Tina Turner in Kansas City
Tina Turner, that well known Irish woman, is playing Kansas City, Missouri on October 1, 2008.
She’s not Irish, I hear you say, for my Irish ears of love have transatlantic hearing. Ah yes, but who among us truly is?
Well Tina Turner bleedin’ isn’t, I hear you insist as you sense your well earned Irishness slipping into urban mythdom.
A much overlooked Irish folk group of the late 1960s was The Johnstons. And by Irish I mean in Ireland. This was the time of Sweeney’s Men, who were that bit more influential - think Gerald Trimble and the Bouzouki for example.
Dirty Linen gives a good account of the times.
When the Johnstons imploded, one of them joined a group called Planxty, a supergroup before we knew such things existed. And then he hooked up with a member of the now defunct Sweeney’s Men, before that member would go on to form Patrick Street.
The man in question in the middle of this royal family tree of Irish folk was responsible for how many people still sing Arthur McBride. It was Paul Brady.
And that’s where the story takes a sharp right turn. Because Paul jumped off the folk ship and became a pop star. And pop song writer. With blues and soul and all that sort of stuff mixed in.
I remember Ireland in the 1980’s nudging itself on the arm whenever Tina Turner appeared on Top of the Pops or beyond the thunderdome, which I hear was out past the Northside Shopping Centre.
Paul Brady wrote that, Ireland would say boastfully, even when Tina wasn’t performing either Steel Claw or Paradise is Here.
Back then before people called immigrants wanted to call themselves Irish we had the habit of bestowing Irishness on people who simply brushed off us at the bus stop.
That said we had to stop it then because it became ridiculous, with Brady’s songs being covered by Bonnie Raitt, Dave Edmunds, Curtis Steigers, David Crosby, The Wilsons, Trisha Yearwood, Joe Cocker, Brooks & Dunn, Roger Chapman, and Cher. And more.
But that is the story of how Tina Turner became Irish. What’s your story?
Tina Turner is performing Irish traditional songs at the Sprint Center on October 1st; I’m not putting this event on the Kansas City Irish events calendar.
See Related:
• The Island by Paul Brady
• Irish Music Changes Nothing
• No Irish in Top 20 Greatest Rock Heroes
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
An Irish version of “Six Degrees of Separation.”
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