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New Bubbatunes - Divas Pt 1

February is Black History Month, and we here at Bubbatunes (Brad's house) are nothing if not diverse, so we are going to spend the next few posts looking at some new Bubbatunes compilations that show how truly diverse we can be as we celebrate Diva Month, and first up is one of the most legendary set of pipes and legs to ever hit the top 100...

bub 71 Tina Turner - Soul Survivor (February 13, 2007)
I like my Tina rockin’ and full of attitude so with our Bubbatunes compilation of that leggy broad, we opted to go the rock route, throwing out most of the songs that end up on her compilations. Instead of the adult contemporary type of ballads she likes to do these days we went to the back vault and her soulful renderings done with Ike and then moved up picking and choosing the most soulful and rocking songs. Of course the height of Tina’s popularity was the huge bombastic Private Dancer album from 1984 and as I truly believe it’s a classic album and the only essential full album to own by Tina we ended up using 8 of the 9 songs from that album. What can I say, it really is a great album and it’s definitely her most rock album of her big solo career that the album launched.

I’m not big on chronological order for some reason, and since I did use so many songs from Private Dancer, it would’ve felt a little too samey I think, so we go from the early days to the later days and back again through 20 classic Tina performances. Opening with the Ike & Tina Turner debut single “A Fool In Love” – Tina is in top form as she belts through the song asking her Ikettes why she’s so crazy in love. We get more of the Ike & Tina years with the classic 1970 “Proud Mary” and the two ultimate highlights, Tina’s own “Nutbush City Limits” which she redid in the 90’s but this 1973 rendering is the quissessential version and Ike’s band is in super funk form and one of her best vocal performances ever is found on the Phil Spector produced “River Deep Mountain High”, she would never sound so raw again.

After her Ike years, Tina stayed relatively low key, and if anyone (and who doesn’t) knows her biography, we all know why. But there were a few albums here and there and of course her performance in the Who’s Tommy, but since I don’t own any of those songs and there is more than enough released after these years, we kind of skip ahead to 1982 when Tina met up with BEG, which is really just a front for Martyn Ware & Greg Walsh. The funky electronic rock vibes on their cover of “Ball Of Confusion” is another highlight in Tina’s career. The song kicks ass literally with Tina belting politics faster than she can move those legs, and that’s pretty damn fast.

Because of her work on the BEG project, those boys decided to produce another song for Tina and thus her cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” produced by Walsh & Ware was her Capitol Records debut. Of course Tina is great vocal shape for the song and the more contemporary production makes the song a perfect comeback single. But the highlight of the single is actually the flip side on the 7” – a B-side only rocker called “I Wrote A Letter” which is now my all time favorite Tina Turner song. Why it didn’t end up on the album I’m not sure, although her rocking performance, the guitars and that raw performance may not have fit in with the songs that ended up on Private Dancer. Nonetheless, it’s a song that shows Tina can and should really rock out.

The Private Dancer album came out a few months after the comeback single and anyone who was around at the time knows what a phenomenon it was. In terms of a comeback, Tina surely holds a huge record. Suddenly the 40 plus year old singer was the hottest thing in pop music, and even then that’s really saying something about the music world. Of course Tina’s back story was enough to keep a soap opera going for a few years so add that into the great selection of songs and it’s no wonder she was taken into the heart of the mainstream. People love diversity stories and the downtrodden coming into their own is always appealing. Of course that theme was the basis for her album and it comes across on a number of the songs from the album, “Show Some Respect” is a funky little rock number that was released as the fourth single in the US where it struck in the top 40, and with it’s feisty lyrics, it’s always been one of my favorites from the album. The huge rocking hit “Better Be Good To Me” is the one that really struck the chord in both the masses and Tina’s own personal life, her gutty performance still stands strong all these years later, and when she does that low register, I swear it can still send a chill up my spine.

There were a few of the mellower sounds to be found on Private Dancer but because of her re-emergence into a more rock sound, they aren’t as AC as some of her later things, the title cut was another huge single and for some reason the song of a woman who is basically a whore really stands up on his own. I find myself turning it up time and time again and I love the lyrics particularly her pondering about having a family and of course that killer bridge with the forms of payment spread out for her client. The first single and main thing she will probably always be remembered for is the huge ass hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It” which is also in a more slow ballad type of production, though it’s up tempo and Tina seems genuinely pleased that she is able to realize the hook up and the relationship she’s in doesn’t mean all that much. I know it’s been played to death but if you go back and actually pay attention to the lyrics, it’s a very sophisticated little number.

The rocking side of Tina is firmly involved in the Private Dancer album and nowhere does she rock out more than on “Steel Claw”, my very favorite song on the album. This one needs to be turned up at insane volumes and if you can catch a breath you may even be able to sing along to Tina’s rapid fire delivery.

Though in more of a mid tempo vein two more album cuts made our compilation because they are killer tracks, the keyboard punches of Ann Peeble’s “I Can’t Stand The Rain” was released in the UK as a single and did fairly well. My mom loves this song because of how it sounds in headphones, and it really is a great performance all around. The first cut on Private Dancer is a strange lyrical tune called “I Might Have Been Queen (Soul Survivor)” which seems to be talking about reincarnation and past lives and with Tina’s penchant for Buddhism and the whole process of coming back from the career dead, it’s a perfect testament of Tina and one of my favorite songs.

After the success of Private Dancer, Tina was in hot demand and she appeared everywhere including a rocking little single called “It’s Only Love” with Bryan Adams. One of those singles you remember when you hear it but because of Tina’s otherwise more subtle singles we tend to forget about it. Well not me, and it’s not because I’m a Bryan Adams fan (I’m not) but because this song really is good and like I said I love Tina rocking out.

Tina also went back to the movies and starred in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome which is mostly important because of the two singles the film launched, the subtle meandering and cynicism of “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” which is a killer track complete with a kids choir and the more rocking and always overlooked Holly Knight written “One Of The Living” which has a more apocalyptic tone than the hit single. Tina rocks it in that soulful way only Tina can, and once again it’s one of my all time favorite Tina Turner songs.

After all the hoopla of 1984/85 Tina went back to the studio and gave us the inferior Break Every Rule and though it launched a few hit singles, I don’t think it lived up to Private Dancer, of course that is an almost impossible feat. What Break Every Rule did give us though was the great bluesy rock of “What You Get Is What You See”, one feisty little single about those bastards in the night who think they’re so wonderful but Tina can see right through them.

Tina’s next album of new material was 1989’s Foreign Affair and for that album we all go back to Holly Knight for the clever single “The Best.” Holly had co-written “Better Be Good To Me” and “One Of The Living” so Tina would’ve been a fool not to go for the girl for another hit single and she got that, if not one of her most recognizable hits.

The years after Foreign Affair have been very hit and miss for Tina, at least with me. There are a few highlights including songs she did for the film version of her autobiography but there wasn’t anything that ever really threw me for a loop and the only two that came up worth really highlighting were “I Don’t Wanna Fight” the soundtrack hit and her 1999 single “When The Heartache Is Over”, the former is played to death and the latter though a hit in the UK is somewhat forgotten so we went with that one. It has a more contemporary feel since it has that pseudo electronica dance production a la Cher’s “Believe” and the lyrics are the feisty Tina kind I love.

Tina Turner – Soul Survivor (bub71)
Track List:
01. A Fool In Love
02. Show Some Respect
03. Ball Of Confusion
04. Better Be Good To Me
05. Nutbush City Limits
06. One Of The Living
07. I Can’t Stand The Rain
08. I Wrote A Letter
09. We Don’t Need Another Hero
10. I Might Have Been Queen (Soul Survivor)
11. River Deep Mountain High
12. What’s Love Got To Do With It
13. It’s Only Love
14. Let’s Stay Together
15. What You Get Is What You See
16. When The Heartache Is Over
17. Steel Claw
18. Proud Mary
19. Private Dancer
20. The Best

Next time we look at another diva with her finger on the trigger and ready to strut some hot stuff baby...

Labels: Bradley, bub71, Bubbatunes, Tina Turner

posted by swivek @ 8:56 AM