You Are So Beautiful

Billy Preston 1946-2006

Though he never sang it himself, this song that Billy Preston wrote for Joe Cocker in 1974, typifies the man. A tall, man with innocence in his eyes and a mean organ player, Billy passed away on June 6 this year from kidney failure. A man of rare talent and a lot of soul, his death robs us of yet another original, another genius. I felt I had to react to his passing...so here are some stories...
Billy was born in Houston, Texas in 1946. He began his career playing with gospel legends Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland, before becoming a fixture in Little Richard's touring band in the early Sixties.
The year was 1962. With the gradual ebbing of interest in rock'n'roll in the US, and the rise in the dubious breed of 'clean' acts like Bobby Gee, old stalwarts like Little Richard and Gene Vincent took to touring the rock'n'roll hotbeds in England and Germany. An entire generation of eager young Turks like the Beatles had been weaned on their music and there time was now. At such a juncture, a very interesting meeting took place between the old royalty and the new princes of rock'n'roll. Between October and November of that year, Little Richard was touring England. His posse of touring musicians included the young Jimi Hendrix and the even younger Billy Preston. Already a mean hand at the organ and a gospel veteran, he was only 15. The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was busy promoting his young and talented hitmakers from Merseyside-including the top-twenty cracking Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers, who had just had a number 1- and got Little Richard on the bill. For some reasons, that did not materialise, but the planned when The Beatles returned to Hamburg for the fourth time that November.
Sharing the bill with rock's original wildman and resident god Richard was an awe-inspiring event for the Fab Four. They were very impressed with the small young Preston, who John Lennon later remembered as looking 'about ten then.' He and The Beatles-especially George Harrison- became buddies on the club circuit. They spent hours asking each other about the culture of the other. Thus did the man with the mighty organ meet the Fab Four.
The tour over, they went their separate ways, The Beatles to dizzying heights of fame and Preston back to doing session work. With time, his reputation grew, as did the chance to work in stellar company. After playing with several acts stateside he joined Ray Charles's band. Preston was well-known enough to issue two albums in the mid-Sixties- 1965's "The Most Exciting Album Ever" and "The Wildest Organ In Town" in 1966.
Fast forward to 1969. Ray Charles was touring England. George Harrison and Eric Clapton went to see the Soul legend's concert at the London Palladium. Harrison was struck by a tall gangling figure on stage playing the organ. He seemed familiar. Then Ray Charles introduced his young sideman on stage:
"Billy Preston! Since I heard Billy play, I don't play the organ any more. I leave it to him."
It was Preston, but several inches taller and not looking about ten. Harrison went up after the show and the two renewed their friendship and asked him to come visit The Beatles at work. At the time, in early 1969, The Beatles were in the middle of the tortured "Get Back" sessions. Having moved to the basement studio under their company Apple's Saville Row office, George's decision to bring in Preston to the sessions acted as a breath of fresh air. The cobwebs of boredom and disaffection were blown away at the appearance of this old friend, and the Fabs started behaving themselves. They started recording songs in earnest.
George- " He got on the electric piano, and straight awaythere was 100% improvement in the vibe of the room...in his innocence he got stuck in and gave an extra little kick to the band."
The most famous result of this collaboration- only the third, after Eric Clapton and Nicky Hopkins before him- is the Beatles's 1969 hit Get Back. Suddenly, Billy Preston was the 5th Beatle. He would go on to record on the rest of the "Let It Be" album and the follow-up "Abbey Road". The music he plays on Get Back is simple and like quicksilver. The song gallops on at a breakneck space. Then, Preston's electric piano slows down the pace of the song before galloping into a furious funk-heavy boogie woogie shakedown that flashes by before you can put your finger on it's brilliance. Every phrasing in the song is bookended by his piano riffs. Through his efforts he elevated the song. Get Back became the only Beatles single to name him on equal terms. It was The Beatles and Billy Preston. He plays a beautiful little solo bang in the middle of Paul McCartney's dirge drama, The Long And Winding Road. Till now hidden under producer Phil Spector's string arrangement, it can be heard on 2003's 'cleaned up' "Let It Be...Naked". The spooky organ parts on Abbey Road's I Want You (She's So Heavy) and the full out soul of Let It Be are proof of his fantastic ability. On that song, he plays a funereal organ that his audible just under McCartney's stately piano phrases and plays a lovely break bridging the second verse and Harrison's guitar solo. On Harrison's I Me Mine, again he provides a sparkling intro and anchors the space between the chorus and the next verse, leading a wistful tone to the song. His parts though, were never obstrusive, but lent a greater depth to the songs. His musicianship was nothing if not evocative.
Preston soon became a fixture on the heady London music scene. doing session work for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and The Who. He soon signed onto The Beatles' Apple label and in 69 his third album That's The Way God Planned It was released, produced by Harrison. Preston was now a star in his own right. Touring with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends- which included Clapton, Harrison- Preston recieved more acclaim. Harrison's gospel tinged My Sweet Lord owed a distinct debt to Preston.
Preston: "George asked me how to write a gospel song so I started playing some chord changes. Delaney and Bonnie started singing "Oh my God, Hallelujah" and George took it from there and wrote the verses."
He later covered the song in 1975 to great critical acclaim. A voice at once both gruff and silken, he interpreted the profound gospel underpinnings of the song again in 2002's Concert For George.
He ended 1971 as a headline act on Harrison's hugely successful Concert For Bangladesh.
From 1970 onwards, a lucrative collaboration started with the Stones. From Sticky Fingers, through to Black And Blue, Preston featured on all the album and as a supporting act on the Stones tours. He plays some stunning organ in classics like I Got The Blues and Shine A Light. The Stones's approach to gospel, as in blues, was purist and Preston fitted right in. Shine A Light is a great example of Preston's feel. He plays both the piano and the organ. With both instruments he lays down a solid base for the song. His organ weaves in and out of the verses. While Mick Jagger emotes and singers like Clydie King provides the soulful backing, Preston's piano alternates between the atately and the sprightly. And, need we say, unobstrusive all along. In an era of great rock organ players like Garth Hudson, Stevie Winwood and Ray Manzarek- to name a few- Preston held his own and became the best known. As in Get Back, Preston always added more quality to a good song and elevateed it to greatness. There's a wonderful vamped organ solo in I Got The Blues from Sticky Fingers. A plodding blues pastiche, Preston's mighty organ shrieks with an intensity that vividly captures the theme of sexual frustration.
The 70's were a good time for Preston. Apart from the Stones, he continued to produce songs and albums- including two chart toppers in 1973 and 1974. The song he wrote for Joe Cocker, You Are So Beautiful is a masterpiece. After struggling through the Eighties with cocaine and alcohol problems, he recovered in the Nineties to discover that he had become a legend- to people who knew a good thing when the heard it. Ever the ace sideman, he joined Clapton's touring band he recorded again with Ray Charles, most famously on the legend's last album. He also toured with Steve Winwood. Heartbroken at his best friend George Harrison's demise in 2001, Preston stole the show in Harrison's memorial concert at The Royal Albert Hall with brilliant versions of Isn't It A Pity and My Sweet Lord.
The man with the oversized Afro is no more and he leaves us all rueing the decay of youth and the death of humility. But, as he sang so memorably, "That's the way God planned it."