English translation of a post of mine, first published on www.wabesmemo.blogspot.it on april 2012.
The great Tina!
I remember my passion for music since as a child I always played at home records with my family at the turn of the 50s and 60s: both Italian and foreign records. My parents were fans of Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Juliette Greco and The Platters.
My own musical choices were subsequently in my early seventies Myriam Makeba, Sylvie Vartan, Fausto Leali, Patty Pravo, Rita Pavone, Gianni Morandi, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Giorgio Gaber, Bruno Lauzi, Lucio Battisti and Fabrizio DeAndré. Only during my first high-school year I found my ultimate idol, first version: Ike and Tina Turner! It happened that one day I listened to an L.P. that was for me, between '70 and '71, the first hearing of "Proud Mary" that then I didn't even know was a "cover" of a country song first recorded by "Creedence". Now I know, thanks to the Web, that even a home-made choral version of "Proud Mary" was tv-broadcasted here in Italy in '71 by a group of then starting famous Italian singers: some of them would become my Italian Song stars.
However, Tina Turner's voice, together with that of her husband, enraptured me forever, so much that I memorized some of their songs, but soon I found another album: "Tina turns the country on" with her rock&roll versions of country hits, that was for me a confirmation of how much I liked the art of that woman! When she later came out with the L.P. Nutbush City Limits, I realized all of her musical value, because she had written it almost of her own, talking about her native village in Tennessee: for me that tune still has a distinctive sound, with all power and fun of the blues-rock. But "River Deep, Mountain High" was an excellent demonstration of the hardening of her manly, expressive, sensual and spontaneous voice, chosen as a soloist by that magician of music production: Phil Spector, who excluded Ike a priori. That song had a plant of great impact, so that even the Italian version sung by our Iva Zanicchi, yet so different, had seemed not so bad. However, in the same year in which the young Tina, still AnnaMae Bullock, made her debut in the R&B clubs with Ike, the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocalists Ikettes without even making records, I already knew Diana Ross and her Supremes: I loved so much their voices and I found amusing and unusual their records for vocals, choruses and countermelodies, without ever having seen them. But the fun was much more immersive and violent when years and years after for the first time I saw Tina Turner and the Ikettes dancing and singing that wild: in their exaggeration and enthusiasm were not afraid of being ridiculous and that to me was in their favor, and in the meantime had moved from rhythm and blues, to more communicative and raucous blues-rock! The Turners were a couple very much appreciated, with a vertical career where at that time the real star had become Tina, unfortunately also the victim of Ike: all their firm could end in divorce due to the force that she got, as she says, from practicing Buddhism. In exchange for freedom from suffering and oppression and family, she renounced to everything she could normally earn, claiming only to continue using the name he had invented even before marrying her, but that her own personality had made great: Tina Turner. In a short time, performing live in clubs and theaters and with great colleagues that appreciated her a lot, AnnaMae re-reached the surface with a great career of her own, with worldwide hits, awards and gold records and platinum albums, and a role as a villain antagonist in a science fiction movie. She also wrote a book about her life and her career, which was made into a memorable movie. After attending 3 of her concerts, I always like her, "rough and easy": I also enjoyed her in a youtube-video where she sings in 2008 Proud Mary together with Cher and Oprah Winfrey. Among her recordings after her separation from Ike, two gems I have always in my mind are "Steamy Windows" and "Addicted to Love"!!
