The David Bowie song that could reduce Tina Turner to tears
Tina Turner always had a knack for crossing all kinds of genre boundaries. Though her strong suit was always in the world of R&B and soul, her knack for injecting some energy into her favourite tunes also made her a staple with the rock crowd, earning praise from both rock idols and R&B connoisseurs. Though Turner may have had the respect of many different branches of the rock community, one of her most enduring friendships was her relationship with David Bowie.
As Turner worked her way into the 1980s, she became the ultimate story of redemption. Having spent years under the watchful eye of her husband, Ike, Turner could have given up before striking back with albums like Private Dancer, confronting her toxic marriage head-on with songs having to deal with someone dealt one too many broken romances.
Turner was already a fan of Bowie at this point, having already covered ‘1984’ from the album Diamond Dogs on the same album. When talking about her favourite Bowie tunes, Turner had a special affinity for one of the lower lights in his catalogue.
Around the same time Turner worked on her career revitalisation, David Bowie also shifted his sound. After years of working in the realm of krautrock in Berlin, Bowie moved into the MTV generation with the help of producer Nile Rodgers, bringing some of his most radio-friendly material to the forefront on Let’s Dance.
Tonight was a far more subdued album to follow his breakout success, reflecting the afterglow of Bowie’s success. As for Turner, the song that tears her apart is the title track, which she sang as a duet with Bowie. When speaking about it years later, Turner found the song difficult to revisit after so many years, telling NME, “Some of the duets that I have done with people I cared about who have since passed on, like David Bowie, make me sad. So it has to be this one”.
As the decade wore on, Bowie came to become a friend of Turner’s, to the point where rumours began that the two were having a romantic affair in between legs of the Glass Spider tour. When talking about their relationship during a documentary on Turner, Bowie would go on to call Turner one of the best musicians he has worked with, even likening her to one of the better ambassadors of America alongside artists like Louis Armstrong.
Turner would still have those strong feelings for Bowie up until the day he died, recalling after his death, “Not only was David a passionate supporter of my career but more importantly a very special person in my life. An icon. Irreplaceable loving friend”. For all of the great music that Bowie made with Turner, that respect was always a two-way street.
Years after they worked together, Bowie also opened up about what Tina Turner meant to him outside of a colleague, saying, “She’s certainly been through worse than many of us have been, and she’s a survivor. There’s that element of resoluteness and not letting the world take over from you that people respect. I think she has an enormous amount of dignity”.
