Simply The Best
Tina Turner (Anna Mae Bullock) was an iconic figure - Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" to me and will always be. I was fascinated by her style, voice, and tenacity. I admired how she became an international sensation and broadened her atmosphere to live and thrive in the UK, Switzerland to be precise, where she was welcomed and uplifted.
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| Published 1986 |
I read her autobiography, "I, Tina" when I was a teen and not fully grasping the sense of venerability in her life or marriage. Then I watched the biopic "What's Love Got to Do With it?" of her and Ike Turner played by Lawrence Fishburn and Angela Bassett in which I was much older to empathize. Since her recent passing on May 24, 2023, I picked up her memoir "My Love Story" published in 2018, and blow the dust particles off the spine and read it. Below is my heartfelt review of a beautiful woman who has sold 150 million records worldwide, becoming one of the best selling recording artists of all time. She was the first black artist and first woman to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
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| Published 1999 |
I began reading and listening in audio My Love Story in which she reads the prologue in that sultry, gravelly voice. Left on my shelf is a book I bought at a Used Book Sale for maybe $1.00 is "Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner."
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| Published 2018 |
From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. My Love Story is an explosive and inspiring story.
From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. My Love Story is an explosive and inspiring story.
Tina Turner, the long-reigning queen of rock n' roll and living legend, sets the record straight about her illustrious career and complicated personal life in this eye-opening and compelling memoir. From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. “My Love Story” is an explosive and inspiring story.
Even though the chapters were read by Heather Alicia Simms. I could hear Turner's voice and her honest thoughts, emotions, feelings in her own words. Singing was both a form of expression and a source of comfort for Mrs. Turner, which exemplifies why she was so good at her craft. Ike Turner nicknamed “Pistol Whippin’” was an angry and unpredictable man with an infamous dark side. Like Tina, many of Ike’s struggles began at birth. When he was a boy, he watched his father die a slow, painful death. When he was older, he had a hard time at school. he was embarrassed about his lack of education and his poor manners. Success would be his revenge. Ike Turner was verbally abusive, then became physically abusive and controlling. Their relationship was defined by abuse and fear, no love or affection, and stifling of her creativity. She described sex with Ike had become an expression of hostility. Eventually, Ike turned to drugs and alcohol and formed an addiction, habit.
Often times while on the road touring in the southern states, the revue had to deal with racial tensions, and blatant discrimination. In the music industry there was rejection from the US when their music was widely accepted in the UK, such as “River Deep-Mountain High” written by Phil Spector in 1966. Which ultimately led to Tina’s love for the UK, and an intro into psychics, readers, and later turning to Buddhism, meditation prayer, and cleaning was a form of therapy. Later as Ms. Turner resided in Europe, and had homes in England, Germany, France, and Switzerland.
Tina was amongst celebrities, such as Jaqueline Onassis Kennedy, her idol, Sammy Davis Jr, whom bought her first Jaguar, Ann-Margret Olsson, a fan of Tina Turner, Cher after she divorced Sonny and appeared on her show as a solo artist, Bob Mackie, the fashion designer who designed her costumes.
Her meeting with Erwin Bach, her future husband was magical, love-at-first-sight. She was free to love and love she did, with Erwin. Turner was a caring, nurturing, and optimistic woman who created lifetime friendships while endured the worst of times and found a love story all her own, by enjoying artistic freedom and commercial success. I saw her as a beautiful woman, young and aged, who radiated beauty, class, talent, and happiness while gracing the cover of magazines, such as Vogue. She will always be my idol!
I thought the co-authors and Tina Turner did a wonderful job with the writing of this book, I was very surprised to see all the pictures from within the book also at the end of the ebook with explanations and index references that you can click on to take you back to those subjects within the book. I bounced back and forth between audio (which was well done by the narrator) and the ebook.
Further Reading:
Robbie Montgomery is an American singer and restauranteur. She is noted for being one of the original Ikettes in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the 1960s. She later created the Sweetie Pie's franchise and starred in the award-winning reality series Welcome to Sweetie Pie's.
Darlene Wright (born July 26, 1941), known professionally as Darlene
Love, is an American singer and actress. She was the lead singer of
the girl group the Blossoms and she also recorded as a solo artist.
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