Customer Reviews

Bold Soul Sister - The Best of the Blue Thumb Recordings

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The best of the blue thumb recordings is a compilation with the best tracks of Ike & Tina 's two blues albums which they made for Blue thumb records in the late sixties: "Outta Season" and "the hunter". If you listen to this album, you would want to see Tina Turner make another blues record again. Although the material she recorded since "Private Dancer" is of high quality, the music on this compilation shows a Tina which a lot of younger fans don't know and is really worth knowing ! Also we may not forget what a brilliant musician Ike Turner was and still is (Check out his new album "My blues Country"). If you like the blues...buy it, you won't regret it !

Although it may be hard to find, buy the cd on Blue Moon records, a Spanish record label, that features the complete The Hunter and Outta Season albums. They both fit onto one cd, so why they left out 8 tracks and called it The Best of the Blue Thumb recordings is beyond me. So the one star is not for the music itself (which is great!) but for the 8 tracks left out.

The song Bold Soul Sister popped up on my iPod today. Toward the end of it I realized," Holy Smokes, that's Albert Collins playing solo guitar fills". He's unmistakable. Even though he's not credited on the CD it makes sense because I believe Albert put something out on Blue Thumb too. True story: when I was a young lad (14 maybe) I helped move equipment for an Ike and Tina show. I sat right by the side of stage. This would have been about 1970. At one point during the show somebody handed me Ike's Strat....I couldn't resist strumming a chord or two on it. He had the action set low!

On a side note, in the new Wayne Shorter bio there is a crazy story about him walking into his house to find Tina, the greatest rock singer ever, scrubbing his floors. Read the book for the details.

PS Check out the non-Phil Spector River Deep, Mountain High on the EMI Best of Ike and Tina Turner..stunning vocal track!!

This album is amazing! It is by far the best album that Tina & Ike Turner ever made! You should buy it if you can get a copy of it!

Bought this for my wife as she has been a Tina fan from the beginning. Sound quality is good and crisp. My wife was very happy. Although she said they could have left out the photos of Ike.

Apparently unstoppable in their energy and constant search for a hit that would finally break them into big time,Ike and Tina Turner sailed through 1960s with bulldozer-like determination,without protective umbrella of "Motown" or "Stax" behind them,their reputation solely based on live concerts where they were one of the biggest attractions from the start.

Ike master-minded their concert schedule and recording sessions - they tried everything from girl group sound,boogie-woogie,Phil Spector and gospel to cover of white rocker's hits,so idea that they should show off as straight blues musicians came as natural as anything else and it makes perfect sense as Ike had roots in Delta blues (he hang out with Howlin' Wolf,Bobby Bland and B.B.King when they just started,in fact he worked as talent scout for Sam Phillips at the stone age of rockn'roll) and Tina singing was inspired by guys like Ray Charles and James Brown more than any girl in the business.

When Phil Spector collaboration bombed in USA,couple found themselves suddenly big stars in Europe where white rockers welcomed them as aristocracy and they witnessed big interest in authentic blues - hey,Ike was mean bues player and he could show them a trick or two.

In the late 1960s Turners recorded two albums for "Blue Thumb" company and this CD compilation cherry-picks the best moments from these straight blues albums,where Ikettes momentarily stepped back and music is pure,dirty blues right from the black clubs,lots of it inspired by other songs but claimed to be composed by Ike.

Compilation starts with title song "Bold soul sister" that find Tina growling like James Brown (her first "Grammy" nomination) but the rest of the collection is pure blues with guitar virtuosity and licks that probably made white boys green with envy.Just ask Eric Clapton or anybody from the time,to hear Turnerized take on "Rock me baby","Dust My Broom","Mean Old World" or "Five Long years" was musicians Heaven and even if it didn't bring any huge commercial avalanche,it brought couple deserved respect with critics - Rolling Stones immediately invited them to tour with them in USA together with B.B.King and reviews of their concerts are testimony that their opening act almost overshadowed main stars.

If nothing,these albums (with original LP covers cheekily showing couple in "white-face" make-up as comment on the music that was adopted from blacks in the first place) show how easy and naturally blues came to Turners - they could do it in their sleep without breaking a sweat - and even if Tina later claimed she didn't like these songs and Ike made her do it,she pours her heart in the blues,her tigress growl matching Ike's guitar lick by lick and no matter is it wail in Otis Redding's "I've been loving you too long" or uptempo,almost woodoo snake-charm of "Crazy 'bout You Baby" (later covered by young ... on her debut album) they are both absolutely fascinating in this blues incarnation and of all Turner's recordings this one shows them perhaps most closer to the bone artistically - as in where they actually came from as opposite to their later rock experiments.

My own personal favourites are Tina's haunting acoustic gospel "I Am A Motherless Child" and dirty,country-blues of "Honest I Do" done like wink to backwood origins of this music - when other girls tried to be glamourous and went Las Vegas,Tina sounds like she still have dust and mud on her feet.

Very,very good.

In 1969, after "A Fool in Love" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" and before "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits", Ike & Tina recorded two albums for the Blue Thumb label. The songs on this compilation are taken from those recordings.

BOLD SOUL SISTER consists of 16 songs recorded in 1969 in non-chronological order. Disc packaged in black jewel case; total running time: 50:10. Booklet includes a poorly written short essay by Amy Linden, a series b&w shots of Ike & Tina from a photo session, and songwriter credits; albums of origin, chart positions, musician personnel, and recording dates are not included. Sound quality is good.

What is most disappointing about this compilation is its brevity. It seems that at well under an hour of music, the CD could have included the remaining tracks from "Outta Season" and "The Hunter" not included here; it is very common for two LPs to be re-issued on a single disc. (In fact, those 2 LPs were released on a single disc in 2004.)

The 16 tracks included are some great Blues recordings by Tina Turner, seemingly with minimal instrumentation, sans the Ikettes and Kings of Rhythm. Songs include "Rock Me Baby", "Dust My Broom", and Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long".

The music is good, but with a little effort this COULD have been a GREAT compilation.

Music: ***

Packaging/comprehensiveness: *

value/deal/quality: *

A record that proves, without a doubt, that Tina is the Queen of Rock n Roll (R&B, etc....). Not a bad track on this record. The remake of "I've Been Loving You Too Long" is especially noteworthy. Too bad Ike is such an *!@#, because he is the other reason this album is so good.

Or should I say - the music is "BaD" - I really dig this CD - sounds to me like Led Zepplin took a few hints from Ike....