Tina Turner “Acid Queen” 1975. Today, November 26th, is Tina Turner’s 80th birthday (b. Anne Mae Bullock, 1939) so I’m spinning this half blues and hard rock cover songs/half Ike and Tina Turner-penned tracks album. Acid Queen was Turner’s second solo studio LP (though Ike appears on the excellent single “Baby – Get It On” which went to #88 on the Hot 100 and #31 on the Hot Soul charts in the US and to #53 in the UK) and was recorded about a year before she and Ike split. The title track “Acid Queen” by Pete Townshend is a Who cover based on Turner’s role in the Who’s rock opera Tommy (which also starred a bunch of other musicians including Elton John. (Sidenote: I’m currently reading Elton John’s new autobiography Me – it’s great and hilarious – and in the early 90′s he and Turner contemplated touring together but it didn’t happen because, according to John, Turner was a nightmare to work with. During a rehearsal of the classic Tina tune “Proud Mary” she stopped every couple of seconds to accuse various band members of screwing up before turning her wrath on Elton because he was improvising too much. Fed up, Elton said she could take “Proud Mary” and shove it up her ass. He then commented to the reader that she is a perfectionist and has every detail of her performances down exactly, which is what has made her one of the greatest performers of all-time but also not easy to work with.) Other covers on Acid Queen include soulful and disco-groovy versions of the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb” (which she gender-reverses and with the benefit of hindsight seems to be a big f-you to Ike) and “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” The Who’s “I Can See for Miles and Miles” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” which she fantastically funks up. Turner originals, besides “Baby – Get It On” are the bluesy “Bootsey Whitelaw,” “Pick Me Tonight” and “Rockin’ and Rollin.’”