in: I’m sure I’d seen Ike and Tina on TV before, but I certainly knew of them by the time “Proud Mary” was released in early 1971. That certainly warmed up a Wisconsin winter.

My evening with Tina: I’ve had two, thankfully. We first saw her in 1983, performing on a small side stage at Summerfest in Milwaukee, a night I will never forget. We then saw her at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, a big outdoor venue west of Milwaukee, on Sept. 14, 1987, on our honeymoon, a time I will never forget.

But about that first show. Tina Turner was just 43, but was considered an oldies act. She had split from Ike, had no record contract and was touring with two backup singers. Yet on that night, on that side stage in the middle of the Summerfest grounds, it was wild. To call her show sizzling or scorching or incendiary doesn’t do it justice. It was insane. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing and hearing. It was that good.

Appreciate the greatness: To get some idea of what we saw that night, kick back for an hour and watch this show. It was taped at the Park West in Chicago on Aug. 4, 1983, about a month after we saw her at Summerfest.

The set list: “Cat People,” “Acid Queen,” “River Deep Mountain High,” “Hot Legs,” “Get Back,” “Where the Heart Is,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “Givin’ It Up For Your Love,” “Nightlife,” “Help,” “Proud Mary,” “Music Keeps Me Dancing” and “Hollywood Nights.” (You may need to reset the video to 0:00.)

Then go back. So many great tunes from her time with Ike. These are some of my favorites from just some of my Ike and Tina records.

“River Deep, Mountain High,” from “River Deep, Mountain High,” 1966. Also available digitally. Ike and Tina and Phil Spector. But I still prefer the Supremes-Four Tops version.

“I Want To Take You Higher” with the Ikettes, from “Come Together,” 1970. Available on this double CD with “‘Nuff Said” from 1971. Never anyone more qualified to sing “Boom shaka laka boom shaka laka boom da boom!”

“Baby (What You Want Me To Do),” from “‘Nuff Said,” 1971. Available on this double CD with “Come Together” from 1970. Tina finishes strong.

“Let It Be,” from “Workin’ Together,” 1971. Also available digitally. Tina takes us to church.

 

 

Tin Dog’s sound advice

There, on the bottom of the receipt from Saturday’s record-digging expedition, are words to live by.

“ENJOY THE TUNES”

I didn’t notice that until I got the record all the way home from Tin Dog Records in Beloit, Wisconsin, which is about as far south as you can go in Wisconsin without stumbling into Illinois.

Enjoy the tunes. That’s advice akin to Warren Zevon’s suggestion to “enjoy every sandwich.”

So I did. I enjoyed the tunes even though “River Deep, Mountain High,” from Ike and Tina Turner wasn’t exactly what I expected.

I knew Phil Spector produced, and that Ike and Tina got the Wall of Sound treatment. I didn’t know those tunes account for only six of the 12 cuts on the record. The rest? Apparently just stuff Ike had laying around.

So this 1966 record careens from that elegant Wall of Sound to Ike and Tina’s typically grittier sound and back again. It both disproves and confirms Tina’s spoken intro to “Proud Mary” four years later: “We nevah, evah, do nothing nice and easy. We always do it nice and rough.”

Nice and easy.

“A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Everyday),” a Holland-Dozier-Holland song first recorded in 1963 by Martha and the Vandellas. It was the flip side to “Heat Wave.” Ike and Tina’s version — the followup single to “River Deep, Mountain High” — reached No. 16 in the UK in 1966 but didn’t chart in the U.S.

Nice and rough.

“Such A Fool For You,” written by Ike Turner.

Both from “River Deep, Mountain High,” Ike and Tina Turner, 1966. Also available digitally. This LP originally was released in the UK that year. Then, after a third single — “I’ll Never Need More Than This” — was released in 1967, that cut was added to the LP for its American release. My copy is that A&M Records release from 1969.

As for the title cut? Well, sorry, but the definitive version for me is the one by the Supremes and the Four Tops from 1970. The one I heard first.