Here stands a simple Negro woman Anya, in a miniskirt, beaten by her husband, forgotten for decades, caressed by the Grammy. A simple Swiss woman, a former American who raised other people's children, buried her own, either a Buddhist or a Baptist. But it's no longer worth it. Tina our Turner, aka Anna May Bullock, born in 1939, died.
She has been on stage for so long that the audience with the memory of a goldfish from her career has only flashes. Someone remembers "Mad Max" and "We Don't Need Another Hero", someone remembers "Private Dancer", and someone saw James Bond and remembers "GoldenEye".
But everyone thinks they know Tina Turner, because once you see a 65-year-old woman in a miniskirt, with such legs and the energy of a nuclear power plant, it is impossible to forget her. And music, in general, has nothing to do with it.
She was called the queen of rock and roll, but she has nothing to do with rock and roll at all, except that she was respected by real rock musicians: Mark Knopfler gave her a song, Jeff Beck played guitar, and it became her biggest hit - Private Dancer - but it's also just high-quality pop. She opened the concerts of The Rolling Stones, and it was clear that it was the frenzied energy that she had in common with rock and roll. Well, that's it.
If anyone else remembered her first appearance on the stage - all this Ike & Tina Turner Revue - he would understand that it was such an inflated gospel and soul and in general purely racial music of black people. And on the set of those years, it is clear that the audience is only black: it was the 1960s in the United States.
Ike and Tina Turner released the successful record It's going to Work Out Fine, for which they were nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock and Roll Performance by a Duo in 1961, but it was complete nonsense - the duo Sonny and Cher or The Ronettes could just as well be called rock and roll players.
And then her new husband, Ike Turner, just began to beat her in the face and other parts of the body - and she went on stage with bruises. And this all lasted until 1976, when she finally divorced him. By this time, they were already celebrities, and the repertoire was of the R'n'B type, but not in your understanding, but a normal rhythm and blues, into which they tried to turn other people's songs: Come Together, Get Back of the Beatles, Honky Tonk Women of the Rolling Stones. But the biggest hit was Creedence Clearwater Revival's Proud Mary.
And it's a horrible hearing and a beautiful sight. On which, in fact, the whole career of the deceased was built.
The two of them managed to get another Grammy nomination for best gospel album, and her solo first album Tina Turns the Country On! was also nominated for a Grammy for Best R'n'B Album. And of course, if you don't know that this is a black artist, then this will be a country music album. A good disc - and modern listening.
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Having gained freedom from bruises and beatings, modest Tina began to actively hang out with English rockers - with Bowie, Stewart, etc. And even starred with The Who in the film-rock opera "Tommy" (spoiler: there is criminally little of her).
And then she was engaged in some nonsense and all sorts of performances in the Ritz - ten years, thrown out of creative life, so much so that by 1983 she was already considered as a downed pilot - let her sing at dances.
It got to the point that Capitol considered the contract for the release of one single with her as a great handout. Nevertheless, the song of the beautiful Al Green Let's Stay Together took off, and Tina was given two weeks to record an album. An unrecorded song by Dire Straits was taken on the album: Mark Knopfler decided that a man could not sing such lyrics. Instead, Tina is played by the great Jeff Beck, who left us a little earlier this year. It is from this album that the timbre, manner, and image of the Tina Turner, with whom we say goodbye, remain in the perception of the public.
With a simple Swiss pensioner who renounced her American citizenship and lived in the village of Küsnacht, canton of Zurich.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.