eMusic Review 0
Let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat: With a very few exceptions, nobody listens to the pre-Tina Ike Turner sides for the vocalists; you listen for the skull-crushing guitar work and those riffing horn arrangements.
Most of these alternate takes are very similar to the versions that appear on The Sun Sides, but aren't quite as good: this take of Bonnie Turner and Raymond Hill's "Way Down in the Congo," is virtually identical to the first version, for example, but Bonnie's vocal is less assured; the version here of "Love Is a Gamble" has a less staccato, herky-jerky vocal by Bonnie, but the other take rates higher because Ike's piano work is so much more emphatic; this take of Johnny O'Neal's "Dead Letter Blues" is inferior to the other because of the latter's much nastier guitar intro. Again, it's Ike's rock-hard guitar solo on version #2 of O'Neal's "Ugly Woman" that makes these four takes slightly lesser achievements (although the big-bandy arrangement on the horn outro makes version #3 stand apart from the others). The one glaring exception is Billy "The Kid" Emerson's "When My Baby Left Me" — version #1 and version #3 are both… read more »
