Ike

You know the beginning of Proud Mary when Tina Turner is laying it down, just how it's going to be? Lord, I hate that musical moment. Maybe it's that the context gets lost as so many bar and wedding bands ape that intro when they do the song. There's a fair amount of that kind of grandstanding or pieces of the puzzle that just don't fit for me on a lot of Ike & Tina stuff (outside of Too Much Woman for a Hen Pecked Man, which I think is perfect).

Well, lately I've been listening to A Black Man's Soul, a collection of Ike Turner tracks collected from about 1969. It's a wonderful set of tunes, mostly instrumental, and has no nonsense in it for me.

What do I see in these recordings? Well, I love the way they're recorded. It's sloppily but well-documented, certainly not polished, the prominent horns with a real raw rip to them, and the drums existing in a space that's, well, perfect. You can hear the sound of the room in every beat (listen to the breaks in Funky Mule). There's occasional odd sounds coming in, too, not in a stoned out Funkadelic sort of way, but in a live way that reminds me of the Ex (listen to the clinkiness in Black Beauty).

This has been my driving music of late. It's been part of my daily life on and off for the past few weeks.

Funky Mule
Black Beauty

~Arum