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I was a college freshman and entered the business world when I first engaged with the marvels of a concert with Tina Turner. In 1984 Tina started with the recording of her "Private Dancer" album. She rehearsed some new songs and in May 1984 she became the opening act for Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down" tour of which I saw her in person in downtown Nashville Tennessee for a sold out performance
in 1984, again I saw her when I went Bessie's Boathouse in Norfolk, Virginia to see Tina Turner in concert. It was a small venue. There were maybe 1,000 people in the place. "Let's Stay Together" was the hit song and "What's Love Got To Do With It" was climbing the charts. To this day, I've never seen anyone give what she gave onstage and dance and roll and sing and dance, it was so inspiring and that concert so intimate.
Turner’s “Private Dancer” album came out in May 1984, sold more than eight million copies and featured several hit singles, including the title song and “Better Be Good To Me.” It won four Grammys, among them record of the year for “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” the song that came to define the clear-eyed image of her post-Ike years and one. Of many of my favorite songs by her.
I saw her again with Wings as her opening act and then in Vegas, Manhattan and Los Angeles over the years. Every time as entertaining as the first.
In 1999, Turner released what would be her final album, Twenty Four Seven, partly produced by the same team who worked on Cher’s “Believe.” The album didn’t achieve the commercial success of the records that preceded it, but the accolades and recognition continued.
In 2005, Turner, along with Tony Bennett, Robert Redford, and others, was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor by then-president George W. Bush, with Beyoncé celebrating Turner with a rendition of “Proud Mary.”
“Tina was a unique and remarkable force of nature with her strength, incredible energy and immense talent,” Turner’s longtime manager Roger Davies said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Reflecting on how she connected to an audience, Turner said to Rolling Stone in 1986, “My songs are a little bit of everybody’s lives who are watching me. You gotta sing what they can relate to. And there are some raunchy people out there. The world is not perfect. And all of that is in my performance….”
The world is not perfect by any means but the world is a better place because of music, movie and theatrical performances and the spirit of Tina Tuner which lives within each of us who have been touched or influenced by her music or her life story. Thanks Tina for being my “private dancer.”
Our radio station KALHradio.org is playing two songs in her memory every hour till midnight tonight and DJ Majik 1 will be playing a few special songs of hers in Tribute to her during tonight’s Hump Day Wednesday show streaming on YouTube and Krazy KALHRadio.org tonight from Roadrunner Emporium, 928 New York Avenue, Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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