Listen: Baby – Get It On / Ike & Tina Turner
Baby
Seemingly undaunted by failure, Ike & Tina Turner churned out singles at a hectic, continuous pace for more than a decade.
Come ’75, the number declined, as opposed to say their ’64 – ’68 run. By this point, the tradeoff was certainly more album releases than just about any other act. No doubt encouraged by the United Artists funded, but Ike & Tina Turner owned Bolic Sound in the Inglewood section of Los Angeles, they flooded the market with an endless stream of jam based, second rate songs. Or so it seemed at the time.
Their live draw was at a peak, and in concert, much of what sounded pedestrian on vinyl surely exploded on the stage. Playing so many of those releases, as I often do, their once current but generic, assembly line weakness quite honestly has gotten more and more appealing as both time and distance increase. As do the once unappealing covers.
What some might still consider a careless, bland or demo-like snare sound now stamp a period date smack onto each record. A true hidden charm being the clarity and precision of Ike’s studio technique.
‘Baby – Get It On’ easily exemplifies the above claim, and was to be their last BILLBOARD Top 100 entry, peaking at #88 in ’75.
Don’t care, sounds better than ever to me. Combining Ike’s cliched lyrics, Tina’s ever inspired, dutiful call/response delivery, that drum sound and a clear stereo mix easily allows the sum to become greater than the parts.
What I, and most likely, we all used to pass up at garage and house sales have become eyebrow raisers nowadays. Yes, trust me, Ike & Tina Turner’s mid 70′s United Artists singles are worth grabbing.
Tags: Billboard, Bolic Sound Studios, Ike & Tina Turner, United Artists