"Proud Mary" by Ike and Tina Turner

Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the Man every night and day
But I never lost a minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been

[chorus]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of tane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of a city
'Til I hitched a ride on the riverboat queen

[repeat chorus]

If you come down to the River
Bet you're gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have no money
People on the river are happy to give

[repeat chorus]

Comments

[Jesse Coffey]

Composer: John Fogerty

In a 1969 interview, composer John Fogerty stated that he wrote this song two days after he was discharged from the National Guard (with the first lyric being written immediately after this happened). It was at a concert at the Avalon Ballroom (famous for concerts hosted by Lawrence Welk) where Mr. Fogerty wrote the riffs to this song, along with its original B-side "Born on the Bayou," and "Keep on Chooglin'"; all three tracks were on the Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 album BAYOU COUNTRY (Fantasy). The line "rollin' on the river" came from a movie starring Will Rogers. The song was a major hit in the US, hitting #2 on the pop charts and #8 in England (where the original "Proud Mary" was issued on Liberty).

Then came a version by Solomon Burke, which hit #25 on the R&B charts; #45 pop. Mr. Burke stated once:

We went to Muscle Shoals and recorded Proud Mary, which they didn’t like at all. They thought it was stupid to record a song [like] "Proud Mary", which was already on the charts. I was explaining to them that it was a very big record, but it’s a very white record, a pop record. We will redo the record, open up the doors for it to get on the r&b charts and make the black stations to play the record... It was a Solomon Burke record made in Muscle Shoals. We proved that we can make a hit record without Jerry Wexler eating sandwiches with us. This record was a hit without anybody’s help. Proud Mary was only promoted by Tamiko Jones and myself.

Mr. Fogerty was impressed:

Two thousand miles away this man had crawled right up inside my head to learn what Proud Mary was all about. Sure, it's great when someone sings your song, but when he understands it, you listen like it was the first time.

Many others have covered the song since the two versions, such as Ed Ames, Anthony Armstrong Jones, Checkmates, Ltd. (a Phil Spector production), Spiral Starecase (best known for another of 1969's hits "More Today Than Yesterday"), Billy Paul, and The Osmonds, on their 1971 live album.

While at a Los Angeles concert, where the second major hit version of this song was recorded, it caught the attention of Tina Turner. The arrangement referenced in this blog came from Soko Richardson and Ike Turner. Their version notably started off with a slow, sultry soulful tone in which Tina introduced the song and warned the audience that she and the band were gonna start it off "nice and easy" as "we never do nothing nice and easy" but said they would finish it "nice and rough". After the lyrics are first sung softly by the Turners, the song is then turned into a funk rock vamp with Tina and the Ikettes delivering gospel-influenced vocals. This record (#4 pop, #5 R&B, #11 Canada) came from their LP, Workin' Together. Subsequent to this, a live version was included on their album What You Hear Is What You Get. An ad for a TV special promoting the latter LP, which was broadcast under the "Faberge Album of the Month" banner, appeared in the July 24, 1971 issue of TV Guide (I have a copy of the New York Metropolitan Edition of that issue, where the ad appears on A-15; it was telecast that day on NBC O&O/flagship WNBC in the NYC area.)

[Phoenix Heart 27]

3788686 All of this is true! Plus I was watching What's Love Got to Do With It.

[Jesse Coffey]

3788694
A surprise hit from Touchstone Pictures (known for releasing more mature films than its parent, Disney) came in 1993 with What's Love Got to Do With It, an adaptation of Tina Turner's autobiography, I, Tina. Like the book, the film revealed several instances of severe domestic abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. This joined Ike's cocaine addiction in damaging Mr. Turner's career during the 1980s and 1990s. Addicted to cocaine and crack for at least 15 years, Mr. Turner was convicted of drug offenses, serving seventeen months in prison between July 1989 and 1991. Although free of his addiction for the rest of the decade, he relapsed in 2004. In his final years, he returned to live performance as a front man and, returning to his blues roots, produced two albums that were critically well received and award-winning.

Ike and Tina Turner first had a hit record on Sue Records with "A Fool In Love" [Sue 730, #2 R&B, #27 pop, 8/60], and within two years had added five more national hits: "I Idolize You" [Sue 735, #5 R&B, #82 pop, 12/60], "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" [Sue 749, #2 R&B, #14 pop, 7/61, backed by Mickey & Sylvia], "Poor Fool" [Sue 753, #4 R&B, #38 pop, 11/61], "Tra La La La La" [Sue 757, #9 R&B, #50 pop, 3/62], and "You Should'a Treated Me Right [Sue 765, #89 pop, 6/62]; their hits for Sue stopped after that. As a couple though, they were described by Both Sides Now Discographies as having "set the unofficial record for most hits with different labels". Sonja, Warner Bros., Kent, Loma, Modern, Philles, Innis, Blue Thumb, Minit, and A&M all released records that became minor chart hits for the duo while they were together. This made them "the nomads of 1960s music". Their hits drowned due to the aforementioned circumstances. "By late 1975, Tina released a solo effort, a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" [United Artists 724], which reached #61 on the R&B charts. Then they were gone. In 1976, they divorced, and we didn't hear anything more until 1984, when Tina Turner signed with Capitol and became a superstar as a solo performer."

[Phoenix Heart 27]

3788715 Again true!