#Jason Draper

[whileiamdying]

Discovering Tina’s music is a rite of passage

“Comeback.” It’s a word often associated with Private Dancer. Rolling Stone were quick to apply it following the album’s release, in the spring of 1984. Almost 40 years later they upped the ante, calling it “one of the great comebacks in rock history”. Billboard would go several steps further, placing the album among “the greatest comebacks of the 20th century”. For music-industry trade publication Pollstar, Private Dancer’s success led to the Comeback Tour of the Year — more than 180 dates across Europe, the UK, the US, Australia and Japan, grossing $40 million, or a little over $120 million in today’s money.

But the word never settled with its creator. “I don’t consider it a comeback album,” Tina Turner would say. “Tina had never arrived.”

She had, however, long been on her way. Private Dancer may have brought Turner into the public eye, but the eight years leading up to its release had been a time of relentless graft for the singer. After leaving her abusive husband, Ike, in 1976, and heading out on her own, she committed herself to a demanding schedule that reflected her tireless work ethic. Hotel residencies, McDonald’s conventions, Vegas cabaret The Brady Bunch Hour shows; Hollywood Squares, — no booking was too small, nor too unlikely, for an artist determined to surpass even her previous achievements. “My dream is to be the first Black rock’n’roll singer to pack places like the Stones,” she said.

As she came to realise that dream, Turner would find herself holding her own with Mick Jagger on one of the biggest stages of them all: Live Aid Putting The Rolling Stones’ frontman through his paces on a version of the Jagger/Jacksons duet, ‘State of Shock’, and manufacturing the original “wardrobe malfunction” during a take on the Stones’ 1974 hit It’s Only Rock’n’roll (But I Like It)’, the woman born Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville, Tennessee, had become a global icon, worthy of US magazine’s title of “grittiest rock’n’roll singer in the world”.

“People were standing on tables, and Tina was just working the audience”

Few would have considered Olivia Newton-John to be “gritty”. Having won cinemagoers’ hearts with her portrayal of the clean-cut Sandy Olsson in the 1978 film adaptation of Grease, the British Australian singer and actress had become a true mainstream star, with drawing power to match. When she asked Turner to guest on her 1980 variety show, Hollywood Nights, alongside other leading female singers of the era, among them Karen Carpenter, Toni Tennille and Francine “Peaches” Hurd Barker, of R&B duo Peaches & Herb, everyone’s favourite girl next door played a crucial part in ushering Turner into the upper echelons of fame.

During a meeting with Newton-John’s manager, an Australian music lover named Roger Davies, Turner, who had so far been handling her own affairs, laid her cards on the table: “I simply want a manager. I don’t know what to do. I need to work. I want to work.” After making clear her ambition — the rock market, arena venues — she invited Davies to see for himself that she had what it took: she’d be at the Fairmont Hotel, in San Francsico, for a two-week residency in the Venetian Ballroom.

By the time Davies made it to the lavishly decorated Venetian, Turner was on the final night of her run. Known for hosting gatherings of San Francisco’s members-only Supper Club, the venue attracted a high-end clientele who liked to be seen in their finery. But if the dinnertime set present for Turner’s first show of the evening paid as much attention to their food as to what was being served up on stage, the looser late-night crowd went off like the smoke bombs that punctuated Turner’s second performance. Mixing old favourites — ‘Proud Mary’, Nutbush City Limits’ — with covers of the latest hits, and featuring choreographed routines in which backup dancers would strip her costume down to its bodice, the 40-year-old Turner let loose with a confidence that outmatched that of her younger peers. “People had some drinks, they were standing on tables, and Tina was just working the audience,” Davies recalled in the HBO documentary Tina. “And I went, Wow. What a great live performance.”

Davies understood how far Turner could go, and, from that night onwards, he was right beside her. “There weren’t any female artists in the world selling out football stadiums,” he acknowledged. “I said, ‘Yep, that’s what we’re gonna do.”

“She did the right things at the right time”

With a view to moving away from the cabaret circuit, Turner adopted a whole new look. Swapping her long, straight hair for a spikier mane set off with a shock of red lipstick, and retrieving her shorter rock’n’roll dresses from the back of her wardrobe, she began to reflect the audience she was courting — an image transformation that she would continue to refine into the 1980s, when accessorised denim jackets and leather minidresses became her unofficial uniform. “She got quite influenced by designers and fashion photographers,” Paul Cox says today. “She became really good friends with Peter Lindbergh and Herb Ritts.” An acclaimed photographer who worked with Turner for more than 20 years, Cox noted the tight bond that Turner and Davies shared with each other. “They had a very trusting relationship, in a good, positive way,” he says. “Roger steered her, but she’d still have her say. She wouldn’t do things unless she really wanted to, but she did the right things at the right time.”

Certain that the time was right, Turner also overhauled her band, retiring their tuxedos and paring the unit down to a core four-piece featuring pianist Kenny Moore, guitarist James Ralston, bassist Bob Feit and drummer Jack Bruno. The group may have hated the black karate suits they were now required to wear on stage, but, with Turner up front, flanked by her two dancers and backing singers, Anne Behringer and Lejeune Richardson, the message was clear: Turner was coming out fighting.

Knock-out shows through the UK and Europe followed, along with her first appearances at New York City’s famed rock club The Ritz — a short sell-out run in the summer of 1981 that drew everyone from Mick Jagger to Diana Ross, Andy Warhol and Robert De Niro. Whereas, during the 1960s and 1970s, she’d had to convince Ike to find space for some rock’n’roll tunes among their revue’s soul, funk and R&B material, under Turner’s direction her versatile new band leaned into the hard-edged rock songs she was increasingly claiming as her own. When Rod Stewart saw Turner strut her way through his solo hit ‘Hot Legs” during her second Ritz engagement, in October 1981, he invited her to reprise the performance with him on Saturday Night Live that weekend, in front of a TV audience numbering in the millions. The following month found Turner opening for The Rolling Stones for three nights at East Rutherford’s Brendan Byrne Arena (now the Meadowlands) and coming out to guest with the headliners on ‘Honky Tonk Women’. Yet while she was at home performing the rock classics with the old guard, Turner was about to embrace an entirely new sound that would propel her into the future.

“It was a brave thing to put out”

Having helped lay the blueprint for synth-pop with Penthouse and Pavement. their 1981 debut album as Heaven 17, producers Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh had plans to further showcase their cutting edge sound, working as a duo under the name British Electronic Foundation. For their latest project, a covers compilation titled Music of Quality and Distinction: Volume One, the pair had a mix of singers contribute vocals to their radical synthesiser-led overhauls of pop and soul standards such as Glen Campbell’s ‘Wichita Lineman’ and The Supremes’ ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On. But when James Brown pulled out of the project, Ware and Marsh needed to a find a quick replacement for their bold reworking of The Temptations’ psychedelic soul classic Ball of Confusion’. After flying out to Los Angeles to meet Turner at her home, where Turner herself — a “perfectly demure, beautiful, warm and accepting” host, as Ware describes her today — served cups of tea, Ware convinced her to put aside any misgivings she had about returning to soul music.

“It was a bit presumptuous of me,” he says, “but I told her, ‘Before spreading your wings, you would do well to nail your legacy as one of the greatest soul singers that’s ever lived. And she could see the irony in doing ‘Ball of Confusion’, because it was a very contemporary arrangement, and the lyrics had a protest element that lent weight to her credibility. And that convinced her this wasn’t a dangerous path to go down.” However, upon arriving at the studio in London, Turner was taken aback by the electronic equipment that surrounded Ware and Marsh. “Where’s the band?” she asked.

“It was very early days for computer music, and not many people had seen a Fairlight synthesiser at the time,” Ware says. “It was this huge, mysterious machine that looked like a sci-fi fridge with a screen. I don’t think she ever understood what the hell was going on.” To Turner it looked like an x-ray machine — which, in a way, it was, ready to help her reveal previously unseen facets of her artistry. “It was a brave thing to put out,” Ware says of ‘Ball of Confusion. “It was raw and raucous.” If Turner’s new rock band and the Stones support slots had gone much of the way towards redefining her image, here was further affirmation of how far she’d come in a mere handful of years.

With Turner’s take on ‘Ball of Confusion’ charting in Europe, record-label interest heightened in the UK, if not in Turner’s homeland. While signed to Capitol Records for a development deal in the US, she had recorded a version of The Beatles’ ‘Help!’ with jazz-funk outit The Crusaders, upping the drama in a pleading take whose spacious ballad arrangement, featuring a reggae-tinged breakdown, repositioned Turner for the lucrative adult contemporary market. Despite unqualified support from A&R executive John Carter, the song sat in the can while the label prevaricated over Turner’s potential. And then the endorsement of another British trailblazer changed everything.

While in New York in early 1983, to host a listening session for his soon-to-be juggernaut success Let’s Dance, David Bowie, recently signed to the Capitol subsidiary EMI America, passed up a dinner date with label execs who’d travelled from Europe and across North America for the event, telling them he already had plans to catch his “favourite singer” during her third residency at The Ritz. With 63 label reps suddenly filling out that evening’s guest list, along with Bowie, Keith Richards, tennis star John McEnroe and actress Susan Sarandon, Turner stepped on to the stage to find the room “packed and vibrating”. “It was my favourite kind of show,” she wrote in her second memoir, My Love Story. “Great energy and an audience that was with me every high-kicking step of the way.” As the afterparty stretched into the early hours of the morning, Capitol began to envision a new dawn for Turner.

“She was as much an actor in the studio as she was a singer”

While the buzz from the Ritz show crossed the Atlantic, Turner flew to Stockholm, where, in yet another display of her stylistic range, she staged a one-off performance with a 20-piece orchestra at Tivoli Gardens. From there she travelled to London for a second recording session with Martyn Ware, who arrived armed with a shortlist of potential cover songs. With its titular year on the horizon — and Bowie’s support still in her mind — Turner recorded ‘1984’, a song by her most famous fan. Originally a funk-laced slice of dystopian paranoia, in the hands of Ware and co-producer Greg Walsh the song became a robotic fever dream, humanised by Turner’s commanding vocals. But it was a take on a southern sour bass det would pertect this mix of machine-tooled music and passion-fuelled singing, while also giving Turner the breakthrough she’d been working towards.

“Top of my list for Tina was Let’s Stay Together, by Al Green,” Ware says. “I thought we could contemporise it, and, fortunately, she was an enormous fan of Al.” Building from ethereal synth lines into a percussion-assisted slow-dance number, the song exemplified Ware’s vision of “worn futurism”, its mechanical framework adorned with organic instruments such as baritone saxophone and guitar lines that played call-and-response with Turner’s vocals. “It’s like an endless succession of beautiful hooks, with all that mysterious weirdness going on in the background,” he says.

Swapping the opening two verses of Green’s original lyrics as she thought of an unrequited love back home, Turner explored new depths of her artistry, channelling them into a perfect, one-take vocal. “She was as much an actor in the studio as she was a singer,” Ware notes. “She barely sings that first line. It’s like she’s talking to you and you’re in her confidence. She sells it on a one-to-one basis to everybody who’s listening.”

Released as a single in November 1983, ‘Let’s Stay Together’ raced to No.6 in the UK. “I knew it was worthy of being successful,” Ware says. “It sounded like a million dollars on the radio. It was elegant, classy — and it still reaches out now.” Grabbing the attention of stateside DJs who spun import copies ahead of its official US release, the song would go on to top the Billboard dance chart, becoming the biggest-selling 12” single in North America to date. Boosted by a seductive promo video directed by David Mallet — Turner, her dancers, plenty of soft lighting — it also went into heavy rotation on MTV and brought Turner into homes around the world. Eager for more, Capitol finally gave a full-length project the green light. All she had to do was deliver it within two weeks.

“When she first heard the song she jumped up and started singing along”

Turner had scored big on the UK charts once before, with ‘River Deep, Mountain High’. Despite being co-credited to Ike, the 1966 single was a Turner solo outing in all but name, on which she soared unfettered above a crew of session musicians hand-picked by producer Phil Spector for a walloping “Wall of Sound” construction that sounded unlike anything else she had recorded. With England now embracing her latest stylistic reinvention in ‘Let’s Stay Together’, it was the obvious place for Turner to call home as she worked on what would become Private Dancer.

If Turner felt any pressure, she didn’t show it. During a landmark appearance on the cult UK TV show The Tube, partially aired live in October before being screened in its entirety in December, she had taken control of the stage, delivering a full-throttle performance that forced Channel 4 to delay the evening’s news broadcast while they waited for her to finish. Alongside John Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd, and the chart-conquering synth-pop duo Eurythmics, Turner was “full-on energy”, Paul Cox says today. Hired to photograph Turner during the show, Cox recalls the studio audience’s reaction to a set that included everything from Beatles covers (‘Get Back’, ‘Help!’) to vintage calling cards (Nutbush City Limits’, ‘River Deep, Mountain High’) and a cathartic ‘Let’s Stay Together’. “She was sort of the outsider that night,” he says. “No one knew what to expect. And she just rattled off all these numbers and blew the place apart.”

Turner was no less explosive in the studio, making light work of laying down the songs that would feature on her long-awaited new album. Her manager, Roger Davies, had been careening around London, meeting with songwriters and producers, filling a leather bag with cassettes featuring potential songs for Turner to record. The first batch that he played to her included. ‘Better Be Good to Me’, a little-known single issued a couple of years earlier by a New York rock band called Spider, and which immediately grabbed Turner’s attention. Co-written by Holly Knight, who would go on to work with Turner on ‘One of the Living, from the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack, and craft Turner’s signature hit, ‘The Best’, ‘Better Be Good to Me’ was a rousing pop-rock number that chimed with a female artist demanding respect in a male-dominated industry.

“She had been going through a lot at that time,” Knight, whom Turner would soon dub her “rock chick”, says today. “And she was in a patriarchal world. The story goes that, when she first heard the song she jumped up and started singing along with it, and said, ‘This is the perfect song that I want to do.’ She felt it was positive and that it resonated with what she was feeling. And she maintained the integrity of the song and the attitude of the vocals.”

If the upbeat Terry Britten- and Sue Shifrin-penned synth-rocker ‘Show Some Respect’ underscored the point — with Turner throwing in a nod to ‘Respect’, the classic Otis Redding song that Aretha Franklin turned into an anthem in1967 — more elements of Turner’s personal life filtered into I Might Have Been Queen. With lyrics by Jeannette Obstoj, the then partner of Rupert Hine, who would produce two of Private Dancer’s songs, ‘I Might Have Been Queen’ used Turner’s Buddhist faith as the jumping-off point for a time-bending trawl through Turner’s story, from childhood to career reinvention. Placed at the start of the album, the song sent a clear message to those who’d yet to encounter this new incarnation of Turner: “I’m a new pair of eyes/Every time I am born,” she sings over an urgent bass line. “And I’m scanning the horizon for someone recognising/ That I might have been queen.” As she holds a defiant note on the line “I’m a Soul Survivor,” her determination to succeed is made plain.

“I think love has everything to do with everything”

From the electro-soul cover of Ann Peebles pained ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’ to the sociopolitical narrative of rough’n’tumble rocker ‘Steel Claw’, Turner found something in each of Private Dancer’s songs that she could relate to, enabling her to inhabit them as her own. Yet when Roger Davies played her the demo of another Terry Britten song, What’s Love Got to Do With It, she initially heard little that she connected with. “It was awful,” she recalled in the documentary Tina. “I was rock’n’roll. That was a pop song.” While discussing the track with Britten, she told him straight: “I don’t like that song.”

Having already been recorded and left unreleased by one-time Eurovision Song Contest winners Bucks Fizz, ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It was looking for the right artist to claim it, and Davies was convinced that Turner fit the bill. After some tweaks from Britten, including a change of key, Turner began to feel her way into the song, refining her approach as she went.

“She began trying to take the song at full tilt right from the start,” Britten told International Musician and Recording World in 1986. “But I said, ‘No.  We’ve got to start it quietly and build it all the way through. You can wail at the end.’” Setting up two microphones in the studio, one directly in front of Turner, to capture her voice up close, another four inches away, where it would better handle her open-throated cries, Britten guided Turner through the song, instructing her to ignore the recording equipment and simply sing into his ear as if she were performing only for him. Following Britten’s advice, Turner imbued the moody late-night ballad with all the intimacy it needed, shifting into high gear at the decisive moment and leaving Britten and studio engineer John Hudson speechless. “I was blown away,” Hudson told Sound on Sound of the recording session. “She was so loud it was unreal — we had the doors closed and they could hear her in the reception area!”

Released as a single in May 1984, just as Turner took to the road for a high-profile support slot on Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down Tour, ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It became the hit that Davies had predicted it would be, peaking at No.3 in the UK and riding Turner’ towering performance all the way to the top spot in the US. Yet while some heard in its lyrics a cynical dismissal of romance from an iron-willed artist defining the terms of her own career, Turner demurred. Allowing that the song “really fit a lot of liberated girls” who were learning how to find themselves amid the fast-changing mores of the 1980s, she was nevertheless keen to put listeners straight on the matter: “In my case, love has a lot to do with it,” she told CBS News shortly after Private Dancer’s release “I think love has everything to do with it”.

“She is so attuned to music and so filled with her own internal rhythm”

Travelling in the slipstream of ‘What’s Love Got Do With It’, Private Dancer was released to acclaim on 29 May. Rounded out with the title track, plus Turner’s recordings of ‘Let’s Stay Together’, ‘1984’ and, on international editions, ‘Help!’, the album received a four-star review in Rolling Ston Hearing not “a single dud” song, the magazine praised Turner’s “rasping but strong, physical ay impossible sensual” voice — an instrument in its own right which, the Los Angeles Times declared “melts vinyl”. And if Cash Boxhailed the album “a spectacular return”, The New York Times went bigger still, calling Private Dancer “a landmark not only in the career of the 45-year-old singer ... but in the evolution of pop-soul music itself”.

Charting new territory for music, Turner also led the way for the era’s most effective marketing tool. Following its launch in the summer of 198 the dedicated music channel MTV had broken countless artists, and, Paul Cox says, promo videos had become “more and more complicated” by, time Turner released Private Dancer. With both her hair and her persona seemingly getting bigger with each new single, Turner was the perfect star for this visual medium. “She fitted in there nicely,” Cox says. “Music videos were getting over the top, like mini fims, and she was a larger-than-life person capable of reaching a massive audience. It worked in her favour, big time.”

Many new fans would have caught their first glimpse of Turner on her ubiquitous vídeo for “What’s Love Got to Do With It, A step up from the performance pieces she had filmed for ‘Let’s Stay Together’ and ‘Help!’, the clip featured Turner singing the song while making her way through the New York City streets, rebuffing unsuitable suitors and even intervening in a fight between one young couple. But she truly pulled out all the stops for the ‘Private Dancer’ video, highlighting the song’s importance not just to the album but also to her sense of herself as an artist.

Originally written by Dire Straits’ frontman, Mark Knopfler, but failing to find a home on his group’s 1982 album, Love Over Gold, ‘Private Dancer’ had come Turner’s way after Knopfler’s then manager, Ed Bicknell, passed a demo recording on to Roger Davies. With members of Dire Straits joining her in the studio and British guitar hero Jeff Beck adding a solo in Knopfler’s absence — asking in return only that Turner carve her name into the body of his pink Jackson Soloist — Turner interpreted Knopfler’s desolate ballad in a way that built upon the original meaning of its lyrics. “I think most of us have been in situations where we had to sell ourselves,” she wrote in My Love Story. “I was thinking about that when I sang the song, the sadness of doing something that you don’t want to do, day in, day out. It’s very emotional.”

Filmed in London’s Rivoli Ballroom, the Private Dancer promo video gave Turner the chance to express that emotion in a theatrical setting. With the building in disrepair and about to be condemned, Turner, director Brian Grant and a troupe of dancers under the guidance of choreographer Arlene Phillips endured a 19 hour shoot that lasted until 4am, with little but wooden boxes to sit on between takes and strung-up curtains cordoning off a makeshift changing room. “There were no good facilities,” Phillips says today. “Toilets were rough. But it bonded everyone, and Tina was extraordinary. She truly put everything into it — her heart and soul. It was a role she was taking on, and she wasn’t afraid to cry.”

With Turner playing an escort dancer, Phillips choreographed routines for jaded characters that appeared as if in a dream — or nightmare — version of her life: a sailor, a magician, a geisha, a doll-like ballerina. “I was trying to find a way of making it evocative of someone’s life, “but not clearly defining it. Was this a dream or was it real?” Phillips says. “And I felt that Tina was living her own memories through the way she told this story — there was something deep in the way she approached it. She used gestures, rather than full-on dance.”

Opening up about her life and sharing her love of dance with the cast and crew, Turner acknowledged the differences between her usual performance style with her own internal rhythm, and she was able to adapt that beautifully to a soft and expressive movement.”

Live on stage, however, Turner was as freewheeling as ever. And the success of Private Dancer meant that she would be letting rip nightly throughout most of 1985.

“She has a legacy that will continue”

Shortly before picking up three wins at that year’s Grammy Awards — Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female (Better Be Good to Me’), Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female and Record of the Year (both for What’s Love Got to Do With It’) — and a further two nominations (Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female and Album of the Year; the ‘Private Dancer’ promo would receive its own nod in 1986), Turner launched the Private Dancer Tour. Opening in Helsinki, Finland, on 19 February and stretching on for 182 shows over five legs and almost as many continents, the tour presented Turner in her prime.

“She was a powerhouse,” Paul Cox says. “She fed off the audience and put so much into each show.” Although it was difficult for Cox to catch Turner mid-flight, his photos from that time, whether of pre-tour rehearsals or taken during the shows themselves, capture the energy and enthusiasm that radiated from her whenever she was on stage. “I never knew what I was going to get until I processed it,” Cox says. “She wasn’t just dancing in one spot — she flew across the stage: backwards, forwards, all over the place.”

Shot over two nights at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, the concert film Tina Live: Private Dancer Tour marked yet another victory for Turner, who was now easily packing out the arena-sized venues she’d set her sights on half a decade earlier. On hand to help her celebrate were two generations of rock star: Bryan Adams, previewing It’s Only Love’, the single he and Turner would soon release together, and David Bowie, the man who had led the stampede to see Turner at the Ritz two years earlier. After duetting on ‘Tonight’, a reggaefied remake of the Bowie/Iggy Pop song that Bowie had re-recorded with Turner for his latest album, they brought the evening to a close with Bowie’s smash 1983 hit ‘Let’s Dance, a palpable joy emanating from the two confirmed admirers. “They got on really well; they were very comfortable with each other,” Cox, who photographed the pair together both backstage and during the concert, says.

Live Aid would follow, and Turner could also be heard singing on ‘We Are the World’ as part of the star-studded USA for Africa supergroup, featuring many of the biggest names on the planet, among them Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. “Her energy was such that all those people looked at her and went, I want to be a part of that,” Cox says. “She always pulled people along.”

And she continues to do so today. Calling Turner “an icon I grew up with”, Norwegian DJ Kygo took a remix of ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’ back into the charts in the summer of 2020. Reaching an even younger generation, ‘Better Be Good to Me’ featured in Paramount Pictures’ 2024 fantasy drama IF, soundtracking a key scene that included a playful homage to Turner’s promo video for the song. A perennial entry in “greatest albums” lists, Private Dancer has transcended its era, with the US Library of Congress deeming it “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” enough to be preserved in their National Recording Registry.

“It’s timeless,” Holly Knight says today. “And even that cover photo of her is timeless — the way her legs are just out there. It was a very empowering image. There was nobody doing anything like that before. There weren’t many women who wanted to rock out in that way, and you don’t often see a singer break through in their 40s.

“How many artists can you say put out a record 40 years ago and, 40 years later, we’re talking about that artist more than ever?” she adds. “It’s very rare to be that lasting. And that will continue.

Discovering Tina’s music is a rite of passage.”

Jason Draper

[pineconewithapencil]

Got very motivated from @corkinavoid ‘s post (https://www.tumblr.com/pineconewithapencil/782620644119560192)

close ups and timelapse under cut:

(unfortunately this is one of the more boring speedpaints bc i was too focused to add doodles and notes lol)

[clockwaysarts]

Did I go slightly insane? Maybe.

Batman themed Clue board done up in the style of the original Clue art. Everything but the table is painted~

Done for @haunting-heroes-creative-games.

[arcventi]

Can you tell I only made this s for Tim? I only made this for Tim. Don't come @ me about the others because I only made this for Tim. The only thought that went into this was Tim.

[redsray]

Red Robin Au where after Battle for the Cowl, Jason (instead of donning that ridiculous pill helmet) goes back to visit Talia and blow off some steam with the LOA; it's an effective way to do so at first, as long as he keeps Ra's at arms length and has all the Bats away from him. Except is that Timothy fucking Drake working with Ra's al Ghul.

So now Jason's like oh my god are you kidding me why is Tim here working with Ra's of all people??? Last he checked, Dick was Batman now and Tim was part of that gaggle of Robins in Gotham. Not here, in Nanda Parbat.

Tim, fresh from a splenectomy: Jason?!

Jason: What the fuck are you doing here?

Tim: ??? I could ask you the same question??

Jason: No the fuck you couldn't?? I trained with Talia and now I'm back here for a bit, and I'm not the one missing an organ right now?! Why aren't you back with Dickbat in Gotham??

Tim: Well. Let's say I'm not Robin anymore

Jason: ... Not... Robin?

Tim, scowling: Dick gave it to Damian.

Jason: Dick is Batman for like a month and already gave the traffic light leggings to a mini assassin? Nice.

Tim: Ugh

Jason: And... this was enough reason to run away and get impaled by assassins in Iraq? While working with Ra's al Ghul?

Tim: Well, not really. I need to find Bruce, and Ra's is the only one who will help me. Even if he's a freak of nature.

Jason: Bruce... are we talkin' about another Bruce or did I miss a memo? Bruce is dead, Timbo.

Tim: He's not. He's trapped in the timestream and trying to get back. And don't- don't tell me I'm going insane with grief or in denial. Laugh all you want, then leave. I don't need this shit again.

Jason: Trapped in time? Damn motherfucker can't even stay dead?

Tim: ... You believe me?

Jason: Sure. Not the craziest shit we've seen. I have a feeling you wouldn't go as far as Ra's if you were actually going off nothing. (mumbling) stealing my schtick. What a bastard.

Tim, blinking: Wow. That... just wow. That was easy. Dick thought I was losing it with grief and so has everyone else.

Jason, shrugging: B is definitely stubborn enough to get lost in time instead of dying and, frankly, I know what being off yer rocker looks like, and this ain't it. I climbed out of my grave, for god's sake, is time shit really off the table? Wouldn't hurt t'look if the old man's still kickin'.

Tim: Uh-

Jason: First stop: away from Ra's, preferably. Talia's not bad, but Ra's is a whole other can of worms. Get up or I drag you.

[ditzybat]

jason: alvin draper is a stupid cover name, you sound like a dorky chipmunk with it

tim: i dunno if ‘mr. spanky’ has any room to talk

[the-evil-clergyman]

The Golden Fleece by Herbert James Draper (1904)

[dragonpyre]

Thoughts on the Malones?

Every batkid/batfam member has a Malone identity. No Bruce did not approve them. The kids absolutely abuse the shit out of it

Bruce will never know peace

[mkarchin713]

Matches sparking Rumors: Prompt

You know what I heard, Lil’ Robbie Malone has been seen sneaking out of Dick Grayson’s Bludhaven apartment, you think Robbie’s a rat or is detective Grayson not as squeaky as he wants you to believe.

Thats nothin, my auntie Sophia is convinced that Red Hood is actually Todd Malone, says he even took the name from Matches old boss.

I heard that Matches is Alvin Draper’s dad.

I could see Matches naming a kid Alvin, isn’t his daughter’s name Minnie?

I thought Minnie was Matches niece?

And you believed that? That man’s got more secret kids than Brucie Wayne.

I bet you twenty bucks to ask Tommy Prince and Andrea Abel if they’re Matches kids too.

No way, they’re always hangin around Lil’ Matches and that kid bites

[jamjiros-blog]

Summary:

AU: Jason somehow managed to survive the Joker and retired as Robin and Tim was never needed by Batman. --- When a trip overseas during the holiday season ended up with Tim and his parents getting kidnapped, Tim found himself having the worst day of his life. It ended with Tim's mom dying and it left Tim's father in a coma. Tim was heavily injured and a bit scarred from the encounter... but at least Batman and Batgirl saved him and his dad.

Despite not being a Bat or a hero Tim still found himself in strange situations. Such as when he went to Paris when his dad, Jack was still in a comatose state and met three strange people that ended up with him sneaking alongside them.

Language: English 

Words:  85,181

Chapters: 14/?

Comments: 31

Kudos: 123

Bookmarks: 38

Hits: 3,406

[cologona]

A dimensional anomaly hits Gotham and disaster strikes as each villain either teams up with, or squares off against their respective alternate selves. The Batfamily need to get the situation under control before the whole city can fall apart. Luckily the anomaly also brought them an ally- the alternate universe Red Robin.

“Al” as they’ve taken to calling him, is good. That is perhaps the reason it took Bruce longer to realize than it should’ve.

The subtle looks. His skill at goading opponents into making a mistake.

A fighting style formed from a backbone of acrobatics rather than martial arts.

Two inches shorter than Tim, despite being two years older. He didn’t even try to lie about that.

He needs to talk to Al- no, Jason alone.

[thelibrarian1895]

Batfamily supporting one another's hobbies: Cassandra edition

Cassandra canonically and in my heart loves to dance, any sort of dance but ballet specifically, it makes her feel graceful and beautiful and while she knows that any ballet dancer has a kick like a mule, and her family knows that she's one of the best martial artists in the world, she likes that people perceive ballerina, and therefore her, as delicate and dainty. She's never been considered delicate or dainty before and it both pleases and amuses her.

Bruce makes the time to go with Cassandra as she investigates the various ballet schools and companies associated with Gotham to see which one of them fits her wants and needs. When she finds the one she likes best, Bruce becomes the school's anonymous sponsor. It it extremely anonymous since Cassandra, who enters the school under the name of Cassandra Drake, wants to earn any role she might play because of her skill rather than because she's a Wayne. Bruce also has flowers for Cassandra after her every performance. Who presents her with the flowers is determined by a competition almost as cutthroat as the competition for Alfred's cookies.

Tim learns enough ballet to dance with Cassandra, specifically to do lifts for her and other assistant dancer sort of things, helping her shine as the prima ballerina she is and getting the chance to have quality time with his sister/favorite sibling. He doesn't have the time to be part of any productions but he's very popular in the dance classes since his presence gives more people the chance to practice the lifts and assisted spins. He's also a translator for those days when Cassandra doesn't/can't verbally speak and just signs instead.

Dick would have learned to assist her with lifts and spins and such but he's very busy and pulled twenty different directions by twenty different people at any given time. Instead he designs costumes for Cassandra and her performances. While Dick's fashion sense for vigilante costumes is bonkers and impractical, his sense of style for performance costumes is absolutely on point and Cassandra's troupe becomes well known for both their skill and their amazing costumes.

Jason didn't think about it and now won't because he doesn't want to be seen as copying the Replacement, he might start teaching himself to play the piano to accompany the two of them as their musician for a private family performance, if they want

Damian is currently too short to be good at lifts and even if he had thought of it he, like Jason, doesn't want anyone to think he's copying Tim. He will, however, paint a portrait of Cassandra as Odette, her first lead role. Damian also occasionally hangs out at the dance school to sketch the ballerinas after he's done with his own schooling for the day. He will ignore anyone who isn't Cassandra who attempts to talk to him. However, in one instance, when an interloper attempted to harass one of the ballerinas, Damian interceded, broke the man's arm, and ensured security removed and banned the man from the premises. The ballerinas consider Damian their adorable little guardian. Damian just scoffs and insists he was only doing it because he didn't want Cassandra to have to deal with any subpar replacements.

Duke is currently trying to catch up in normal bat skills and doesn't quite have the time to add ballet to his plate though he's at every performance and cheers the loudest. He absolutely cheats the most to be the one to present flowers to Cassandra most often out of the family and is the one who can give her verbal praise for her dancing instead of just grunting like a certain others in the family.

Stephanie is a terrible dancer. She owns it and laughs at it but she would not be able to be part of any ballet or assist in ballet practice to save her life. She also doesn't really want to dance ballet. Instead Stephanie helps Cassandra break in her toe shoes, is at every performance, does her best to cheer louder than Duke, and will go with Cassandra to see other ballet performances.

Alfred also ensures that Cassandra and her ballet friends have appropriate snacks and stay hydrated. He's very proud of her for developing civilian friends.

[cinemaslife]

#234 First Kill (2022)

Los Fairmont son una familia querida y respetada en Savannah, el padre es fiscal y la madre es la heredera de una gran fortuna. Esto hace que sus hijos Elinor, Oliver y Juliette se críen en un ambiente privilegiado y lleno de poder a ojos del resto de la ciudad.

Por otro lado, tenemos a los recien llegados de la familia Burns, compuestos por el matrimonio y sus hijos, Theo, Apolo y Calliope. Se trata de una familia que se muda frecuentemente y no son capaces de establecer lazos estables allí donde van, por lo que solo se tienen a sí mismos.

Todo sería más o menos normal si no fuera por el secreto que guardan ambas familias, los Fairmont son vampiros de una larga estirpe, los más puros respecto al concepto de vampiros que hay, algo así como vampiros legendarios. Y los Burns son cazadores de monstruos, que van de ciudad en ciudad exterminando a los malos.

Este es el cimiento del enfrentamiento familiar, pero a eso hay que sumarle que de forma irremediable y profunda Calliope y Juliette se enamoran, y eso no sienta bien a ninguna de las dos familias.

Pese a que prácticamente desde el inicio ambas saben que es la otra, no pueden evitar caer en la tentación e intentar salvar su relación por encima de sus estrictas familias.

Es normal que los Fairmont por años de dominio sobre la ciudad y su estilo de vida no vayan a detenerse en su estilo de vida, y también es normal que los Burns deseen acabar con todo el mal que reina en la tierra.

Por mucho que Cal y Jules intentan hacer las cosas bien, el número de muertes y de monstruos en la ciudad aumenta, y aunque la chica vampiro intenta controlar sus instintos hay cosas con las que no se puede luchar, por ello los Burns piden ayuda al resto de cazadores para que les ayuden a terminar con todos los Fairmont y los vampiros legendarios.

Elinor y Oliver se enfrentan, entra sí mismos intentando que Juliette haga lo correcto, su hermana está a favor de que asesine y se alimente, y su hermano de que sea compasiva y no quiera asesinar a las personas, solo alimentarse de ellas. Pero Elinor, mucho más manipuladora e inteligente, sabe como reaccionar en cada situación.

Theo perdió a su madre porque la atacó un vampiro y desde entonces su odio es irrefrenable, pero no cuenta con que su hermano Apolo se enamore de Elinor y caiga rendido a sus encantos.

Ambas familias intentan hacer lo mejor para ellas, pero el creciente número de monstruos y la incapacidad de los Burns para eliminar a los Fairmont (porque nunca han leído sobre como eliminar vampiros legendarios), hacen que las cosas se vayan complicando y que cada vez haya más muertos y la ciudad se crispe y empiecen a sospechar de todos.

En determinado momento, Elinor se ve acorralada por Apolo y Theo y los manipula para que el primero acabe con el segundo. Cal y Jules intentan escaparse de casa porque no les dejan estar juntas, pero acuden al llamado desesperado de Apolo.

Una vez allí, Apolo y Cal se van, pero Jules se apiada de Theo y lo transforma en vampiro para evitarle el dolor a Cal. Esto no impide que Jules descubra que quien hizo todo eso fue Elinor y la confronte, su hermana la ataca y ella decide venderla a la policía y se la llevan a la cárcel acusada de desapariciones que sí ha provocado.

Jules está harta y sabe que es el momento de que pague por todo el mal que ha estado haciendo.

Theo vuelve a casa y los hermanos se muestran consternados, hay algo que no cuadra. Jules va a visitar a los Burns para contarle todo a Cal, pero su hermano se ha rebotado y está atacándolos a todos, necesita alimentarse por primera vez. Jules lo conforta y lo alimenta con su sangre, por lo que todos saben que fue ella quien lo transformó. Cal se rompe ante la traición y aunque Jules le intenta decir que fue para evitarle el dolor de la perdida. Cal la echa de su vida, esto es algo que jamás le podrá perdonar.

Theo vio morir a su madre a manos de un vampiro y fue entrenado para asesinarlos, y ahora ella, de forma egoísta, le había transformado en lo que él odia. Pese al dolor de su corazón, le dice que jamás le perdonara algo así, que hará todo lo posible por saber como asesinarla a ella y a toda su familia y terminar con su linaje.

La madre de Cal lleva a Theo con el hermano de Jules, Oliver, y espera que él se encargue de él. Ya que se niega a asesinarlo, como el resto de su familia. Así descubrimos, cuando la mujer se va, que es Oliver junto a su pareja Carmen, una bruja, quien está llenando la ciudad de monstruos para que acaben con todos.

[batfambrainrotbeloved]

GUESS WHOSE BACCKKK?? WITH YET ANOTHER UPDATE ✨✨✨✨

The Drakes Spoiled Brat (im sorry dad) is back AGAIN- for like the third time this week (I for one, am not sorry)

Name: As above Rating: General Audiences Chapter: 5/?? Word count: 16,538 Relationships: Batfam + Extended DC friends/fam Summary: Canon Timeline, Red Robin died alone long after his family fell apart with Bruce vanishing. His last moments wishing that out of everyone he saved, his family would be included.

Suprise suprise- he gets that chance when he wakes up at 5 y/o only a year after Robin made his debute.

Now as both the elusive Gotham Vigilante Cardinal (a bird of devotion) and Timothy Drake (his rich asshole persona version of Brucie Wayne)

Tim will fight tooth and nail for his families happily ever after (If only he fought as hard for his own happiness)

[thatrandomsarahchick]

Instead of going to sleep, I just read a 150,000 word fic.

Is now 4am, and I have an 8 hour shift starting in 2 hours.

I'm an idiot.

Anyway, here's a link to the fic - it's brilliant. Trigger warning for an OC child death near the end:

[psychologeek]

Whumptober #3:

SET UP FOR FAILURE | Fingerprints | Wrongfully Arrested | "I warned you."

index Part of "The Cyclist AU", where Jason never went back to Gotham, instead went living a quiet (sort of) civilian life. He later joins Tim on his Brucequest, as "Paracosm"

“Seriously?”

The voice comes out of nowhere. If Tim wasn't Bat-trained, he probably would have freaked out. As it is, he only tenses and listens closely for any clearer sign of approach.

“I warned you,” the voice continues. “I left you with clear instructions. What did I tell you?”

“To stay out of trouble,” Tim sighs.

“And what did you do?” Paracosm questions.

Tim stays quiet as the handcuffs are taken off. This is a rhetorical quotation.

The older man just sighs.

“You're lucky I speak French, kid.”

“What –?”

“Your fingerprints are already off the system, Alvin. Now let's go, before they realize I'm not actually from the Interpol.”

(Like it? I have more mini-fics Whumptober index | And full size fics on ao3. )