These are my favourite songs and the moments they make me think of.
I, along with millions of people are saddened by Tina Turner’s death on the 24th of May 2023. Although she is an artist of my parents’ generation and retired in 2009 when I was only 13, her music nonetheless made it into the soundtrack of my adult life. Her music often takes on a more symbolic meaning for me—the direct context of the lyrics are often not what I attach to. Instead, it is certain phrases in the songs, a general sentiment, or movie scenes attached to the songs that I really connect with.
Proud Mary
I heard this song watching What’s Love Got to Do With It? the movie about Tina Turner’s life. Although I love this song, hearing Ike Turner’s deep voice in the background of the song feels menacing. Even in the music video and in the staging in the movie, Ike is lurking in the background looking at, and over Tina to a crowd that is there for her. It feels symbolic that we only hear his voice at the beginning of this song and then Tina carries the rest of it. The raw energy of her voice, the swing of her hair as she turned, and quickness of her feet beat Ike in the space of this five minute song.
Simply The Best
There is a well-known scene in Schitts Creek when David dances for his partner in an effort to apologize that is set to this song. If you have not watched that scene—watch it. That moment showed me everything I want from a relationship: the freedom to love with joyous abandonment. Up until this scene, I have always read and seen love depicted with quiet tragedy. I think of movies like Twilight and Titanic. In these movies, love takes on a mournful mood, with moments of joy depicted as fleeting in the case of Titanic, and love being cemented in moments of crisis in the case of Twilight. This song, that scene, showed me a more positive, mature, and joyous version of what loving someone can be. Tina exclaims “ I am stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say!” This line feels like such a clear instruction on what I should be looking for. To be stuck on someone’s heart means that no matter how much you try, you just keep returning to them in some way: you return to a phrase of theirs or that their laughter becomes your own private song. And to hang onto their every word means that you their compliments sink deeper than others and that their affirmations rouse you to take action. This is the love I want: Joyous, vibrant, and simply the best.
Private Dancer
I’ve always vaguely known this song, but its meaning really hit when I watched Pose. Elektra finally gets she money she needs to do a gender affirming surgery where her whole body will match the woman she has always known herself to be. But she loses her benefactor as a result of her surgery. With few options available to her, she takes up sex work to make ends meet— and they barley meet. There is a scene where the booth opens up, she is bathed in sensuous red light,dancing for changing customers — her sadness made glamorous by her shimmering blue eyeshadow, round, weighty earings, and with her hands in her hair. This song will always make me think of the countless amount of transwomen who have had to maintain their dignity amidst unimaginable circumstances, just as Electra does in this in this stunning scene.
We Don’t Need Another Hero
I’ve never seen Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome — though I should. I was contemplating breaking up with my then boyfriend of six years when this song entered my life. This song has a casual groove to it as Tina declares “out of the ruins, out of the wreckage, can’t make the same mistake this time.” I remember the countless walks I took all throughout Boca Raton singing silently, sometimes loudly, “we don’t need another hero, we don’t need to know the way home.” Of course the “we” was “me” going over my countless mistakes, wondering when “we are ever gonna change.” The “we” that was me talking to myself, reminding myself that me and myself don’t need a hero, and I don’t need to know everything, I just to figure out what my life would look like beyond the thunderdome.
Rest in Peace Anna Mae.
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