Ike & Tina Turner - The Kent Years (2000)

As John Ridley says in the introduction to his notes for this CD, "Over the last few years there has been more media hype about Ike and Tina than any other R&B artists.... what seems to have been completely overlooked is just how good the music they produced together in the 60s really was."

Well, this CD - IKE & TINA TURNER - The Kent Years (CDKEND182) tries to make up for some of that by including many of their strongest numbers made for Kent and Modern Records in the period 1964-67, their most prolific and exciting period. In addition to 45s and album tracks that came out at that time, we have included five cuts that are seeing the light of day for the first time for a total 26 songs.

During this period of recording, Ike & Tina built up a formidable live revue, which toured the States on a punishing schedule. Showcasing Tina's voice and raw energy in front of the Ikettes, with the band being directed and led by Ike, the revue also had other artists who took solo spots. Featuring predominantly dance numbers written by Ike himself, the revue belted out live versions of songs, most of which had been recorded in the studio first even if subsequently performed and recorded live. In this CD, we are concentrating almost exclusively on the studio recordings, so CDKEND 182 forms the perfect companion set to CDKEND 102 which features live recordings from the duo and the rest of the revue. Between the two CDs you have almost everything they recorded for the Modern Records' Group.

So included here are their popular upbeat singles outings such as 'I Can't Believe What You Say' (a Top 100 entry), 'Goodbye, So Long', 'Gonna Have Fun', 'Chicken Shack' and 'Flee Flee Fla', together with their flip sides and other important songs from their Kent albums. There are many other quite revealing sounds here, too. Listen, for example, to the soulful strings on 'Makin' Plans Together' and the Mayfield-inspired vocals on 'I Don't Need'. It's not all dance music either - for bluesier numbers, there's Ike's guitar behind Tina on 'Give Me Your Love' and on Eddie Boyd's 'Five Long Years'-.-and for a kick-back to the duo's Sue sound, 'Something Came Over Me' features Ike's talking response to Tina's singing with an awfully-familiar guitar riff!

by Peter Gibbon