Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise.
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We get questions from listeners just about every week and by far the most common one we get is: what’s your theme song?
It’s called “Thinking Black,” an instrumental by Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm:
Video: Thinking Black - Ike Turner
It’s the opening track to Ike’s 1969 album "A Black Man’s Soul" and was produced by Ike and his wife at the time, Tina Turner. The couple wouldn’t split up for another 7 years. The divorce wasn't finalized until 1978.
This song is a pretty distinct departure from "River Deep — Mountain High."
A couple years ago we got an email from a member of the San Francisco funk band Monophonics. They’d recorded their own version:
Monophonics - "Thinking Black"
Do you know anyone else who’s recorded a version of our theme song? Let us know in the comments!