walking upstream…
Tina Turner
sourcesWikipedia · Biography.com · WERS
Born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, Tina Turner sang her way out of the cotton fields and into rock and roll history, first as the explosive lead voice of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue and then, after a harrowing exit from that partnership, as a solo superstar who conquered the 1980s on her own terms. Her voice was pure friction — gravel and fire over a groove — and her live show, all fringe and stiletto-heeled sprints across the stage, became the template for what a rock frontwoman could be. She died in 2023 still called, with good reason, the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll.
the sound in question
1971
Proud MaryTina Turner
walk the tributaries ↓
B.B. King1960s–70s · Blues / Electric blues
Long before Ike Turner discovered her, a teenage Anna Mae Bullock grabbed the microphone at a St. Louis club and sang B.B. King's 'You Know I Love You' — the song of her self-described childhood icon — and stopped the room.
listen: upstream & here
1952
You Know I Love YouB.B. King
1973
Nutbush City LimitsTina Turner
listen forListen to King's 1952 original for the way he lets a single bent note carry the ache of the whole line, then play Tina Turner's own 'Nutbush City Limits' — there's no guitar solo, but that same raw, talk-singing urgency in her voice traces straight back to the blues phrasing she grew up idolizing.
Ike Turner1950s–60s · Rock and roll / R&B / Blues
Ike Turner was the bandleader who put a teenage Anna Mae Bullock behind the microphone in the first place, mentoring her in vocal control and stage performance and building the raucous, rock-and-roll-adjacent sound of his Kings of Rhythm around her voice.
listen: upstream & here
1951
Rocket 88Ike Turner
1960
A Fool in LoveTina Turner
listen for'Rocket 88,' the 1951 single Ike Turner's band cut with saxophonist Jackie Brenston on lead vocal, is often named as one of rock and roll's first records — all distorted amp buzz and boogie-woogie drive; hear that same unruly, guitar-driven grit nine years later in Ike & Tina's breakout 'A Fool in Love,' the record that announced Tina as a force in her own right.
Mahalia Jackson1950s · Gospel
Turner's earliest singing was in the choir of Spring Hill Baptist Church, and Mahalia Jackson — gospel's first great crossover star — loomed over that whole musical world as the sound of a voice testifying at full volume.
listen: upstream & here
1947
Move On Up a Little HigherMahalia Jackson
1966
River Deep – Mountain HighTina Turner
listen forJackson's 'Move On Up a Little Higher' builds from a murmur to a shout that fills a cathedral; that same church-honed sense of dynamics — start low, build, then let it all the way out — animates the Wall of Sound grandeur of Ike & Tina's 'River Deep – Mountain High,' where Turner's voice fights to be heard over Phil Spector's orchestra and wins.