Music: Ike Turner Dead at 76

Musical pioneer and marital pugilist Ike Turner has died, leaving a rich legacy as a rock n' roll and r & b originator tarnished by his violent marriage to wife and singing partner Tina. Turner was there at the birth of rock playing guitar and contributing to the writing of "Rocket 88", an ode to Oldsmobile that many consider to be the first rock n' roll song. With Tina, whom he met in 1959, he found the perfect foil for his stinging guitar and hot arrangements. They would eventually cross over to mainstream rock by the end of the 1960's, scoring hits with covers of songs by artists like Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ike Turners heavy drug use and relentless abuse of Tina led to their musical and personal split in the 70s. While Tina would have a triumphant comeback in the mid 80s, Ike would always be identified with spousal abuse.

Here's a little Q and A with Ike and Tina and a live performance of "Feels Good":


Here they are doing "Get Back" circa 1972...dig the Ikette's moves!

Music: New Release Tuesday -- AARP Edition

PJ Harvey: Missing guitar, pants, several meals...

This weeks new releases take a decidedly grey tone with acts that boomers love. To wit:

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's Magic returns Broooooce and Sil from The Sopranos plus Conan O'Brien's bandleader and the guy from those mid-80's Jackson Browne videos (not Darryl Hannah -- I ought to slap you for thinking that!) to the anthemic rock their fans crave. Along with their Geritol cravings.

Bob Dylan gets yet another retrospective squeezed out of his catalog, the three disc set entitled Dylan, natch. This includes an entirely unnecessary Mark Ronson remixed song, you know, for the kids. Ike and Tina Turner also get the 3-disc anthology treatment (guess which one I'm buying).

Mick Jagger gets on the greatest hits bandwagon, with a few interesting ringers thrown in such as the John Lennon collaboration "Too Many Cooks". Thank god for I-Tunes.

John Fogerty celebrates his return to the Fantasy label with the very Creedence-y sounding Revival.

Rhino slinks out with two more Depeche Mode re-issues, Exciter and Ultra.

PJ Harvey's White Chalk shows her moving to delicate piano based songs. The best thing about that is the inevitable return to shredding guitar album that is sure to follow.

Cake has a B-Sides collection coming out.

David Bowie's The Buddah of Suburbia, considered by some fans to be the best of his post-classic albums, is re-issued.

David Byrne and Doug Sahm both have live albums coming out.

Siouxsie (of and The Banshees fame) releases her first solo disc.

And finally bland-merchants Matchbox 20 crap out a Hits disc with 6 new songs thrown in, just to uphold their end of their contract with Satan.

Happy hunting!