Sadder and Sadder

I hoped in my heart he'd had enough - I really believed he was done with it forever.  But apparently I was wrong.  I read several news reports of the San Diego Medical Examiner, confirming cocaine toxicity along with contributing conditions of high blood pressure and emphysema.

I never denied snorting with Ike.  I liked it - it made me feel good, and when I was around him, we'd snort constantly.  I couldn't keep up with Ike, that's for sure, but I made an effort. 

But I'm different.  I learned 'way back in the 1970s - drugs aren't for me.  I didn't want to live that lifestyle - day after day after day.  Weeks turn into months, and then months become years.   

I hope anyone who reads this can learn a lesson.  Drugs - not only cocaine - can start out being "just a little fun".  And they can grow into a 30 year addiction, too.  They can cost you a lot more than the money in your bank account.  Ike spent more money in one rehab facility than most people earn in 10 years - and he still went back to coke.  As much as I love Ike, he had one critical flaw: he let cocaine control him. 

I'm so sorry.  I wish I could have been a better friend for Ike.  I wish I could have done something - anything - to help him leave that shit alone permanently.  It would have been worth it to get in a fistfight with him - and lose - if it meant no more coke.  Reading this, you'll never know how sad I am that I could do nothing.

Ironic?

Left: my home studio - 32x8 mixers, Mackie HR824 monitors.

Right: Ike's home studio - more elaborate 8 mixer, Mackie HR824 monitors.

Dallas - July 2, 1976

To be honest, I felt a little like that, and I was just a keyboard player that Ike paid a lot of money for sometimes.  But there was non-stop, ever-increasing coke in his world, and as much as I loved and respected Ike, his musical abilities, and even his dominant personality - the coke worried me.  There was just too much coke. 

The details of how and why start months earlier.

First of all, Ike owned the name "Tina Turner", and had power of attorney over her, as well.  At the time, their recording contract with United Artists (Liberty) was ending.

Ike negotiated a new, 5 year recording deal with Cream Records for $150,000. per year, with options. 

What that meant, in plain English, was that Tina would be tied to Ike for at least 5 more years if he signed that record contract.

They were headed to Dallas to play concerts.  They left on Thursday.  The new recording contract would be signed on Monday, when they returned from Texas.  Tina had exactly 4 days to either get free, or be locked into 5 more years with Ike.

I wasn't there.  I heard it from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and I believe Ike.

Tina did any and everything to provoke Ike.  She'd known for years exactly how to push his buttons and get him furious.  Ike had major problems with his nose for years, due to so much cocaine abuse, and he was frequently in pain and bleeding from his nose. 

I'd seen it myself - blood and mucus coming from his nose, in his mustache, dripping off his chin.  When this happened, it was disgusting, and I always got him tissues and a wet paper towel to clean himself up.  It was so bad, that the membrane between his nostrils was gone, due to cocaine.  Ike literally burned part of the inside of his nose away with cocaine.  He was addicted to coke.  I don't think he ever denied it.

Tina took the opportunity, and it went on for hours.  It began on the way to Los Angeles airport, continued during the flight from Los Angeles to Dallas, and also after they got into the limo to go to the hotel. 

She wouldn't give Ike a tissue.  She turned her nose up at him.  She laughed at him.  She ignored him.  She looked out the window, as if Ike wasn't sitting there in pain, bleeding.  She intentionally pushed every button in the book, and made sure Ike would blow up - and Ike blew up.

In the limo, Ike slapped the shit out of her.  But Tina didn't sit there to be slapped.  She jumped right on top of Ike, with her knee in his chest, and gave it right back to him. 

Ike's version said they went around like prizefighters for awhile.  Both of Ike's eyes were cut and bleeding, besides his nose.  They arrived at the hotel, went up to their suite, and Ike fainted.  When he woke up, Tina had run away.

Ann Bullock - Tina Turner

Ann seemed very lady-like in the time that I knew her.  But - as a playing musician - I was more "Ike's", so Tina and I rarely had any discussions about anything of any meaning.  When we talked, we basically chatted about nothing.

Maybe some people know the history, maybe not.  First of all, I wasn't there personally, so I'm relating stories that came from different sources: Ike, Tina, people in the band, old friends, and public facts.

Years back, in East St. Louis, Ike had the hottest band that ever hit a stage.  The name of the band was "Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm".  Everywhere the band went, the crowds followed.  Ike sold out every place he played - that's how good his band was.  Musically, Ike owned St. Louis and the surrounding area.

Ann Bullock lived in St. Louis, too.  Ann, and her sister, Alline, were going out with some guys in Ike's band.  During a break one night, somebody gave Ann a microphone, down at a table, and Ike heard her sing.  Ann was going out with Ike's sax player, Raymond.  Pretty soon, she was also learning plenty about singing, stage presence, and music from Ike, and occasionally singing a few songs with the band. 

This went on for quite awhile - several years, actually.  At some point, Ann became pregnant by Raymond, and her mother threw her out of the house.  Ann didn't have any money, she was living in a garage in an alley.  After Craig was born, she worked at some kind of menial job, but didn't have enough money to make ends meet.  When Ike discovered this, he moved her into his house, and gave her some money every week.  She wasn't part of Ike's band.  At the time, Ike didn't want or need a female vocalist.  Ann "sat in" occasionally, and sang a few songs with them.

At about this time, Ike wrote a song, "A Fool In Love", for a singer named Art Lassiter.  Lassiter never showed up for the recording session (which Ike paid for - meaning musicians, studio rental, tape, etc.), and Ann did the vocal track.  It was supposed to be temporary, until Lassiter could do the vocal.  Someone from Sue Records heard it, and wanted to release it - here's where it gets interesting.

The record started selling - so Ike had to go out on the road - "the chitlin' circuit" - to increase record sales.  Ike had some kind of fixation on that Tarzan and Jane theme - a "Nyoka of the Jungle" fetish - so he invented the name "Tina" for Ann.  He patented the names "Tina Turner", "Ike and Tina Turner", and later he patented the name "Ikettes", too.  Because of the record sales, suddenly Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm became the Ike and Tina Turner Revue.

The record sold pretty well, and that's how Ike and Tina Turner began.  If Lassiter had shown up to record, everything might have been completely different.  It was an unusual accident and coincidence - history was written because somebody didn't show up for a recording session.

Right about this time, Ike also got Ann pregnant - she gave birth to Ike's son, Ronnie.

Somehow, I think Ann forgot her roots - she forgot where she came from, forgot how she became who she became.  As a musician, I saw Ann in a certain way.  Ann seemed like a nice, polite, personable woman.  But she never seemed to have an original thought of her own in the world I lived in - music .... and that makes perfect sense.  Musically, Ike controlled everything - so Ann's ideas, if she ever had any - weren't too applicable. 

She had maids, cooks, housekeepers, babysitters.  She didn't have the problems that the rest of the world has to cope with.  She had any and everything she wanted. 

EXCEPT .....  

I think Ann really wanted something that she couldn't have.  She wanted to change Ike.  She wanted Ike to be a "typical, conventional" man for her.  I believe Ann wanted to OWN Ike. 

In the beginning, they started out as friends, buddies, they became working partners.  In the old days, Ann used to fix Ike up with different women all the time - FOR SEX.  She always knew what he was, what he liked, what he wanted.  Ike's appetite for different women was insatiable. 

Ann may have grown to love Ike romantically, but Ike loved Ann like a sister.  Ike never stopped his kinky sexual affairs, and Ann wasn't that kind of woman. 

I honestly think this became more of an issue for Ann as years went by.  In the beginning, I think they both understood what Ike was.  Over time, I think it became a humiliating, embarrassing situation for Ann, because Ike's extreme behaviors were pretty obvious.  Nothing and nobody could slow Ike down - the coke just added to it.

She forgot that Ike was right there for her when she had TB, yellow jaundice, the times she tried suicide, anytime she was in the hospital, all the ups and all the downs.

I think she forgot that after the physical violence in Dallas, Ann wanted to continue with the I&TT Revue - but not as "Mrs. Turner".  She wanted to move out, get a house for her and the kids, live her own life, and only be "Tina Turner" onstage. 

Ike was famous as a womanizer.  But there's one thing Ike did not do - he didn't humiliate Ann in front of her.  He absolutely did not make public displays of his sexual ways with any of the women he ran around with.  Everything Ike did was done privately.  He took his coke orgies and freaky women off to a hotel suite someplace.  Ike didn't put any of this in Ann's face - or anyone else's - but Ann, and everyone else, could ASSUME what was happening.  Again, I know of some of this - I was there. 

The reality is - anyone in the band could imagine what Ike was doing, but nobody ever saw it, or knew for sure.  Maybe Ike was in a hotel suite playing chess or writing a song - nobody really knew except Ike and whoever was in the suite with him.

I think Ann forgot about the details of the divorce.  She - not Ike - made it clear that she wanted nothing.  Nothing.  No houses, no studio, no properties, no investments, no royalties, nothing at all.  She wanted nothing except the name "Tina Turner", and that's just what the court awarded to her - exactly what she asked for.  She forgot the times after Dallas when they had lunch, talked things out, the various times that Ike tried to help her.  She might have forgotten that the day of the divorce - in the courthouse - she was sitting by Ike's side, having a discussion with him.  I think Ann "remembered" what would sell the book she wrote - with plenty of editorial help, or, if you prefer the word, "spin".

Without Ike Turner, who would "Tina" have ever been?

I believe it's highly doubtful Ann would have ever been a singer.

Is This A Discrepancy?

On the "Nutbush City Limits" album, songwriter credit on 7 of the 10 songs is given to Tina.  Does Tina play guitar or keyboards?  How could she "write" a song?  Maybe she co-wrote - but somebody had to come up with the chord progression for these songs.  She may have come up with some lyrics, but somebody had to write the music for the lyrics.  Would anyone care to guess who?

Would anyone demonstrate exactly how you write a song when you can't play anything?  Anyone certainly could write words and maybe come up with a melody line - but what goes under those words?  Major changes?  Minor?  What chord progression - which is a part of EVERY SONG - did Tina write?  I'd bet $5 she doesn't even know what key the songs she "wrote" are in. 

There's a whole story here, too.  It's about Ike's "staff writers".  I'll add it someday.

What Is Abuse?

Long ago, parents spanked their kids.  Sometimes, the kids had to go to a tree, and bring back a switch for their spankings.  Sometimes Daddy beat the kid's bottom with a belt.  Some kids got a wooden paddle until they couldn't sit down for awhile.

The word "ABUSE" means something completely, totally different than it did 50 years ago.  Without going into detail, let's consider that the United States was born in 1776.  Normal and acceptable society in the United States, from 1776, provided that men controlled and dominated their women and their families. 

Right or wrong, that tradition went on for about 200 years.

Women became "liberated" sometime in the late 1960s.  They burned their bras at demonstrations - now that makes a lot of sense.  Go buy a bra, then burn it.

But it's hard to break tradition.  Think of the millions of people that grew up to be good, productive members of our population - the same ones whose asses got whipped when they were young.  Physical punishment was an everyday event.  I well recall the school principal whacking kids with rulers and a paddle - before he called your parents and you went home for a real ass kicking.   

Think about Ike Turner, who was born in 1931 - a time when Daddy or Mommy would beat some ass over the slightest infraction.  And the more the infractions, the more ass beating took place.  It wasn't limited to Ike, Clarksdale, Mississippi, black people, or any other regional or racial delineation.  It was life - normal life, for normal people, everywhere in America.

This isn't justification of physical violence.  It's only facts.  Some of you are old enough to know that I write the truth, some of you are kids - maybe your parents sent you emails if you fucked up for the 73rd time.  Maybe they gave you "time outs" when you got busted in high school with a bag of pot, and a little scolding to go with it.  I don't know.

I just know that since the days of the caveman, woman has always been the child bearer, the nurturer, the cook, the homemaker.  Man has always been the hunter, the killer, the one strong enough to bring the food home to his family, the one that built the house for the women to live in.

You figure it all out, OK?