Near the end of his life, John Lennon said he once acted as Ike Turner to Yoko Ono’s Tina Turner. He revealed that some of his fellow musicians weren’t too enthused with this move. Around the same time, he also said his music was different from Ike & Tina Turner’s.
During a 1980 interview with Rolling Stone, John discussed working with Yoko. “You know, the first show we did together was at Cambridge University in 1969,” he recalled. “She had already been booked to do a concert with some jazz musicians. That was the first time I had appeared un-Beatled. I had an amp and played feedback, and people got very upset because they recognized me: ‘What’s he doing with you?’ It’s always, ‘Stay in your bag.’”
Yoko didn’t get a warm reception from the jazz musicians. “So, when she tried to rock, they said, ‘What’s she doing here?’” John recalled. “And when I went with her and tried to be the instrument and not project — to just be her band, like a sort of Ike Turner to her Tina, only her Tina was a different, avant-garde Tina — well, even some of the jazz guys got upset.”
While discussing those jazz musicians, John said everyone had expectations for him. “But that’s the same as living up to your parents’ expectations, or to society’s expectations, or to so-called critics who are just guys with a pen or typewriter in a little room,” he said.
John said it’s all right for other people to have expectations of others. However, some people break free of those expectations. He also lambasted critics for pretending to be different from other people.
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, Yoko discussed her recent collaboration with John: the album Double Fantasy. The album has an unusual structure, with John singing one song, Yoko singing the next, and so forth. Yoko said the record featured the couple discussing traditional things such as children, families, and relationships.
John interjected, saying that, usually, when a male and female vocalist worked together, they were making a love song. He cited Ike & Tina Turner’s work as famous love songs that served as dialogues between a couple. He felt that the tunes from Double Fantasy were different from Ike & Tina Turner’s tracks, as they weren’t designed as dialogues.
Of course, there’s another reason why Double Fantasy doesn’t sound much like Ike & Tina Turner. The album includes a range of genres, such as doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll, vaudeville, and even reggae. Meanwhile, Ike & Tina Turner were mainly known for soul and R&B tunes.
John once compared himself to Ike but he knew his music was a lot different from the soul icon’s.