"Acid Queen" by Tina Turner (1975)

Curiously undercooked solo album from singer who was than still married to her notoriously dominating husband - it feels as ever opportunist Ike Turner thought it would be a good idea to cash in her big screen cameo turn but of course he wouldn't leave her completely off the leash: while Tina is given relative freedom to cover white boys rock repertoire (a direction she was obviously inclined to), side B is completely Ike and he is still in total control.

While covers of The Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin are not by any means bad idea for a woman who already excelled in giving her twist to rock repertoire, they are frankly nothing more than pleasant novelty (female bravado taking over macho attitude) and there is almost perceptive feeling of going trough the motions of long studio hours and constant drudgery. One would expect that Tina Turner would excitedly grab the chance to show what she can do by herself, but her tired performances attest that this was not the case - the point is, she was still commanded what to do and this was just chance to use the spotlight generated by Ken Russell movie. (The perfect example is title song as re-recorded here, weak shadow of its screen explosion). Not surprisingly, she is far more effective on B side, because this was old Ike's turf where she knew every twist and turn, so going back to frenzied gymnastics turned more convincing - when duo catches the fire on fierce "Baby - Get It On"  its classic Ike & Tina moment and one of their best recordings. "Bootsy Whitelaw"  is about a character who would later surface in her autobiography and "Pick Me Tonight" has Ike forcing his usual embarrassing lyrics ("It was a fourth of July, I was milking a cow") on Tina, showing that he clearly had no idea how to bring her in rock world. It would take few more years and different producers to finally bring the lady in completely different place where she would not sing about milking the cows anymore but will assert herself as powerful and dignified artist, every inch equal to these boys whose songs she was covering here.