Tina Turner is dead but my memories of doing the Madison to her wailing rendition of the Nutbush City Limits will never be forgotten.
But one thing has niggled at me through most of my adult life…
Why?
Why do I – having grown up in Adelaide in the 1970s – have foundational memories of busting out choreographed dance moves with my primary school friends, as Tina Turner sang about what life was like in (or trying to escape from?) the rural community in Haywood County, USA?
(I could even do it on roller-skates.)
My rudimentary research has never uncovered a definitive answer. But the fact remains that, at weddings, Blue Light discos (remember those?) and other public gatherings where cocktails and crowds became a heady mix, doing the Madison to the Nutbush by Tina Turner was an Australian rite of passage.
As we look back on the amazing career Tina had before passing away at the age of 83, I’m sure that somewhere across the country, at a community hall, school gym, or wedding venue, the Nutbush will play again this weekend and the crowd will come together to make those familiar moves. And when they do, maybe they’ll think of Tina and the musical memories she’s given all of us.
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