Just read this book by Eddy Hampton Armani - what struck me straight away was how close the style of writing and the circumstances of bonding with the singer was so similar to Tony Turners infamous account in "All That Glittered"..both were 12 yrs old when they met Flo/Tina...Eddy matches Turners dramatic prose in the opening page - as MJ's brother,Randy smashes a plant pot thru Tina's patio window in a complete rage over Tina giving refuge to his girlfriend inside - Tina does what any girl from Nutbush would do - she granbs a loaded shotgun from her bedroom and fires at him..realising that she will kill him he flees...obviously Ikes damage to her property over the years and the mysterious fires she had to deal with Tina was ready for an ultimate showdown...Just as Flo and the Motown family felt comfortable with Tony being witness to the backstage tensions..Eddy is given the job of organising the Ike & Tina fan club,,even Ike is impressed with his correspondence and dilignence with the news letters..Eddy recounts a much more brutal and frightening account of Ikes violence than Tina's own autobiography [[with Kurt Loder)...but where Tony chronicled Flos slow demise Tina was a survivor - escaping from Ike..Tina rebuilds her life and there is scant scandal in his biography..Tina is a firm boss who brokes no trouble from her staff and is proffesional at all times around 1980 Diana Ross visits Tina backstage after her show and offers to help her in any proffesional capacity she can...after Diana leaves Tina is furious at Diana's offer - which reminded me of Dionne Warwicks similar attitude to Diana in her autobiography - why were her black female peers in the industry so suspicous of her ?..Dionne contradicts her own view in her book - she says Diana has always been nice to her and finishes the topic with comment "but her behaviour in The Supremes has been well documented.." at the time of Diana's offer to help Tina she was flat broke yet she would accept offers of assistance from the likes of Bowie & Mark knophler who relaunched her to stardom with "Private Dancer" album...it was an interesting book but it needed tighter editing
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