Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It
[Showtimes and trailer at Tropiccinema.com]
Musician Billy Preston achieved fame for working with The Beatles on “Abbey Road” and notably in the band’s iconic “Let It Be” film, especially the dazzling finale on the rooftop at 3 Saville Row in London. In the new documentary “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It” by Paris Barclay, one learns that this great artist became a wondrous engine in his own right, albeit with profound suffering. This vibrant and thorough film traces the origins of Preston from his start with Little Richard to the inner circle of music stardom.
One first notices Preston as a protege of Nat King Cole. A self-taught prodigy at age three, he co-starred in the biopic of W.C. Handy “St. Louis Blues,” as the musician in his childhood.
Even when a boy, Preston never missed a note and proved himself to possess something akin to magic on piano or organ.
In addition to his virtuosic playing, the musician could also vibrate and launch across the stage in great gyrations, becoming a human tuning fork. Such actions left the audience spellbound.
In 1962, Preston became the organist for Little Richard. From there he met The Beatles, starting a fortuitous collaboration getting signed to Apple Records and co-writing with George Harrison.
Preston was able to buy a ranch, horses, and a Rolls Royce.
Next, in a break from Apple Records, he recorded the psychedelic funk hit “Outa-Space” using a clavinet and a Wah pedal. It was memorable for containing unusual, transcendental sounds. Preston then increased his notoriety appearing on the first show of Saturday Night Live with his breakout hit “Nothing from Nothing.”
Achieving fame brought devils of the heart and mind to the forefront. Preston hid a darkness from even his closest friends: he was sexually abused as a young boy by his family pastor.
Preston’s mother refused to believe him; he grew guilty and ashamed. Preston found solace in hard liquor and cocaine.
To Preston, art was his best refuge from the pain he was at times desperate to shield.
The musician’s pain (understandably so) was so virulent that his contemporaries invariably say that Preston “did not really date anyone” regardless of gender.
It is heartrending to hear Preston and Patti LaBelle’s duet of “You Are So Beautiful” knowing it is a tribute to his mother and his origins as a gospel singer, considering his abuse.
There are memorable reminiscences by Ringo Starr, style wunderkind Billy Porter, and Eric Clapton.
Preston came out as gay in his final years.
Singer Merry Clayton is Preston’s dear friend who laments his vibrational and visceral suffering.
Preston hit a spiral in later years becoming erratic, disruptive, and worse, convicted of assault and insurance fraud when he became addicted to crack.
Preston was sentenced to five years in prison.
In his later years, he reconnected with Ray Charles and won two Grammys. He never relinquished his belief in Christianity and God. Preston passed away in 2006, shortly after the death of Ray Charles and his mother.
Billy Preston was and still is an internal combustion engine, a being of sound and wonder, a dervish of divinity and a sonic prince.
Write Ian at ianfree1@icloud.com
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