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Ike’s Legacy: The ever-sharp Donald Fagen, everyone’s favorite half of Steely Dan, wrote a wonderful Ike Turner obit for Slate yesterday. Where other send offs painted Turner as a sinister villain, this one depicts him as a misguided and pathetic soul who never comprehended how he lost the career he worked so methodically to build:
After Tina finally left in '76, Ike, already way shredded from the whole Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll thing, totally came apart. Years of continued heavy drug use and run-ins with the law ensued, culminating in his serving 17 months in a California state prison. He was still in jail when he got the news that he and Tina had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Finally, just when things were starting to look up, Tina's book came out, followed by the film What's Love Got To Do With It.Now the poster boy for spousal abuse, Ike started to fight his way back. He reconstituted the Kings of Rhythm and came out with a book, Taking Back My Name ("Sure, I've slapped Tina. … We had fights and there have been times when I punched her without thinking. … But I never beat her. … I did no more to Tina than I would mind somebody doing to my mother in the same circumstances."). Obviously, there was something Ike just didn't get about the whole hitting problem. In his comeback shows, he had a series of surrogate Tinas come out in Tina-type outfits and sing Tina's songs. It seemed like he still couldn't figure out why she was gone.Final Year-End List Round-Up: The last of the year-end lists are rolling in (at least the last of the important ones), and if you’ve been remotely following any of these lists, the results won’t surprise you. Rolling Stone crowned M.I.A.’s Kala #1 (which is actually a pretty daring move for the notoriously stodgy mag), but fleshed out the rest of their top 10 with predictable picks: Springsteen, Jay-Z, Arcade Fire, Kanye, Radiohead, etc. Curiously, they snubbed The National. Pitchforkmedia, meanwhile, reminded us that they love Panda Bear’s Person Pitch way more than any other publication does. For all the year-end music info you’ll ever need, head to Metacritic’s round-up.
