Ike Turner R.I.P.

Ike Turner has died at the age of 76 at his home near San Diego. He often expressed frustration that he was mainly remembered as Tina's abusive husband-Svengali, but I never listened to a song for as many successive times as I did River Deep, Mountain High, from the Phil Spector-produced album of the same name.

My greatest regret was not seeing Ike play live at, of all places, some lounge at the Meridien Hotel in Paris two or three years ago. So bizarre a venue had considerable appeal, even if those kinds of places were perhaps a fitting final act for so splendidly flawed and talented a musician.