Matt recommends "Proud Mary: the Best of Ike and Tina Turner"

It struck me recently that I hadn't heard any of the music that Ike and Tina Turner made together in the 1960s and '70s besides the song "Proud Mary." Of course I've heard the sad story of their relationship, and growing up, I'd heard plenty of the music Tina made on her own, but I didn't really have a clue how it compared to what she'd done with Ike. I checked out the library's copy of "Proud Mary: the Best of Ike and Tina Turner" a few weeks ago and couldn't believe what I heard. What amazing stuff! It has a bit of Motown, a bit of blues, some soul, rock, even funk, and this is all in a single greatest hits compilation! The songs all have an exciting, rollicking zeal that I just can't get enough of, and Tina's voice is much more raw, forceful and unpolished than I expected. Many of the lyrics are about her devotion to Ike, which, knowing what we now know about their relationship, lends the whole thing a sense of poignancy, but the songs' joyful energy is catching nonetheless. All in all, I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't heard it and likes any of the musical styles mentioned above, as well as anyone who may have heard it before but forgot how great it sounds.