Music Review: Ike & Tina Turner The Ike & Tina Story: 1960-1975

Debates have raged for years about if artists as people should be separated from their art. There have been some truly reprehensible people throughout history who have also produced some of the most amazing art. The Italian painter Carvagio was a murderer and a whore but painted one of the most famous depictions of Christ carrying the Cross. Salvador Dali lays claim in his autobiography to some horrible acts of torture and sadism but he also was one of the great innovators in 20th century art. (Of course some also say he made up that stuff in his autobiography in order to make himself more of a "character"; he was a surrealist after all)

The poet Ezra Pound embraced fascism and delivered anti-Semitic radio broadcasts during World War Two and was a staunch supporter of Mussolini. Music hasn't been spared its terrible geniuses either, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart supposedly treating the women of his life horribly and behaving like a spoiled brat continually. The artistic world is littered with drug addicts, wife beaters, philanderers and cheats. Not the sort of people you'd want to know intimately or even casually for that matter.

Should their behavior affect the way we judge their art? Probably the only reason we know about the flaws in their characters is because they became well known for what they produced creatively, otherwise their misdeeds wouldn't have even caused a ripple in the annals of history. In fact, the argument could be made that if they hadn't been so artistically driven they might not have even committed any of the misdeeds that are laid against their name.

Than again, plenty of artistic geniuses didn't beat their wives or act like jerks either, so maybe that's not much of an excuse and is just a means of shirking responsibility. There's only so far the "but I'm an artist" excuse can carry people, before they need to grow up.

Pop music is not without its stars that hid a dark side from the public behind the glare of the footlights in the early days. Most of them have been found out now; due to the proliferation of tell-all books and journalists digging deep to find any sort of crumb that can be used to tarnish a star's brightness. The truly unfortunate thing about finding out truths after the fact is they become what a person is remembered for no matter how creative and talented they might have been.

As part of their Legends Of American Music series Time Life Entertainment has released a three disc set of one the '60s hottest groups, but also one of it's most troubled. The three discs of The Ike & Tina Turner Story: 1960-1975 documents just what an amazing musical experience they were, but the included booklet doesn't mince words when it comes to describing Ike's nastier side or the hell that Tina must have lived through.

Ike Turner had been playing music professionally for ten years before he met his future wife Tina in the late '50s. Her name at the time was Anna Mae Bullock and she was the daughter of a black man and a self described "Black-Indian woman".

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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