We went touring in the USA in November '69 with Mick Taylor [replacing Brian Jones]. B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner were opening acts, which was a hot show just by itself. ------------------ [excerpt, Life, by Keith Richards] ------------------ Added to that, it was the first tour that the open-tuning riffs -- the big new sound -- were let loose on audiences.
The most powerful effect was on Ike Turner....He dragged me into his dressing room..."Show me that five-string" ...And we were there for about forty-five minutes, and I showed him the basics of it. And the next thing was Come Together, that beautiful album that Ike and Tina did, and all of it was five-string.
He got the hang of it in forty-five minutes, picked it up like that.
But to me the amazing thing is, I'm showing Ike Turner shit? With musicians there's this weird crossing over between awe and respect and being accepted.
When other guys come to you and go, hey, man, show me that lick, and they're guys that you've been listening to for years, that's when you know that you're amongst men now. OK, I can't believe it, but I'm part of the front line, top hands.
And the other great thing about musicians, or most of them, is the reciprocation, the generosity they show to one another. Have you got that little pop? Yeah, it goes like this. Mostly there are no secrets; everybody swaps ideas. How did you get that? And he shows you and you realize it's really simple. -------------- [end excerpt] -----------------
----------------- [excerpt, I, Tina, by Tina Turner with Kurt Loder] ---------- And then "River Deep" became a hit in England, and suddenly Ike and Tina were off to tour with the Rolling Stones. ...
Tina: After that, Mick would come into the dressing room and we would sing a lot together. He never knocked, so you'd always have to stay kind of dressed, because he was friendly enough with Ike that he could just walk in.
But we'd sing and talk and laugh -- everything was funny in those days, with Mick around. He'd be telling me about Keith Richards, too...and it'd be Keith-this and Keith-that, and we'd laugh it up some more.
Mick wanted to learn the pony. He said, "How do you guys do that?"
So we all started dancing -- and I finally saw what he had been doing onstage. I said, "Look at the rhythm on this guy! God, Mick, come on!" I mean, we laughed. Because Mick was serious -- he wanted to get it. He didn't care about us laughing at him. And finally he got it, in his own kind of way. ----------- [end excerpt] ----
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Ike and Tina Turner, late 1960s --
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Early 1960s --
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