Thursday, May 25, 2023

Proud Mary



The fabulous Tina Turner performed with The Ike & Tina Turner Revue on The Ed Sullivan Show in January of 1970 to showcase their new single "Proud Mary." That part about doing it "nice and easy" was added to the act later. And here she is almost 40 years later, performing "Proud Mary" in Arnhem, Netherlands, in 2009. There are singers, there are dancers, and Turner is doing both, still in high heels, at three times the other performers' ages.



I will never forget the day when I was new at a radio station in Tennessee. My boss came into the recording studio I was working in and asked to use the turntable. I said sure and started to leave. He said, no I want you to hear this. He put a record on, but didn't want me to see the label. I heard the opening bars of "Let's Stay Together," and said "Al Green." He said, yeah, but listen to the voice. Pretty soon I said, "Oh wow, is that Tina Turner? I haven't hear her in years!" He said, you know she's a local girl. Really? She was born just down the road in Brownsville.

To put you into the place and time, there were two Top 40 stations in town, and mine was the one that would play both Black and white artists. We played a lot of Tina Turner the whole time I was there.

May she rest in power.

1 comment:

xoxoxoBruce said...

Say her and Ike at RFK stadium in Washington in the 70's All day concert with lots of acts they had two stages that rolled like flatcars so while one group played they would set up the other then roll it to center with the band and all their gear on it. Hardly time to take a leak between acts. When the turners were being set up Tina's legs were going a mile a minute warming up for 20 minutes before they went on.
She was unique like Dolly.