Deaths

 And still the deaths keep on coming... The latest batch includes George Logan (Dr Evadne Hinge of the fondly remembered musical duo Hinge and Bracket), Rolf Harris (of whom the less said the better) and, I learn today, Tina Turner and Kenneth Anger. I hadn't thought of Anger for a long while, and I guess I assumed he was dead (he was 96 years old so that was reasonable enough). I remember, from my days as an achingly trendy young cinéaste, sitting through his arcane experimental films – Fireworks, Scorpio Rising, Invocation of the Pleasure Dome and the rest – in a state of awe-struck reverence to which boredom and incomprehension might well have contributed something. Heaven knows what I'd make of them now... 
As for that fine woman Tina Turner, her post-Ike style of high-octane, high-energy, high-decibel can belto was not my cup of tea, but her (and Ike's) work with Phil Spector was another matter. My first listen to the seven-inch single of River Deep, Mountain High was one of the most thrilling, horripilating musical experiences of my adolescence (and I had a few – that was the golden age of the single). Tina was perhaps the only singer who could meet Spector's wall of sound on equal terms, and the result was something quite extraordinary. River Deep is surely one of the greatest singles ever cut – but there's also this little number. Turn up the volume...