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whileiamdying · 10 years

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IKE & TINA TURNER: THE GREAT RHYTHM & BLUES SESSIONS

The 1980’s have treated Ike and Tina Turner quite differently. Tina has become a contemporary superstar recording somewhat glossy “Pop” material (albeit of high quality). Ike, meanwhile, has struggled, having to deal with a variety of legal problems while seeing his personal problems with Tina dragged through the media incessantly. In the process, his once immense contribution to R&B history has been somewhat overshadowed.

There was an earlier time, though, before the general public was made aware of their personal trials and tribulations, when the Ike and Tina Turner Revue was one of the hottest, most durable, and potentially explosive of all rhythm and blues ensembles. Fronted by Tina, one of the rawest, most sensual, and impossibly dynamic voices in black music, the Ike and Tina Revue was an ensemble that dripped musical discipline while manifesting nearly unbearable tension, the combination eventually giving way to wave upon wave of catharsis. At their height, only the James Brown Revue could operate on the same level.

The Ike and Tina Turner story starts deep in the heart of the pre-World War II Mississippi Delta. It was in the jumping town of Clarksdale that Ike was born in the fall of 1931. As a child he was fascinated by the piano playing of blues man Pinestop Perkins (whom he heard via Helena, Arkansas’ King Biscuit Radio Show). Before he was eight the youngster could be heard rattling his own set of 88’s. Less than ten years later he had joined a large swing ensemble going by the name the Top Hatters and run by a local saxophone playing dentist.

After Turner served a stint in the capacity of disc jockey for Clarksdale’s WROX, a number of former Top Hatters came together under a new guise, Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm. By March 1951 the Kings of Rhythm, through the intercession of B.B. King, cut four sides for Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service. Phillips, in turn, leased the recordings to Chess Records in Chicago who issued two of them under saxophone player/vocalist Jackie Brenston’s name. Part boogie and part incipient rock and roll, “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats became a number one R & B hit in the spring of 1951. Ironically, Ike Turner’s first taste of Success didn’t even mention his name.

From late 1951 to 1956 Ike proceeded to play the role of talent scout and producer [or the California-based Modern Recording Company (taking a brief timeout in 1953 to record a few tracks by Billy “the Kid” Emerson, Johnny O’Neal and himself for Sam Phillips’ fledgling Sun label). During his tenure with Modern he waxed sides by the likes of Elmore James, B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, the King Biscuit Boys, Johnny Ace, Junior Parker and, of course, the Kings of Rhythm.

Having moved his base of operations to East St. Louis in 1955, Ike also changed record company affiliations, recording the Kings of Rhythm and producing others for Cincinnati’s King/Federal complex. Perhaps the most notable record he was associated with at King was Billy Gayles’ incendiary “I’m Tore Up.” By 1958 Turner had moved his activities to Eli Toscano’s Chicago-based Cobra and Artistic labels. A couple of records were Issued by Toscano before Turner recorded two further releases for a local St. Louis label, Stevens Records, under the name Icky Renrut in 1953 (the pseudonym was a device designed to circumvent outstanding contractual obligations elsewhere).

It was at this point that Tina entered the picture. Born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee in November 1939, Tina spent the first fourteen years of her life living in a number of small, largely rural western Tennessee hamlets with names such as Brownsville, Ripley, and Spring Hill. Her mother had moved to St. Louis in 1950. Five years later Tina followed suit. There she met Ike and the other Kings of Rhythm at what had become the band’s home base, the Club Manhattan in East St. Louis. Her sister, Alline Bullock, was dating drummer Gene Washington. Anna Mac Bullock was all of sixteen.

After a few months of nightly inveterate Kings of Rhythm worship, Tina got up and sang with the band. Astonished by her combination of emotion and up-against-the-wall power, Ike Turner let her take the occasional spot with the band. Soon he offered Anna Mac Bullock a job. Still in high school, she had acquired a new vocation.

In 1960 the Kings of Rhythm cut a demo of the Ike-penned “A Fool In Love”. Copies were dutifully sent to all the important independent record companies then recording R & B. Only one, Juggy Murray’s Sue label, expressed interest. Murray was sure he smelled a hit and, in his mind, Anna Mae Bullock was the key. After flying to St. Louis and impressing this notion upon Ike, he signed the band to a four-year deal. Ike, wisely, changed the name of Anna Mae to Tina, and the Kings of Rhythm became the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. A new age had dawned in the lives of all concerned.

“A Fool In Love” climbed its way to the #2 R & B slot while stopping at #27 Pop. Other hits quickly followed on Sue over the next four years including “I Idolize You”, “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”, “Poor Fool” and “Tra La La La La”. All were Top 10 R & B and all also saw some Pop action, “it’s Gonna Work Fine” being the most successful going all the way to #14.

The Ike and Tina Turner Revue had arrived. Ike, though, unfortunately combined an acute sense of impatience with a workaholic personality. The result meant that Ike subscribed to the John Lee Hooker school of doing business; i.e. record at any opportunity for anyone who happened to be willing to put cash on the barrel head, regardless of their taste in packaging or their ability to promote or distribute the product. The results were threefold: Ike and Tina are perhaps the most over recorded R & B ensemble of all time; the various records issued under their name tend to be uneven, at times suffering from substandard material; and sorting the various recordings out tends to be problematic. That said, they still managed to place twenty-five records on the R & B charts for nine separate companies between 1960 and 1975.

The Ike and Tina Revue was always hyperactive, constantly playing shows (often a mind boggling three hundred plus a year), rehearsing and recording. The latter occurred virtually anywhere they found themselves with a few days to kill and an available studio. After sessions were completed, Ike would debate on who he would sell the tapes to. Such practices make it near impossible to precisely date these recordings but they appear to have taken place in 1967 or 1968, the sessions conducted in Memphis at the Royal Recording Studio, the same studio that Willie Mitchell and Hi Records would use to cut all of AI Green’s, Ann Peebles’ and Syl Johnson’s early seventies hits. They were originally issued over the course of a series of albums released in 1968 and 1969 on Ike’s Pompeii label, distributed at the time by the Atlantic subsidiary, Atco Records.

Ike took production credit and wrote a number of the songs. Also prominent in the composition department is one Mack Rice. A former member of The Falcons, Sir Mack Rice had scored big with “Mustang Sally” on Blue Rock in 1965. When Ike Turner ran into him in Memphis he was working for Stax Records both as an artist and writer. His “It Sho Ain’t Me” is closely modelled on the Stax sound developed by Otis Redding on ballads such as “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”, the latter a song that Ike and Tina would do well with in 1969. In contrast, Rice’s “Betcha Can’t Kiss Me” is a mid-tempo chugger fueled by Tina’s ever impassioned vocal pyrotechnics. The Chipmunk effect on the backup vocals is just a little too cute. Asked about it in 1990, Mack Rice just laughed and said that was Ike’s idea.

Other highlights abound, where Tina’s concerned most notably with Ike’s own “I’m Fed Up” and Wayne Carson Thompson’s “You Got What You Wanted.” On these and other songs included here, Ike has created arrangements set in keys that at various points are nearly too high for Tina’s range. The result is a characteristic strain that manifests itself in much of what Tina sung in her years with Ike. It’s a technique that Isaac Hayes and David Porter used to great advantage with Sam and Dave at Stax. In recent years Tina has said that she didn’t like singing this way. That may be the case, but the results are undeniably chilling. Ike contributes his share as well, turning in strong bluesy stinging guitar lines on B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby” and Bobby Blue Bland’s “I Smell Trouble.”

Three of the songs included here, “It Sho Ain’t Me”, “Too Hot To Hold”, and “Beauty Is Just Skin Deep” were released as forty-fives under three different monikers; Ike and Tina Turner, Tina Turner and the Ikettes respectively. Those listening closely will notice that it is not Tina singing on the latter; rather it’s a typically anonymous Ikette. Typically, anonymous because Ike felt that if people knew their names and they had hits, the individual Ikettes would be able to leave and start careers of their own. Instead, this way he owned the name “The lkettes,” paid the singers salary that entailed roadwork and sessions, and kept all the royalties himself. “Make ‘Em Wait” was the flip side of the “Beauty Is Just Skin Deep” and is definitely sung by one of the Ikettes and, to these ears, “Poor Little Fool” is also delivered by one of the backing girls.

None of these records were hits in the era of rampant psychedelia but such does not belie their eminent quality. Ike may have been a dubious businessman but nonetheless he was an absolute master of rhythm and blues guitar, he possessed a fine ear, a superb band and, in Tina, one of the great rhythm and blues voices of all time. Enjoy.

— Rob Bowman

Rob Bowman is a journalist/musicologist living in Toronto, Canada.

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radiofauxshow · 2 years

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Radio Faux Show Volume 2, Number 21 (June 19, 2022): Country Crossover Hits

This Week’s Theme: Country Crossover Hits It has been a while since I have put together a fully-formed Faux Show, but this week sees the return to the research and thematic elements that led me to start doing this blog in the first place. The shows will start to be weekly again, and will cover topics that demand research and discussion, starting with this week’s theme of Country Music crossover…

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#3 Chunks of Funk #andrew hill #Astral Weeks #Bass #Elvin Jones #I want my MTV #Jazz #Madison Wisconsin Institute for Healing Racism #Out To Lunch #Richard Davis #Rosco Gordon #Unsung Heroes Of Rock And Roll

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gifs-of-puppets · 1 month

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Sesame Street (1969-Present)

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 3 months

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motziedapul · 5 months

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Sesame Street's VERY FIRST episode portraying your average queer family

#i love this so much #sesame street #gordon #gordon robinson #Roscoe Hunter Orman #jim henson

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nerds-yearbook · 1 year

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On November 27, 2002, Disney released a science fiction retelling of Treasure Island, called Treasure Planet. The movie took 10 years to make. ("Treasure Planet", film, event)

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2ndaryprotocol · 1 year

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The infamous Disney sci-fi adventure ‘Treasure Planet’ hit theaters this week 20 years ago. 🤖🏴‍☠️🚀

“𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚘𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛, 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝, 𝚣𝚒𝚙 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚘𝚠𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚛.”

#treasure planet #animated #sci-fi #treasure island #robert louis stevenson #ron clements #disney #joseph gordon levitt #michael wincott #emma thompson #david hyde pierce #martin short #roscoe lee browne #patrick mcgoohan #laurie metcalf #Spotify

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gatutor · 8 months

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Alan Roscoe-Theda Bara "Camille" 1917, de J. Gordon Edwards.

#Theda Bara #Alan Roscoe #J. Gordon Edwards

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eightmuppetynotes · 2 years

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Muppet Song of the Day: "Library"

Written by Jeff Moss

#muppet song of the day #sesame street #gordon robinson #roscoe orman #susan robinson #loretta long #gladys the cow #richard hunt #elmo monster #kevin clash #linda bove #chet o'brien #jeff moss

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brokehorrorfan · 9 months

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Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 17 via The Criterion Collection. The set collects three films directed by Tod Browning: Freaks, The Unknown, and The Mystic.

Freaks (also known as The Monster Story, Forbidden Love, and Nature's Mistake) is a 1932 horror film written by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon. Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, and Roscoe Ates star.

The Unknown is a 1927 silent horror film written by Waldemar Young. Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford, and Nick De Ruiz star.

The Mystic is a 1925 silent drama film written by Browning and Young. Aileen Pringle, Conway Tearle, and Mitchell Lewis star.

Freaks has been digitally restored in 2K with uncompressed monaural sound. The Unknown has been digitally reconstructed and restored in 2K with a new score by composer Philip Carli. The Mystic has been digitally restored in 2K with a new score by composer Dean Hurley.

Raphael Geroni designed the cover art. Special features are detailed below.

Special features:

Freaks audio commentary by film scholar David J. Skal

The Unknown audio commentary by film scholar David J. Skal

The Mystic introduction by film scholar David J. Skal

Interview with author Megan Abbott about director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror (new)

Freaks archival documentary

"Spurs" - Reading of Tod Robbins' short story on which Freaks is based

Freaks prolgue, added to the film in 1947

Freaks alternate endings featurette

Freaks portrait video glalery

Essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme

The most transgressive film produced by a major American studio in the 1930s, Tod Browning’s crowning achievement has haunted the margins of cinema for nearly one hundred years. An unforgettable cast of real-life sideshow performers portray the entertainers in a traveling circus who, shunned by mainstream society, live according to their own code—one of radical acceptance for the fellow oppressed and, as the show’s beautiful but cruel trapeze artist learns, of terrifying retribution for those who cross them. Received with revulsion by viewers upon its initial release, Freaks effectively ended Browning’s career but can now be seen for what it is: an audacious cry for understanding and a singular experience of nightmarish, almost avant-garde power.

The most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney, The Unknown features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife thrower Alonzo (he flings daggers with his feet) whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant (Joan Crawford)—a woman, it just so happens, who cannot bear to be touched by the hands of any man—drives him to unspeakable extremes. Sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax—Browning wrings every last frisson from the lurid premise.

A fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art-deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes.

#tod browning #freaks #the unknown #the mystic #criterion #the criterion collection #criterion collection #dvd #gift #raphael geroni #horror #classic horror #lon chaney #joan crawford #silent horror

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davidhudson · 9 months

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Theda Bara, July 29, 1885 - April 7, 1955.

With Alan Roscoe in J. Gordon Edwards’s Camille (1917).

#theda bara #alan roscoe #cinema #film #movies

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beardedmrbean · 2 months

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Ah thank you, sorry I just saw the statement going around on Twitter and wanted to know if you could back that statement up

Whaaat? Sesame Street was meant to show that everyone can be equal hence why multiple celebrities from different walks of life like Ice Cube to Lucy Liu made appearances on the show and Liu herself said thank you to Sesame Street as it help her learn English?

It not like it supposed to be in New York

A very diverse place

Seriously where the Flying FUCK is Sesame Street in NYC? Must I take a magical portal to go there?

But yeah, Sesame is supposed to be like that. Then race obsessed late Gen x and millennials came along and murder fuck anything

Seriously I grew up in the 00’s, you know when a fuckton of diversity was in kids media?

Now the majority of diversity comes from people who never left their metropolitan areas.

Words can’t not describe the downgrades black cartoon characters got.

Whaaat? Sesame Street was meant to show that everyone can be equal

Here's 2 of the people that had some of the biggest impact on how I am today.

Don't think I saw Carol Spiney's face till sometime in the last 10 years or less, he was just Big Bird.

Did someone say Diversity

Down below we have the 80-81 cast, there's Mr Hooper in front of Big Bird, I don't think there's a show on today that could touch this. Could have used someone from the MENA region and India and Asia but in the mid 70's and even today this is huge.

Look it's Gordon and Susan, and their 'adopted' son Miles.

The introduction of Miles allowed the show to tackle the topic of adoption. Roscoe Orman originally suggested that Gordon and Susan have a child when he first joined the show in 1974. At the time, the producers felt that it was too complicated to cast a baby to play the part.

Ten years later, when Orman's son Miles was a year old, he revisited the idea. Orman remembers, "Caroll Spinney offhandedly said one day, 'That son of yours is so cute -- he's such a great kid -- we should bring him on the show and let him be your son.' I said that I had suggested something like that years ago but it was shot down. And he said, 'Well, you know, you could even adopt him.' That really started my wheels turning and I mentioned it to [Executive Producer] Dulcy Singer." The producers were intrigued by the adoption angle, and cast Miles Orman in the role. "The idea is that he'll grow up on the show -- for as long as he wants to," Roscoe Orman said.

They were there day 1 and through my whole childhood and beyond. Occasionally shifting performers.

Anything you could want to teach a person about being a good, kind, and accepting person you could teach them by putting on a Sesame Street + Mr Rogers Neighborhood marathon.

I'm glad Mr Rogers is free to watch on PBS kids, sometimes I need to just have that perfectly measured voice there cutting through the din of the day telling me the day was better because he got to spend it with me.

Grateful he's still around even if he isn't.

But that's not Sesame Street.

Seriously where the Flying FUCK is Sesame Street in NYC? Must I take a magical portal to go there?

It's there, it's in your neighborhood too. You just have to find some people willing to help make it appear is all.

We're surrounded by legions of good, kind, and giving people. We just need to do some of the leg work it takes to bring them together is all.

#zoomer huey anon

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thewarmestplacetohide · 6 months

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Dread by the Decade: Freaks

👻 You can support or commission me on Ko-Fi! ❤️

Source Material: "Spurs" by Tod Robbins Year: 1932 Genre: Psychological Horror Rating: Unrated (Recommended: PG-13) Country of Origin: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes

Director: Tod Browning Cinematographer: Merritt B. Gerstad Editor: Basil Wrangell Writers: Willis Goldbeck, Leon Gordon Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Henry Victor, Harry Earles, Daisy Earles, Daisy Hilton, Violet Hilton, Roscoe Ates, Rose Dione

Plot: A group of sideshow performers must protect their friend when he falls in love with a cruel trapeze artist.

Review: Shockingly forward-thinking for its time and genre, it humanizes its disabled cast and making human cruelty, instead, the source of its horror.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Story: 4/5 - An emotional one of exploitation and the loving communities that can be built in spite of it. Its main drawback is that some subplots are left unfinished.

Performances: 3/5 - Many cast members were not professional actors, which sometimes shows. Overall, though, most are charming, and Baclanova and Victor are suitably vile. Daisy Earles' scene of heartbreak at the wedding feast is a standout.

Cinematography: 4/5 - Good framing, lighting, and camera work.

Editing: 3/5 - Occasionally a little disjointed.

Effects: 4.5/5 - The rain is realistic and a penultimate scene at the end looks surprisingly solid.

Sets: 4.5/5 - The circus itself is barely shown, with sets instead consisting of the performers' lovingly personalized caravans.

Costumes & Make-Up: 4.5/5 - Quality costumes and make-up.

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Trigger Warnings:

Mild violence

Mutilation (not shown)

Domestic abuse

Ableism (largely critiqued by the film)

Misogyny (uncritically perpetuated)

#Freaks (1932)#Freaks #Tod Browning #psychological horror #Dread by the Decade #review #1930s

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gifs-of-puppets · 3 months

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Sesame Street (1969-Present)

#sesame street #gordon #don music #gordon robinson #roscoe orman #frustrated #shaking head #help #stop #muppet #muppets #jim henson #gif #muppet gif #muppets gif #sesame street gif #gifs of puppets

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reality-detective · 9 months

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Allow me to take you back into history a little bit, a small Rabbit 🐇 Hole 🕳️ into JFK's assassination. The untold part after the shooting. 👇

Remember... Dr. Charles Crenshaw mentioned there was absolute mayhem at the hospital.

The other thing he mentions in this You Tube clip: 👇

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Jackie walked up to JFK’s body and kissed him on the Great toe. Then she walked around to his right side and put her ring on his little finger.

I’ve also read that she took his ring.

Was this just a normal reaction after someone dies? Or was this too some type of a ritual/symbolic gesture?

Could it have been a marker for her to identify which body was Tippet’s and which was JFK’s?

(Hence the mayhem or confusion as described by Crenshaw).

Jackie went to 3 colleges/ Universities (George Washington, Georgetown, Vassar)...colleges that were either associated with MK Ultra, Jesuits, or witches/covens.

I’m going to leave all options on the table.

At 1:00 pm...30 minutes after JFK was shot, Kennedy’s Press Secretary...Malcom Kilduff not only announced to the world that Kennedy was dead, but he also (correctly) showed the direction of the bullet travelled in regards to Kennedy’s head wound.

Kilduff was acting press secretary for the trip because the main White House press secretary, Pierre Salinger, was traveling to Japan with six members of the Cabinet... for a joint meeting with the Japanese Cabinet.

☝️Pocket that paragraph. This may come up if I dive into everything further “X”, but also the strange phenomena of differing time lines/time travel/ the Mandela Effect. 👇

Moving on with our timeline...

At approximately 1:10-1:15pm Dallas Police Officer JD Tippit was driving east on East 10th street. He pulled alongside a man...most believed to be Oswald.

Tippett was ordered to be on the lookout for Oswald.

The man walked over to Tippit’s car...they exchanged words.

Officer Tippit got out of the car, at which time the man (thought to be Oswald) pulled out a gun and fired 5 shots in succession.

2 bullets to the chest

1 bullet to the right temple

1 in the stomach

1 completely missed

JD Tippett was pronounced dead at the Methodist Hospital at 1:25. Note...he was pronounced dead at the Methodist Hospital.

Remember... Lee Harvey Oswald had a Doppelgänger. Some say he possibly had 4 or 5 body doubles or look-allies.

Did it appear that JD Tippett was a second patsy? 👇

Police later arrested Oswald at the Texas Theater. They accused him of killing JD Tippett.

Jim Garrison did not believe Oswald killed Tippett. The timelines put out by the Warren Commission didn’t match for one thing.

Who did kill Tippett? At this point it won’t be our focus. But I’ve read that it could have also been Roscoe White or G Gordon Liddy.

G stands for George.

A lot of “George’s” were part of the plot. 👇

Why was JD Tippett killed and seemingly a purposeful piece of this grand scheme? Could it have been because of his appearance? JD Tippet looked so much like the President that people often commented about it. Fellow policemen would often kid him about it, calling him “Mister President” and “JFK.” 👇

The bullets were removed from Tippett’s body. He was then moved from the Methodist Hospital to Parkland Hospital... Where JFK’s body was also.

While the media circus was distracted on the Casket of JFK, they completely missed the ambulance that was transporting JD Tippet’s body to AF2... The plane that usually flies the Vice President. 👇

JFK’s body was then transported to Loveland Airfield.

The story goes that the people aboard AF1 were told to go forward...so that they could witness the swearing in of LBJ.

Supposedly that was just a ruse so that Jackie would leave her husband’s body, and the cover-up plot could continue.

Once she was away from his coffin, JFK’s body was taken and placed aboard AF2...where JD Tippett’s corpse was also. 👇

Who was waiting aboard AF2 to be with the corpses?

John Melvin Liggett.

Liggett was a CIA agent. He was also a funeral director, and one of the best reconstructive surgeons and embalmers in the business at the time.

Why this guy? 🤔

There is a lot to this story that NOBODY knows, it's a twisted dive. If I can I will add another update later. It seems like every time I dive into these History Lessons I discover they lied to us with just about everything. 🤔

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