Ike Turner

Ike Turner died today. Another reminder to us baby boomers that nothing flies like time, whether or not you are having a good time. Ike didn't have the kind of influence he wanted, or that he believes he did, on rock music, but that isn't to say that he wasn't an important element. Turner wrote Rocket 88, which is credited as being the first rock song. It was recorded in 1951 and features an early example of guitar distortion--but not by design. The story goes that an amp was dropped before the recording session and that resulted in the distortion. But Turner knew how to take advantage of a happy accident and he knew what to do with that whammy bar on his Fender Stratocaster. But without Tina, one wonders if we would even know Ike Turner.

In many ways Ike was his own worst enemy, and that says a lot about an African-American who was born in Clarkdale, Mississippi, near the start of the depression. He is remembered as much for his alcohol and drug-fueled rages and the abuse of Tina Turner as for his music. In his autobiography, Takin' Back My Name, Ike admits to slapping and punching Tina, but he didn't think that was spousal abuse. Most of it, maybe all of it, is attributable to his drug and alcohol abuse. But I think we cannot overlook professional jealousy, and how that is amplified in the mind of a man who grew to adulthood at a time when African-Americans were still powerless over their own fates. All of his big hits came when Tina was part of the group. That's got to be hard to take when you consider that it was his group in the first place. And in the end, when we talk about Ike Turner's contributions to music, you have to include Tina, and I think that more than anything else is what made Ike crazy.

Since being released from prison in 1993 (for a 1980s drug-related charge), Turner had maintained sobriety and continued playing music.

Ike Turner died today, and whatever else he did, or did not do, he was one of the granddads of rock. Music is richer because of him.

UPDATE: In all the obits, Ike is identified as Tina's former husband. No wonder he was so annoyed.