"They used to say it was bad for Indians to drink, but it's bad for anybody. When they drink they lose their cool, a lot of us. Like when we played with Sonny Boy, I would never get paid, you know. He would drink up all the money"
About this Quote
Ike Turner starts with a stereotype and then punctures it, not with a lecture but with lived proof. “They used to say it was bad for Indians to drink” nods to a racist, paternalistic line that’s been used to police Native people for generations. Then he flips the frame: it’s not some ethnic defect, it’s alcohol. “But it’s bad for anybody.” The move is simple, almost offhand, and that’s why it lands. He’s refusing the mythology of “certain kinds of people” being uniquely unable to handle vice, and he’s doing it in the plain, transactional language of a working musician.
The phrase “lose their cool” is doing quiet work. Cool, in Black musical culture, is composure, control, professionalism - the ability to stay sharp under pressure. Alcohol isn’t just a moral problem here; it’s an economic weapon that dissolves discipline and turns a gig into chaos. Turner’s “a lot of us” is a loaded admission: solidarity without romance, a weary acknowledgment that the scene he came up in was full of talent and full of self-sabotage.
Then he gets specific, and the quote turns into a story about power. “When we played with Sonny Boy, I would never get paid… He would drink up all the money.” That’s not abstract addiction talk; it’s wage theft with a bottle as the accomplice. Turner’s intent feels twofold: correct the racist framing, and document how addiction ripples outward, especially in a music economy where the margins are thin and the person holding the cash can erase everyone else’s labor by getting drunk.
The phrase “lose their cool” is doing quiet work. Cool, in Black musical culture, is composure, control, professionalism - the ability to stay sharp under pressure. Alcohol isn’t just a moral problem here; it’s an economic weapon that dissolves discipline and turns a gig into chaos. Turner’s “a lot of us” is a loaded admission: solidarity without romance, a weary acknowledgment that the scene he came up in was full of talent and full of self-sabotage.
Then he gets specific, and the quote turns into a story about power. “When we played with Sonny Boy, I would never get paid… He would drink up all the money.” That’s not abstract addiction talk; it’s wage theft with a bottle as the accomplice. Turner’s intent feels twofold: correct the racist framing, and document how addiction ripples outward, especially in a music economy where the margins are thin and the person holding the cash can erase everyone else’s labor by getting drunk.
Quote Details
| Topic | Anger |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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