Anna Mae Bullock was a badass.
Anna Mae was only 4 or 5 when her parents moved from their home just outside Memphis so they could work in Knoxville, TN. Anna Mae was separated from her two older sisters, and forced to live with her strict, religious grandparents for several years. Her mother was a musician, and it was not long before Anna Mae was singing in church.
Anna Mae was only 11 when her mother left home to get away from Anna Mae’s father, her abusive husband. Anna Mae was only 13 when her father remarried, and she was again forced to live with grandparents while her father and step-mother moved to Detroit for work. She was only 18 years old when she saw Ike Turner perform for the very first time. She grabbed a microphone during a break in the show and forced Ike to listen her sing.
By the time she was 20, Anna Mae Bullock formally joined Turner’s Kings of Rhythm band, and by the time she was 23 she had married Ike Turner. Anna Mae was subject to Ike’s mental and physical abuse for years and years while they had hit after hit on the charts. Throughout her career with Ike, Tina proved herself over and over again to be a deeply emotional, energetic and passionate performer.
After abruptly leaving Ike in 1976 with only $0.36 in her pocket and a gas credit card, Tina got to the business of reinventing herself and her career. In May 1984 Tina Turner released the album Private Dancer, which was a massive success, logging almost 40 weeks in the Billboard Top 10. Tina Turner became a model of strength, persistence and resistance, selling out stadiums and arenas around the world.
Anna Mae Bullock persevered, survived, and flourished. She became one of the most successful artists in the history of recorded music. She was a badass.
Sadly, Tina recently died at the age of 83 from multiple health complications. I regret that I have not written about her on 1Perfect Song until now, but I think I had a hard time picking just the right song. Ike and Tina’s cover of “Proud Mary” is masterful. The Phil Spector produced magnum opus “River Deep, Mountain High” is truly a brilliant wall of sound. “Nutbush City Limits” is a hard rocking, rollicking recollection of the small town where Tina grew up.
These are all great songs, but for me and so many people my age, we first really connected with Tina upon the release of Private Dancer. I was 18 years old at the time, and though I did not connect with all the songs, Tina was savage. She completely owned any song she sang, and she made the stage her own living, breathing space of performance and passion, occupying every corner and connecting with every member of the audience.
“Better Be Good To Me” was buried deep on the Private Dancer album second side, but it stood out as the track where Tina had an opportunity to showcase her massive vocal and emotional range. Originally recorded by Spider in 1981, a New York based rock band featuring future David Letterman show drummer Anton Fig, Tina took a rather straight-forward new age mid-tempo ballad and turned it into a sultry, exciting song that serves as a pristine reaction to the years of abuse at the hands of her former husband.
The song begins as a quiet, slow burn. Cymbal crashes on the one and two, and the quiet tap on a digital bass drum on the three and four. A synthesizer fills the spaces in between, in true 1980’s fashion, and then we hear Tina’s breathy voice come in.
“A prisoner of your love
Entangled in your web
Hot whispers in the night
I’m captured by your spell
Captured
Oh yes I’m touched by this show of emotion
Should I be fractured by your lack of devotion
Should I, should I“
Tiny is singing in a quiet voice, creating an intimate space for the listener. She hits the word “hot,” she draws out the word “captured.” Tina’s back-up band for this track is The Fixx, a truly excellent early 80’s new wave band that had several hits of their own. The guitars come in picking out a sparse background melody.
“Better Be Good To Me” was not written with Tina Turner in mind, but once she sang it, it can only be hers, it can only be about her. About her journey from abuse to freedom, about her journey to pride and confidence, about her journey to strength and survival. We are now at the chorus, a chorus sung to people from her past, and sung to people listening to her now.
“Oh, you better be good to me
That’s how it’s gotta be now
Cause I don’t have no use
For what you loosely call the truth
And you better be good to me
Yeah, you better be good
Come on, come on, be good to me”
If anyone ever wants to know the range of what Tina could sing, they need only listen to “Better Be Good To Me.” She goes from moments of quiet, secret reflection to loud statements of pride, acceptance and anger.
“I think it’s also right
That we don’t need to fight
We stand face to face
And you present your case
Yes I know you keep telling me that you love me
And I really do want to believe
But did you think I’d just accept you in blind faith
Oh sure babe, anything to please you”
In Judaism we share a blessing that you should go from “strength to strength.” Even during Anna Mae’s most challenging times of her 83 years, she showed strength over and over again. Strength to get up on that stage. Strength to leave her abusive husband. Strength to find a way to restart her career. Strength to deliver so many perfect songs, and make them her own.
“That’s how it’s gotta be now
Cause I don’t have the time
For your over loaded lines
You better be good to me”
“You Better Be Good To Me”
Written by Mike Chapman, Holly Knight, and Nicky Chinn
Performed by Tina Turner
Released August 28, 1984
1Perfect Song 