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Tina Turner: The post-Ike, pre-comeback years (1977-1984)

This period of Tina’s career fascinates me. She made her living performing on the cabaret/hotel circuit (occasionally touring overseas) and occasionally appeared on various talk shows. She released two albums during this time, Rough (1978) and Love Explosion (1980), both of which bombed, resulting in her being dropped by her record label.

Lots of live footage of her performances are fortunately available on YouTube.

She experimented with a lot of different musical styles. Here she is covering Barbra Streisand on a TV show in 1977. Not long at all after she left Ike.

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by Anonymousreply 28August 20, 2019 2:20 AM

On the Donny & Marie Show, 1977:

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by Anonymousreply 1August 18, 2019 8:55 PM

Here she is with Tom Jones in 1978, performing the old Brook Benton/Dinah Washington chestnut Baby, You’ve Got What It Takes and Nutbush City Limits.

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by Anonymousreply 2August 18, 2019 9:00 PM

On the brink of her HUGE comeback. These songs would not be recorded and released for another 18 months, on Private Dancer. It was her cover single of Let's Stay Together in 1983 that began it all.

Good of Carson's people to book her on New Year's Eve. The tough times show a bit but Tina looks sensational in what there is of that dress.

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by Anonymousreply 3August 18, 2019 9:06 PM

Her best album is private dancer

by Anonymousreply 4August 18, 2019 9:15 PM

SORRY #2 i was waaaay too focused on tom jones in that video with him and tina! amazing how dirty, sexy, raunchy he was on stage and got away with it during that time! lol!...

by Anonymousreply 5August 18, 2019 9:15 PM

That’s an iconic performance, R3. Yeah, she was so close to the comeback there she could almost taste it.

Here she is in 1979 doing a medley of Fever and Disco Inferno. A good example of what her cabaret/hotel act was like, with the Bob Mackie costumes and male dancers.

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by Anonymousreply 6August 18, 2019 9:16 PM

I remember her TV appearances in the late 70s/early 80s - she seemed like a relic, desperate, and I scratched my head often wondering why the fuck she was on some of these shows.

Total surprise when she made a comeback. She was (for me) almost a joke before then. Her remake of Let's Stay Together did bring her back some - but it wasn't particularly well done or a good cover.

Then bam!

by Anonymousreply 7August 18, 2019 9:20 PM

Amazing legs @R3

by Anonymousreply 8August 18, 2019 9:23 PM

#7.. i actually LOVED her version of "let's stay together"... oh well...but yet, i had the same feeling on these shows before her comeback.. like she was a "fill in" for time and a case of "feeling sorry for her"..

by Anonymousreply 9August 18, 2019 9:24 PM

Who all did Bob Mackie design for in that time period? I know he was designing for Tina, Cher, Dottie West, and of course Carol Burnett. I love his OTT sequins and sexy outfits, especially the ones for Tina, Cher and Dottie, because none of them were super young, but he made them look sexier than many of the younger artists at the time.

by Anonymousreply 10August 18, 2019 9:26 PM

I read an interesting article right after her big comeback that said that she had been booked into small clubs and casinos for the foreseeable future, but, instead of cancelling those dates to play the larger halls her new success would have allowed, she chose to honor all the contracts. I am not a fan of her music, but I admire that integrity. Im also glad she had a second act, considering how awful her experience with Ike was.

by Anonymousreply 11August 18, 2019 9:28 PM

I LOVE her. Poor woman on some game show in the Netherlands. Tina tried a more mainstream modern ladylike image for a bit around this time and then her new management said fuck it -- You're Tina Turner dammit.

Tina can sing anything R11. From the blues to Joni Mitchell. Real rock n roll and disco and SOUL classics to gorgeous pop ballads. You must mean that you don't liker voice, because she's one of a kind.

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by Anonymousreply 12August 18, 2019 9:38 PM

She also performed at the opening ceremonies of Gay Games I in San Francisco, 1982, at Kezar Stadium (before my time, but historic):

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by Anonymousreply 13August 18, 2019 9:40 PM

Tina just slays this song. It's maudlin or self indulgent in the wrong hands. Many have tried to deliver this Sam Cooke soul classic. It's almost a sacred. song. Tina more than most has a right to sing it and she gets it just right. This is post comeback, but it's one of my favorite performances of hers. Pure singing from a deep place of self respect and longing. With SEXY ass Robert Cray on guitar. A Change is Gonna Come.

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by Anonymousreply 14August 18, 2019 9:49 PM

R12 That was amazing

by Anonymousreply 15August 18, 2019 9:51 PM

Yowza, she's like 90% legs in that Carson clip at R3. That was fantastic actually. She looks so happy to be performing. It just leaps off the stage.

I thought her take on Joni's "Edith and the Kingpin" was the highlight of that Herbie Hancock tribute several years back. She could do a whole album in that style no sweat. Sultry and noirish.

by Anonymousreply 16August 18, 2019 10:17 PM

It still amazes me that she was 45 years old when "What's Love Got to Do With It" was released and she became the biggest female singer on the planet almost overnight. How did she get her song played on Top 40 radio and her videos on MTV at the age of 45? She was selling out stadiums all over the world and most of the concert-goers were in their teens and early 20s.

Can you imagine a 45 year old has-been woman making that kind of comeback today? It would never happen. I miss the times when something like that could happen in the music world, but that era is long gone.

by Anonymousreply 17August 18, 2019 10:36 PM

I was always impressed by how hard she worked and performed during those lean years. She was electrifying and performed as if she were already playing to arenas.

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by Anonymousreply 18August 18, 2019 10:40 PM

R17 Cher and the Believe comeback is probably the last time that’ll ever happen.

by Anonymousreply 19August 18, 2019 10:58 PM

Saw her live...SF, 1990s. ❤️

A pregnant Cyndi Lauper opened. ❤️

by Anonymousreply 20August 18, 2019 11:02 PM

I can't imagine what a cranky fucking nightmare a pregnant Cyndi Lauper would have been. Even in the best of times she's an asshole onstage.

by Anonymousreply 21August 18, 2019 11:08 PM

She appeared in Tommy in 1975. Was this performance considered too campy to push her career forward into the late 1970s?

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by Anonymousreply 22August 18, 2019 11:13 PM

don't know about campy, it personally scared the hell out of me!...as did that whole movie "tommy" which either scared me or weirded me out!..

by Anonymousreply 23August 18, 2019 11:58 PM

I saw 'Tommy' at age 10. Freaked me out, in a good way. Tina was the best thing in it, even more than shirtless Roger Daltrey!

by Anonymousreply 24August 19, 2019 8:43 PM

Singing “Proud Mary” on Solid Gold with Dionne Warwick in 1981:

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by Anonymousreply 25August 19, 2019 11:14 PM

Performing a cover of Foreigner’s “Night Life” in Chicago, 1983:

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by Anonymousreply 26August 19, 2019 11:23 PM

[quote] Here she is in 1979 doing a medley of Fever and Disco Inferno. A good example of what her cabaret/hotel act was like, with the Bob Mackie costumes and male dancers.

She ain’t no Donna Summers

by Anonymousreply 27August 20, 2019 12:08 AM

r17 it really is amazing. No way could it happen now.

by Anonymousreply 28August 20, 2019 2:20 AM
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