Music Review: Tina Turner - Tina

Tina Turner’s retirement tour was a massive, intercontinental affair concluding in the year 2000. What she has been doing since that time I don’t know, but it is not surprising that she has come out of retirement and is headed back out on the road. Tina, an album of her greatest hits, some live tracks and a couple of new tunes, has been released in conjunction with this tour. I was going to rant about the lack of chronological order to the tracks but have realized that they are in order of how they will be performed in concert. So what we have is basically a preview of what will be presented live.

Tina breaks little, if any, new ground. If you are in possession of any of her past compilation albums, there will be a lot of duplication. If you are new to Tina Turner’s music, if that is possible, or do not own a retrospective of her career, then this is a good place to start.

She has had several careers during the past 50 years. She has been a gritty rhythm and blues singer with her husband Ike, produced some high energy solo work in the 1970s, and gained huge popularity with her pop/rock hits of the 1980s. Personally I enjoy her older work better.

“Nutbush City Limits” finds a tough Turner from her days with Ike. This is an R&B voice at its best. This track finds her far from the stadiums and large arenas she would fill at the height of her career. Here we see her as she began; in a small, smoke filled club just singing with uninhibited abandon. “Proud Mary” is not the original version but has been re-recorded. Tina Turner transformed this Creedence Clearwater classic into a sexual, seductive, brilliant production. “River Deep, Mountain High” is another classic that she makes her own.Her frenetic vocal just increases its intensity far beyond any other interpretation of this often recorded song.

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Article Author: David Bowling

I have been collecting vinyl records for over forty years and my collection is approaching 50.000 records. My wife Susan and children, Stacey and Amy, have learned to humor my passion. I am now settled in beautiful Whispering Pines, North Carolina …

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  • 1 - timothy

    Oct 02, 2008 at 10:25 pm

    hmmmmmm the second song i'm ready is FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC! the best not a solid choice, you're kidding right??? it's her best known solo song!

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