The Ike and Tina Turner Revue rock Madison Square Garden, November 1969; from Gimme Shelter, Albert and David Maysles, 1970

You gotta hand it to The Rolling Stones—they must have had quite a bit of confidence to put themselves in the position of having to follow the Revue, one of the most galvanic live acts of any damn genre or era. Just the two minutes or so of their rendition of "I've Been Loving You Too Long" in Shelter (which chronicles the '69 Stones tour for which the Revue was a frequent opening act, and of course ends at Altamont), sends shivers down the spine before exploding the inside of your chest.

Yes, I've heard all the stories of what an awful bastard the late Mr. Turner was. Maybe so. His records still give me a good deal of pleasure—I'm particularly keen on Rhythm Rockin' Blues, a nifty Ace compilation of his pre-Ike-and-Tina work, including the original "Rocket 88" from when he was in Jackie Brenston's band. It's one of the earliest—if not THE earliest—examples of fuzztone guitar, an effect Turner (I'm gonna go for it here) invented by accident. His amp fell out of the car the band was driving to Sun Studios, breaking its woofer; Turner put some paper in the crack in an ad hoc repair attempt; the material caused the woofer to vibrate differently; hence, fuzz. (UPDATE: No less an authority than Mr. Donald Fagen, writing in Slate of all places, credits Ike with the piano on "Rocket 88," citing Willie Kizart as the guitarist. One is loathe to argue with Donald Fagen; if the Ike-invented-fuzztone thing is merely an oft-printed legend, well, so much for the specifics of my thesis...still, that's some good piano...)

So, on the one hand: awful bastard. (One might, in Mr. Turner's defense, quote the wise words of Mr. Rick James: "Cocaine's a helluva drug.") And on the other hand: fuzztone guitar. Life and art fairly teem with such frustrating and perplexing giveths and taketh-aways.