Tina and Ikettes performing (January 1976), Photo Credit: Rhonda Graam / Courtesy of HBO

If there are any sentient beings who have seen, heard or experienced live, a Tina Turner performance and not been wholly and completely taken by the passion and intensity that she brings to every note and every movement. It is so raw and so immediate that it feels personal and intimate. She is expressing some very hard truths and being very vulnerable in sharing them. Unfortunately for Tina, she is so compelling as a performer and person that her fans keep wanting more, although she has spent large amounts of the last half of her career trying to give them enough to finally allow her to let it go. They appear to be insatiatble.

Born Anna Mae Bullock in Tennessee, daughter of a sharecropper, she picked cotton in the fields as a child. Her early life was seriously bleak, only saved, like so many others of her time and place, by the church and music. As a young adult, there was clearly an outsize mutual attraction between young Anna Mae and the popular and dashing band leader, Ike Turner. In the beginning of their 20 years together things looked great. They were successful and Anna Mae, as Tina Turner, became a performer in her own right. When Ike begins using cocaine, and cheating on Tina, he also becomes paranoid and abusive behind the scenes. She was living a nightmare of contrasts and false fronts. Finally she finds the courage at the end of her rope and leaves Ike in 1975. They have a long and ugly divorce in which Tina gives Ike everything in return for ownership of the name Tina which Ike had given to her.

Tina and Ikettes perform for Bolic Sound KMET Broadcast (May 1973), Photo Credit: Rhonda Graam / Courtesy of HBO

She struggles for years on her own, doing all kinds of gigs for money, while trying to get solo career traction. Since the world refuses to de-couple her from Ike, she goes public to People Magazine in 1981. When that does not quench the public hunger for the dark story she writes “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” as the final chapter. (That was later made into a film starring Angela Bassett.) Finally, in 1984 she releases “My Private Dancer” and launches a huge multi-

city tour to promote the album. Playing to packed stadiums of 30,000 – 50,000 adoring fans at 45 years old she can own her future. As she has success after success, the Buddhism which she had taken up during the dark times after the Ike breakup keeps her on an even keel and leads her to believe that she can finally leave the bad old days behind and just focus on the positive now of her life. She still believes it but there are many who won t let go. So, in 2019 Tina: The Tina Turner Musical; and now this documentary. Never too much.

(from left) Erwin Bach, Tina Turner, Photo Credit: Paul Cox / Courtesy of HBO

The film is filled with so much electrifying up-close performance footage that is way more intimate than anything you would see in a live performance. The filmmakers sometime show entire songs rather than clips which is mesmerizing and very powerful. There is so much deep feeling passing between performer and audience, which can only cause a sense of intense joy. This amazing woman who fought so hard to get there, and was denied love until late in life, is receiving endless waves of love and appreciation. There is so much uplift and satisfaction in seeing someone really get all the good things which they deserve. What’s not to love?

(Available on HBO Max)