During a random check of Twitter on Wednesday, May 24th, I learned the sad news that musical icon Tina Turner had died at the age of 83. She was said to have passed away from an illness, which I assume was either a recurrence of cancer or her kidney disease for which she'd had an organ transplant. As a longtime fan, I create this blog post as my small tribute to her memory.
November 26, 1938: Tina Turner is born. Kurt Loder writes in I, Tina: My Life Story by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder, “The woman who would one day be Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock at the tail end of another age. By 1939, tensions in the world, long building, were yielding to turmoil...
“Such events still seemed safely remote to most Americans, however, and the U.S. remained politically neutral amid the bad news from abroad. There were, after all, more effervescent diversions. This was the year Garbo laughed in Ninotchka, the year of Gone With the Wind and Gunga Din, of Buck Rogers, The Wizard of Oz, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...On the AM dial, Americans contented themselves with Kate Smith’s ‘God Bless America,’ and hummed just as happily through ‘Over the Rainbow’ or ‘In the Mood’ (it was Glen Miller’s big year) or perhaps ‘South of the Border,’ the latest hit by Gene Autry, the ‘Yodeling Cowboy’ of the silver screen.”
In short, Tina Turner was born squarely in the Jazz Age, grew up alongside rock n’ roll, and became its queen.
“These days, I'm very much a child when it comes to my birthday. I get excited as November 26th approaches because I look forward to being with Erwin [her husband] and receiving greetings from all over the world. I love reading the cards, which I display throughout the house. I love picking out the cake from my favorite bakery in Kusnaut. There's nothing I love more than a birthday party, even if it's a small dinner with close friends. One thing I've learned is that the older you get, the more important it is to include young people in the festivities, because everything gets a little bit louder and light-hearted when they're at the table.
“I cherish these celebrations, probably because it wasn't always that way. There were no cakes when I was growing up, no candles, no presents.” - Tina Turner, Tina...That's My Life
January 1, 1970: Tina Turner appears on the cover of German music magazine Bravo.
January 8, 1971: Ike & Tina Turner release their single “Proud Mary,” written by John Fogarty. Its highest-charting position will be #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, which it reaches on March 27th. The B-side, “Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter,” was written by Tina’s sister Alline Bullock (December 1, 1936 – September 4, 2010) and later covered by Nina Simone.
March 29, 1978: Ike and Tina Turner’s divorce is finalized.
January 2, 1984: Tina Turner releases her cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” as a single.
March 10, 1984: Tina Turner’s single “Let’s Stay Together” hits #1 on the Billboard Club Play chart.
August 28, 1986: Tina Turner gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
January 16, 1988: On Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 8th birthday, George Harrison has the #1 song in the U.S., “Got My Mind Set On You.” The same day, Tina Turner sets a concert attendance record when crowd of 180,000 shows up to her show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
August 1, 1993, South Bend: I went to the Forum and saw What’s Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett as Tina Turner. While a good movie, it was also hard to watch because of the violence.
December 28, 1993: My mother, brother, and I went to Chicago with our family friends Stephanie and Mark. We went mainly for after-Christmas discount shopping at Marshall Field’s, but we also had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. I ate a turkey burger at the table near Tina Turner’s leather miniskirt from her “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” music video and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran’s guitar.
March 5, 1994, South Bend: I went, all by myself, to the bookshop at North Village Mall. I bought two books: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I’ll eventually have to read for American Literature class, and I, Tina: My Life Story by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder.
Monday, October 10, 1994, South Bend: After school I picked up Mom from work. She and I went to a college fair at the Century Center. Then she took me to McDonald’s for supper. The restaurant had a cardboard cutout of Tina Turner, and four guys in kilts were there.
November 3, 1994, South Bend: After school and supper I went to the Main Library and checked out a book and the Ike and Tina Turner CD with the Ikettes song "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)." It’s the song Salt-N-Pepa is sampling in “Shoop.”
March 1, 1995: After school I went to Tracks and treated myself to the Tina Turner boxed set, Tina Turner: The Collected Recordings Sixties to Nineties (Capitol Records). It comes with a book with tons of pictures, including the covers of most of her records, old and new, plus some quotes and a little info.
The first CD is the most interesting; it’s all Ike & Tina Turner songs. I had some of them on CD or on tape (copied from library CDs), but six songs were new to me. The second CD has some duets, covers, B-sides, etc. The really good stuff includes the version of “Acid Queen” from the Tommy soundtrack, the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” and the cover of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.” The third CD has a lot of material from Private Dancer, plus “The Best” and “Steamy Windows.”
December 2, 1995, St. Mary’s: I read Jon Pareles’s review on Melissa Etheridge’s album Your Little Secret in today’s newspaper. He described Etheridge as being influenced by Tina Turner. Now, this guy knows what’s he’s talking about.
December 6, 1995, St. Mary’s: In between classes, my mother came to the dorm and gave me candy for St. Nicholas Day. After classes, some of the other girls from my floor and I watched The Year Without a Santa Claus. After that I watched a bit of the Billboard Music Awards and saw Tina Turner singing her James Bond theme song, “Goldeneye.”
Sunday, March 10, 1996, South Bend: I woke up and read the paper. It said Tina Turner would be starring in Hanes ads this fall. My mom said she also has a new album coming out.
December 7, 1996, St. Mary’s: I saw a tape of last night’s pay-per-view Tina Turner concert, Tina Turner’s Wildest Dreams. She did “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” and a few others from the concert I saw on TV a few winter breaks ago, plus her new songs, including “Goldeneye” and “Missing You.” And she did “River Deep, Mountain High;” that was pretty cool.
Saturday, February 22, 1997, St. Mary’s: My family took me to Yesterday’s, a restaurant in Granger. We had a good time. I ate Asian plum chicken and got a slice of key lime pie to go. Later I could be found watching Tina Turner on Saturday Night Live.
March 10, 1997: After dinner, my mom, brother, and I went to Barnes and Noble, where Mom bought me The American Women’s Almanac by Louise Bernikow. This book is fascinating. It has a picture of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner singing together.
March 27, 2021: Tina, a documentary about Tina Turner, premieres on HBO Max.
May your memory be a blessing, queen.
