One of the more disturbing films I’ve seen: Arena’s The Changin’ Times of Ike White reviewed

Arena: The Changin’ Times of Ike White (Monday) had an extraordinary story to tell — but one that, halfway through the documentary, already seemed to be complete. So, you might well have thought at that point, how would it fill the rest of the time? The answer, it transpired, was by taking an even more jaw-dropping turn.

In the 1970s, Ike White was serving life for murder in a Californian prison when reports of his musical talent reached the record producer Jerry Goldstein. A prodigy on guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, White had until then been making most of his music in the prison’s gas chamber, which he was allowed to use as a rehearsal room. Now Goldstein brought in a state-of-the-art mobile studio and recorded White’s album Changin’ Times, released in 1976.

Ike had been making most of his music in the prison gas chamber, which he was allowed to use as a rehearsal room

From what we heard — and were told by some veteran soul musicians — it was a brilliant amalgam of soul, rock, funk and blues, with guitar work that Jimi Hendrix might have been proud of. ‘He could have been a big star,’ said Goldstein, especially when CBS offered to turn White’s story into a TV Movie of the Week. The trouble was that White refused to let anybody play him on screen except him and, as Goldstein pointed out, ‘that was never going to happen’. As a result, the two men parted, and the album faded into obscurity. But not before it had impressed Stevie Wonder enough for him to get White a new lawyer, who secured his release in 1978, aged 32.

While in jail, White had married Goldstein’s 19-year-old secretary, Deborah, who’d grown up on a farm in Colorado and was waiting for him at the prison gates.