Billy Preston Meets Outa-Space

Billy Preston
September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006

Oy, has it really taken me eight days to get around to this?

Billy Preston had been in a coma for more than a year, and last week he finally died from "complications of malignant hypertension".

For a better obit than I can give here, you should go visit Billy's own website. And if you don't know much about him, you should check his bio on Wikipedia, which'll give you a rundown of the necessary details: piano prodigy as a child, got his big break as a pre-teen playing organ for Mahalia Jackson, collaborated with the Rollings Stones, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, one of only two Beatles sideman to ever get a record-cover credit ("Get Back" was originally released under the name "The Beatles with Billy Preston"), John Lennon and Paul McCartney argued over whether he should be admitted to the band as an official "fifth Beatle" (Lennon was for it, McCartney against), &c., &c.

Billy Preston - Let the Music Play (produced by George Harrison, and also my favorite Billy Preston song. It turns up on a lot of mix CDs I make.)

Billy Preston - Can't She Tell

Billy Preston - John Henry

Billy Preston - Nothing from Nothing

Mahalia Jackson - Then the Answer Came (live) - (I KNOW somewhere I have a 1958 Mahalia live track with a 12-year-old Billy on organ, but I can't find it right now. I'm going to keep looking. As a consolation, here's a young Billy, age 17, also live with Mahalia.)

For more farewells to Billy (and more Billy MP3s, if you dug these), you should check out the recent Billy posts at Monkeyfunk (who beat me to the title I wanted to use for this post, 'It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)'), and The "B" Side, which posts Billy's "He Brought Me Out", Soul Sides ("Little Girl"), Home of the Groove ("Sho Nuff"), Melomaniac (a bunch), Badminton Stamps ("Outa-Space"), Cable and Tweed (a bunch more), et al.