After Tina left Ike in 1976, she was blacklisted by concert promoters and hard to sell.
During this transitional period between the Ike & Tina Review and Tina Turner ˝Private Dancer˝, she was able to make 2 solo albums, mainly imports, with ROUGH being the first (the second was a disco album entitled ˝Love Explosion˝).
Others have touched on the fact that it could have been a stellar album if there was more variety in material but there are a few unexpected gems included.
˝A Woman In A Man’s World˝ floored me as Tina sings ˝straight˝ without her trademark wailing and pre 80s sound.
It gives us a glance as what could have been if she had gotten formal voice training and different turn of events in her life.
Then there is a Ray Charles classic ˝Night Time Is The Right Time˝ which she remains true to the original and I prefer over it!
A couple more ballads which was unusual for Tina back then and some rock standards of the time such as ˝Fire Down Below˝ are included with great performances, just not enough variety.
(Izvor: Amazon.com)