Billy Preston: An Appreciation
By David Hinckley, Special to AOL Black Voices
If you don't believe it, ask Ringo Starr:
Soul singers Billy Preston and Chaka Khan share a laugh in an empty stadium before a concert in 1977.
The only musician who had a legitimate claim as the "Fifth Beatle" was Billy Preston, who is most famously heard with the Fab Four playing the organ solo on "Get Back."
But perhaps the real mark of Preston's skill and achievement is that however much he liked the Beatles and appreciated the honor and distinction of playing with them, he didn't need that connection to leave his mark on 20 years of popular music.
The Beatles were one whistle stop in a long and rich career where playing with the greats was just part of a day's work.
Preston, who died Tuesday at the age of 59 from kidney failure based complications, was a rare musical bird in many ways - not least of which was that he made the long leap from ace sideman to up-front star, scoring a pair of No. 1 hits in the early 1970s with "Will It Go Round In Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing."
These songs suggested correctly that he was not a great lyricist, but they showcased his sparkling sense of rhythm and his powerful way with a melody. Both tunes will run forever through the heads of everyone who owned a radio when they were popular.
Born in Houston and raised in Los Angeles, Preston seemed to have music imbedded in his genes from birth. By the time he was 3 he had learned piano and that led in turn to the organ, a natural move since his mother was the organist at the Victory Baptist Church.
When Mahalia Jackson sang at Victory on a tour through L.A., pre-teen Billy was her accompanist. A movie producer, seeing that performance, cast him as the young W.C. Handy in the film "St. Louis Blues." At 16 he was hired to tour Europe with Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Nominally they were singing gospel, but it turned out the crowds wanted rock 'n' roll - which Cooke was happy to promote, Little Richard had renounced and Preston had never played at all.
But once he got a taste, he liked it, which opened up his next musical world. On that tour he also met the young Beatles , then just starting to get noticed in their homeland.
Back in the States in 1965 Preston was playing in the house band for the TV show "Shindig" when Ray Charles spotted and hired him. On a tour of Europe, Charles introduced Preston as a man who could pick up Charles' musical torch and carry it forward.
Meanwhile, Preston had recorded for Cooke's SAR label and Vee Jay, without much commercial success. But his reputation in the music world grew and after a show with Charles' band at Royal Festival Hall in Britain, Harrison renewed acquaintances and invited him to the "Get Back" session. He also signed with the Beatles' Apple Records, where Harrison produced his first hit album.
After the Beatles broke up, Harrison got custody of Preston, featuring him at his 1971 Bangladesh concert. Harrison also gave Preston his blessing to leave Apple and sign with A&M. Preston's first A&M sessions included an early version of "Will It Go Round In Circles," titled "I Wrote a Simple Song," but Preston felt more comfortable with the instrumental "Outa Space" as his first single.
It went to No. 4 on the pop charts and won him a Grammy. But even as his solo life began, he remained in demand as a sideman, and he soon fell in with the Rolling Stones, playing on their classic albums "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile on Main Street" before joining their 1975 tour. That same year he also wrote Joe Cocker's biggest hit, "You Are So Beautiful." Perhaps because he grew up playing behind Mahalia, Sam and Ray, Preston never felt intimidated by the company he kept. He was the consummate sideman in always complementing the boss, but he was also a distinctive sideman, like the Motown rhythm section or James Brown's horn men.
The range of artists with whom he played also testifies to the catholic nature of his music, and he always resisted being dropped into R&B, funk, soul, pop or any other music biz marketing slot. Neither did he ever abandon those early gospel roots, and his last big hit, a 1979 duet with Syreeta Wright from the film "Fastbreak," was titled "With You I'm Born Again."
If that title was fitting, though, it wasn't prophetic. As the '70s drifted into the '80s and classic '60s rock and soul was nudged to the sidelines by a new generation with its own sounds, Preston found himself increasingly nudged over there with it.
The gigs never completely dried up. When Starr went on tour in 1989 with his first "All-Starr Band," he made Preston a charter member.
But the devils from the good years stayed with Preston, too, and he pleaded guilty in 1992 to assault with a deadly weapon and cocaine possession. In 1997 he did prison time after failing a cocaine test.
He went into rehab, but by then his legacy was pretty much his history: a splendid sideman who made good-time records with a big wink and bigger hooks.
Sadly, it may take his death to remind people just how alive Billy Preston's music made them feel.
About the Author: David Hinckley is the critic-at-large at the New York Daily News, where he haswritten about music and popular culture since 1980. He is the co-author of 'Black and White Blues: The Rolling Stones 1963,' a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominating committee and a former judge in the annual Ralph J. Gleason book awards. He has writtenfor Rolling Stone, Us, Cosmopolitan and other magazines.
Updated:2006-06-06 15:45:21
Singer-Songwriter Billy Preston Dead at 59
By Dean Goodman
Reuters
LOS ANGELES (June 6) - Keyboardist Billy Preston, a so-called "fifth Beatle" who also played with the Rolling Stones and enjoyed solo success in his own right, died in Arizona on Tuesday after a long illness. He was 59.
Fifth Beatle' Passes Away
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Preston had been in a coma at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea in Scottsdale, Arizona, since last November after suffering kidney failure and related illnesses, the legacy of a longtime battle with drugs that landed him in prison in the late 1990s.
His sister, Lettie Preston, told Reuters his condition worsened over the weekend. An autopsy will be performed, and his funeral will take place in Los Angeles, she said.
A young keyboards prodigy, the Houston , Texas, native spent most of his life in the entertainment business. While still a teenager, he played with the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Little Richard and Ray Charles . With his large Afro hairstyle, ever-present gap-toothed smile and funky clothing style, he was a popular on-stage presence.
He entered the Beatles ' orbit in 1969, as the band was on the verge of breaking up, and helped to soothe some of the tension. He performed on both sides of the "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down" single, which was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston" -- the first time the band had shared the spotlight with a sideman. He also accompanied them during their last concert that year, the famous rooftop gig in London.
In the early 1970s, he topped the charts as a solo act with the Grammy-winning instrumental "Outa Space," "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing." He also wrote Joe Cocker's 1974 hit "You Are So Beautiful."
At the same time, he was becoming a fixture with the Rolling Stones, recording such tracks as "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Heartbreaker," and playing on several tours.
"He's just such a great player, singer and songwriter and has spiced up so many recordings with his keyboard prowess," said current Rolling Stones tour keyboardist Chuck Leavell. "He's one of my true heroes."
Preston's private life was darker. In 1997, a California judge sentenced him to three years in prison for violating the terms of his probation for a cocaine possession conviction handed out earlier that year.
Born William Everett Preston on September 9, 1946, he moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 2. He appeared in the 1958 film "St. Louis Blues," which starred Nat King Cole as bluesman W.C. Handy. Preston played Handy as a child. Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson was also in the film, and he would go on to play organ on some of her best-known recordings, including "In the Upper Room."
WITH THE BEATLES
In 1962, Little Richard hired Preston to join his backing band for a European tour. He met the Beatles during their residency at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, and also Sam Cooke, who signed him to his SAR label. But Cooke was killed two years later, and Preston signed with Vee Jay records, one-time American home of the Beatles , through which he released an instrumental gospel record.
After a stint playing in the house band for the TV show "Shindig," he joined Ray Charles ' band. Beatles guitarist George Harrison renewed their friendship, and brought him into the tense Apple Studios in January 1969 where the Fab Four were barely speaking to each other while working on the "Let It Be" film and recording projects.
His organ handiwork can also be heard on such Beatle songs as "Let It Be," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Something."
Harrison signed him to Apple Records and co-produced Preston's two albums for the label, "That's the Way God Planned It" and "Encouraging Words."
Preston also contributed to many Beatle solo albums, including Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," John Lennon 's "Sometime in New York City" and Ringo Starr 's "Sentimental Journey." He won a Grammy as a performer on the Harrison-orchestrated 1973 album of the year "The Concert for Bangladesh."
His credits with the Rolling Stones included the albums "Sticky Fingers" and "Black and Blue." He was a favorite of Mick Jagger , who danced seductively with Preston in the video clip for "Hey Negrita." Not only did he tour with the Stones, but he also opened for them.
In his later years, he toured with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, as well as Motown session musicians the Funk Brothers. He also was featured on Ray Charles ' last album "Genius Loves Company," as well as the latest albums by Neil Diamond and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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