Paul McCartney has always been a child of all of his influences. Whether it was listening to the old records that his father was listening to in his prime or hearing the old sounds of rock and roll, it didn’t usually take that long for Macca to translate those kinds of melodies from his head to his fingers whenever performing live or in the studio. But rock is just as much about performance, and McCartney believed Tina Turner was one of the greatest presences he had ever shared the stage with.
Then again, there wasn’t that much of a transition between Turner’s style of rock and roll and the kind that got McCartney into music. Turner’s voice and energy were built on hitting the audience with everything she had, and when listening to her greatest songs, it’s hard not to think of people like Little Richard doing the same thing just a few years earlier.
But Turner wasn’t meant to be an also-ran of someone other rock god. She was looking to become her own rock goddess, and that meant having to make music that could put any other male singer to shame, whether that was working on soul songs like ‘River Deep Mountain High’ or turning Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Proud Mary’ into one of the most electrifying songs of the late 1960s.
Even though McCartney had written his barnburners in the past, he was far from Turner’s brand of music in the 1970s after putting together Wings. Once he transitioned into the pop star version of himself on albums like Tug of War, Turner had also gone through a massive shift in her career. Now free from her husband Ike, Private Dancer was the record that turned her pain into a success story for the ages, almost channelling that heartache into songs like ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’.
After playing on the same bill at the Prince’s Trust Concert, McCartney would take the stage with Turner to perform ‘Get Back’, later recalling, “I love Tina, she’s a wonderful person. I’ve admired her for years, and it’s a great thrill. And singing with her, boy, she lifts you because she’s just so into it. It’s such fun.”
That kind of energy might have more to do with her approach to every song she sings. Yes, she does have originals under her belt, but when looking through the back half of Private Dancer, hearing her take a swing at songs like The Beatles’ ‘Help’ and David Bowie’s ‘1984’ are so lived-in that she may as well have written a whole new version of those tunes on the spot.
There are even a few moments when McCartney puts a little bit of that forceful energy into his songs as well. It doesn’t always work all the time like on a song like ‘Angry’, but when listening to him incorporate his Little Richard pipes into a later song like ‘Gratitude’, it’s easy to hear him taking a few pages out of Turner’s playbook, especially when he reaches the final few screams on the song.
Then again, anyone who ever had the good fortune of being in Turner’s presence had to have some sort of reaction. From the minute she walked onto the stage to the final notes of her concerts, each track felt like another affirmation of what music can do for people.
