Ike & Tina Turner – Dynamite! album art
Dynamite! is the second studio album by Ike & Tina Turner, released with Sue Records in May of 1962, the year the two musicians got married in Tijuana, Mexico. That marriage didn’t last: Tina filed for divorce in 1976. In her 1986 autobiography I, Tina, she revealed that Ike was abusive throughout their marriage, which led to her suicide attempt in 1968.
Their relationship with the record company came to an end much quicker:
In November 1962, Ike and Tina filed a $330,000 joint lawsuit with Placid Music Corporation against Sue Records, Saturn Music, and Juggy Murray for “failing and refusing to give an accounting and pay certain royalties.” They also charged that Sue “withheld and concealed over $100,000” of their earnings from them.
For something more pleasant, let’s have a look at the typography. The uncredited designer brought together five different sans serifs; two from the classic American Gothic branch, and three belonging to the modernist geometric genre. The artists’ names are set in Alternate Gothic. In a self-referential manner, the title was blown to pieces by arranging condensed caps from Franklin Gothic on an shaking baselines and having lines cut through the letterforms. The explosion itself is illustrated by a starburst with six of the song names emanating on various angles, set in what looks like Metromedium No. 2.
The back cover appears to combine another two American Futura followers: while the big caps at the top are from Tempo Heavy – distinguished by the wide K, the low bar in A, and the narrow R – the track listing and the liner notes are set in Spartan, with its double-story a.
