Tina Turner and Beyonce -- Grammy Awards 2008

Tina Turner will be 70 years old next year. She was born in Nutbush, Tennessee. She wears four-inch stiletto heels and silver lame'. My mother and I agree that we both want to be Tina Turner when we grow up...or at least get personal trainers now and hope for the best.

How does staying up until 11:30 watching the Grammys help one to write??? Well, I am still inspired by this performance and am thinking the eternal questions. How do you reinvent yourself (in song)? What are the extended metaphors in the Turner catalog? I always imagine that singing "Private Dancer" was especially painful for Tina, so she'd beat that song down every time she came to it. How did Ike's being gone, really gone, affect the way she showed the stage no mercy last night? Where are the odes for Tina? What line(s) can I use to write her Bop? Plenty of inspiration in tradition and history, the melding of classic and new.

Oh, and stop hatin' on Beyonce. She worked it, too. And girlfriend had to work pretty hard to keep up with Ms. Turner.

Something poetic from Tina:

PRIVATE DANCER

All the men come in these places
And the men are all the same
You don't look at their faces
And you don't ask their names
You don't think of them as human
You don't think of them at all
You keep your mind on the money
Keeping your eyes on the wall

I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
I'll do what you want me to do
I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
And any old music will do

I want to make a million dollars
I wanna live out by the sea
Have a husband and some children
Yeah, I guess I want a family
All the men come in these places
And the men are all the same
You don't look at their faces
And you don't ask their names

I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
I'll do what you want me to do
I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
And any old music will do

Deutch marks or dollars
American Express will do nicely, thank you
Let me loosen up your collar
Tell me, do you wanna see me do the shimmy again?