Was he a good man? Seems unlikely. Was he a good musician? Hell yeah. The man invented rock ‘n’ roll. Really.
Turner was born in 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, home to a high percentage of blues legends – Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Eddie Boyd, etc. – along with Tennessee Williams and Sam Cooke. Ike’s father was beaten to death by whites.
Turner learned piano from PINETOP PERKINS and while still in his teens formed the band THE KINGS OF RHYTHM. In 1951, they recorded “Rocket 88” for Sun Records. This is widely considered the first rock ‘n’ roll record. It came out under not Ike’s name, not even The Kings of Rhythm, but as by JACKIE BRENSTON & HIS DELTA CATS, because Brenston sang it, but Ike was the bandleader.
He never was much of a singer, but he made up for it by expanding his talents beyond piano playing and songwriting. He added guitar to his instrumental arsenal, pioneering the emphasis of the whammy bar in his sound and becoming a good, and extremely distinctive, player. He became a sessionman (he can be heard on famous records by OTIS RUSH, HOWLIN’ WOLF, and many more), talent scout (he pushed B.B. King early on), and producer. And he kept leading The Kings of Rhythm, which in concert used a revue format with rotating singers. In 1956, ANNA MAE BULLOCK joined the group as a singer, had her name changed to Tina, married Ike in 1958, and became the revue’s star attraction after her first lead vocal, on the 1959 single “A Fool in Love,” became an R&B hit.
Ike soon based the revue around Tina’s singing, and over the next 14 years they would have six Top 40 pop hits and many more charting R&B singles. He also acquired a massive cocaine habit and crossed the line between controlling and abusive. When Ike and Tina were jointly inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, he couldn’t be there – he was in prison on drug charges. He kicked his habit while behind bars. After he got out in 1993, he stayed clean and revived his career by returning to his roots, releasing two critically praised blues albums.
I wouldn’t want to have been married to him, but I’d sure have liked to have him play guitar in my band.
