Tina Turner defined raw energy, magnetism
purists might point to giants like Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1930s and 40s), and Big Maybelle and Big Mama Thornton of the 1950s and 1960s.
Others might cite later artists such as Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame before going solo or Joan Jett of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
Still others will endeavor to make a case for someone like Ann Wilson of Heart. As a solo artist my money is on Tina Turner with Janis Joplin coming in second, a close second. Although I had yet to enter kindergarten when Joplin died and was unaware of her music at the time, I have since collected her work on vinyl, watched Youtube videos of her, documentaries in which she has appeared and more importantly, talked to people who consumed her music growing up and a few who even saw her live in the 1960s.
Some will require that I list charted hits as a metric for making the case for Turner being the greatest female Rock and Roll artist of all-time.
To me, however, such criteria is sometimes myopic and do not tell the whole story. This is one of those times. Like in sports, sometimes the box score does not capture a player’s impact on a game or an era, yet that person’s influence is undeniable.
For a time, Turner was a hit making machine, but again that is only a small area on an expansive portrait. How many solo artists were performing to sellout crowds as a member of a band when they were in their twenties and thirties, and doing likewise when they were in their forties, fifties, and sixties as a solo artist, both in the U.S. and abroad?
Turner was an absolute dynamo on stage, an indefatigable performer. Her influence on artists such as Sharon Jones (of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings), Shakira, Beyonce, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, and many others is glaringly obvious.
Turner is the first woman to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, starting in 1967, and several times thereafter. To fully appreciate Turner’s journey from smalltown Tennessee to Hollywood’s bright lights one would do well to read her 1986 autobiography “I, Tina.”
A page turner, the I stands for indestructible. I, Tina is a story filled with trials and tribulations, sorrow, struggle, perseverance, triumph and happiness.
Not only was Tina Turner one of the world’s greatest entertainers, her 1980s resurgence, is one of the most impressive in the history of entertainment. Dead at 83, Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock and Roll, left an imprint on the music industry that few will ever match.
Judson L. Jeffries is a professor of African American and African Studies at Ohio State University and a frequent contributor to the Columbus Dispatch.