Ike Turner, Legendary Rock Musician And Notorious Wife-Beater, Has Died 37229

Suddenly, I’ve once again found myself in the unenviable position of voicing support for a controversial figure whose behavior verged from self-destructive to utterly indefensible. And yet, there are several extremely important differences.

First, while Smith’s talents, achievements and contribution to society were negligible at best, Turner is an undisputed musical genius, a guitar legend who was credited with launching Tina’s career and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in his own right. Second, whereas Smith (a former Playboy model) was judged predominantly for her latent promiscuity and perceived materialism, Turner’s demonstrable musical prowess was all but eclipsed by a much greater societal taboo, namely notorious reputation as a wife-batterer and a drug addict.

Which is to say, nobody would have even remembered Anna Nicole Smith were it not for the controversy, whereas everyone has seemingly forgotten who Ike Turner was because of it.

In the wake of Smith’s death I wrote, “Not every story has a punchline. And though this one undeniably has a lot of tabloid fodder…it seems important to remember that what happened yesterday was still a tragedy.”

Certainly no one is arguing that the death of 76 year-old Ike Turner was a tragedy. But perhaps the tragedy here is the desecration of his memory.

And the fact that, as the Times casually observed, the septuagenarian father of five, legendary rock & roll legend, extraordinary guitarist and eccentric genius behind iconic hits “Proud Mary” and “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” will be remembered, first and foremost, as a spousal abuser for a marriage that disintegrated in 1975.