martes, 31 de marzo de 2009

Ike & Tina Turner: The Kent Years (1964-1967)

It is difficult to understand why the music Ike & Tina Turner produced together in the 60s has been so completely overlooked for years, being excellent as it is. This compilation tries to make up for some of that by including many of their strongest numbers made for Kent and Modern Records in the period 1964-67, their most prolific and exciting period. In addition to 45s and album tracks that came out at that time, included are five cuts that are seeing the light of day for the first time for a total 26 songs. We can find here their popular upbeat singles outings such as 'I Can't Believe What You Say' (a Top 100 entry), 'Gonna Have Fun', 'Chicken Shack' and 'Flee Flee Fla', together with their flip sides and other important songs from their Kent albums. There are many other quite revealing sounds, too. Listen, for example, to the soulful strings on 'Makin' Plans Together' and the Mayfield-inspired vocals on 'I Don't Need'. It's not all dance music either - for bluesier numbers, there's Ike's guitar behind Tina on 'Give Me Your Love' and on Eddie Boyd's 'Five Long Years'. Virtually all tracks feature the wonderful Ikettes, horns are liberally sprinkled and Ike's distinctive guitar and piano are prominent. He also adds a few vocal moments on the ultra-fast 'Goodbye, So Long', and on ‘Something Came Over Me’, a sort of sequel to their most famous hit, ‘A Fool In Love’, which it references musically throughout just as ‘Hard Times’ harks back to ‘It's Gonna Work Out Fine’. Tina Turner's vocal style at this time was a world away from that with which she dominated the world in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but was aimed at a wholly different audience with whom she was highly successful, and it is excellent news that the confusing clutter of releases from this era are gradually being made sense of and becoming available on compilations such as this one. http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.acerecords.co.uk
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Ike & Tina Turner featuring 'Fool In Love' & 'It's Gonna Work Out Fine' medley on the TNT show, 1965:

11 comentarios:

  1. http://rapidshare.com/files/215873429/Ike___Tina_Turner_-_The_Kent_Years__1964-1967_.rar

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  2. Hi

    I've got to page 60 of your collection so far and have the following list as you requested (to be continued):

    I know this is a soul sisters/diva's blog, but here are my (mixed) selections from your collection:
    Arthur Alexander
    Ernestine Anderson
    More Ruby Andrews
    Pattie Austin (Coral)
    Big Maybelle
    Bobby Bland
    The Bobbettes
    Maxine Brown
    James Carr
    Mitty Collier
    Nella Dodds
    Patti Drew
    Jean Dushon **
    Flirtations
    Erma Franklin
    Baby Washington **
    Cissy Houston
    CHUCK JACKSON **
    Walter Jackson **

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  3. wonderful blog! all my respect... we like similar music... I have some stuff in your wishlist... Ann Cole, Jean Plum & Veniece, Rozetta Johnson...

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  4. Oh, pleaseeeeeeee, danibaba: any chance you could pass me a link for Ann Cole (I am absolutely desperate for that) and Jean Plum & Veniece? I would really appreciate it!!

    Thanks a lot!

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  5. Terrific stuff. Thank you!

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  6. I try to give you a link as soon as I can! If you want I have some other stuff that you may be interested in. My email is danibaba@hotmail.it

    Thank you for sharing such great stuff...

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  7. I love your blogs :)
    Ike and Tina were great. I had the chance to see Ike few yeas ago and it was a fantastic show! He was the real thing. We all miss him.
    Thanks for this one and the rest of stuff you share here.

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  8. I just discovered your site. Thank you for all your hard work. Helene Smith. Are you kidding me? I went to collge in Florida, and I heven't heard her in 35 years!
    Here are some from your collection I'd love to hear:
    Barbara and Browns
    Exciters -Black Beauty
    Clydie King- Imperial years
    Little Eva
    Mary Love
    Jackie Ross

    Be good.

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  9. Thanks everybody, for all your kind words.

    BillyMac: I promise I will be good, but it will have to be little by little. There are so many things I want to post... ;-)

    But,as for The Exciters' Black Beauty, I am afraid it is on my wishlist...

    Thanks again.

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