Mojo - The Music Magazine

A union so notorious that both parties had their say in published memoirs (Mrs Turner's version was made into Hollywood movie What's Love Got To Do With It), the Ike and Tina story had the full menu: sex, success, drugs, racism, violence, despotic rule, paranoia, emotional and physical abuse, escape, pursuit, redemption, and for one party more commercial success than ever dreamed of.

In 1951 Ike Turner had recorded Rocket 88, arguably the first rock'n'roll record, released under the name of his Kings Of Rhythm sax player Jackie Brenston; by the end of the decade he'd met Anna Mae Bullock, in St Louis. In 1960 she stood in for an absent singer at a studio date. The track was A Fool In Love (draw your own conclusions). Though not yet married, the single was released under the name Ike & Tina Turner and sped to Number 2 R&B, Top 30 US Pop. It was all the consummation Ike needed. He developed a musically well-drilled, sexually unfettered stage act around Tina (by the mid-'70s she was virtually performing fellatio on the mike). His off-stage relationship with her was every bit as controlling, with beatings and adultery a repetitive theme. By the time the penny dropped, Tina had become his meal ticket. But while Ike's career declined after she fled in 1976, hers soared and became the greatest rock story of a scorned and beaten woman gaining the fullest commercial revenge and cathartic freedom. Ike died in 2007; Tina, who will be 70 in November, is still touring. [GB]