Farewell, Tina Turner
6/8/2023, 6 p.m.
Like many of her devoted fans, I was both shocked and saddened that the euphonious singer, Tina Turner, passed away on Wednesday, May 24, 2023.
From her early performances with husband, Ike Turner, and backup dancers, The Ikettes, on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Smothers Brothers,” “Don Kirshner’s Midnight Special,” and many other 1960 and 1970 TV shows, I was captivated by their fusion of musical genres.
I would sit in my rocking chair beside our family’s phonograph for hours playing their many songs — “Nutbush City Limits,” “River Deep Mountain High,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” “Come Together,”and of course, the one that they “never did nothing nice and easy on” — “Proud Mary.”
When Ms. Turner reinvented herself in the 1980s as a solo artist performing new tunes, I was elated to share that listening experience with my best friend ever, later my wife, who surprised me with tickets to her “What’s Love Tour” at the Classic Amphitheater on Aug. 4, 1993, for my birthday. Her performance live was a dream come true for the 12-year-old still inside that 40-year-old man.
Despite it being almost 30 years ago this year, that remains one concert we still love telling others about even today.
In saying our goodbye to Tina, we chose these lyrics from Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird”: “For you, there’ll be no more crying”; “For you, the sun will be shining.”
RICK KNIGHT
Henrico County
