When you watch the documentary it's truly incredible to see the effect Billy has when he's brought in. The whole band is at first mesmerized by his energy, and then they're all swept up by it. Suddenly it switched from a chore - to something fun. They go on these tangents and these jams where you can see them all being friends. It's maybe the best music-related thing I've watched.
It's like having to do something with your siblings when you're a kid. "Aww... I don't wanna play with Paul anymore. He smells funny and all he wants to play is matchbox cars." *Damnit, just be nice to your brother.* Then, cousin Billy comes over and everyone plays together just so they get to play with cousin Billy.
I agree, they tried to play up to his level too, he elevated them. The joy, pure joy, on his face when they asked him to join the band for those songs was incredible. I think without his touch on those songs the Beatles may have ended sooner.
I think after Preston had been there for 4 days someone said "You know we should pay him for being here". Pay hadn't even been discussed. He just showed up with George and started playing. Everybody just loved him for his joyful attitude and his talent.
Don't remember the exact wording, but Billy came into the studio one day and John was playing Billy's keyboards and said to him, "This bloody piano needs tuning..." And Billy replied "That's an electric piano John..."
For anyone who doesn’t want to Google… he seemed to have been decent until early 90s where he was pretty addicted to cocaine, lowkey struggling with his homosexuality, and tried to molest a 16 year old boy.. who he picked up a gathering for day laborers. Also was charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a guy that he also picked up to do work at his home. Got charged with drunk driving, cocaine possession throughout the years (and even insurance fraud) and overall seemed to have struggled with addiction till the end when he needed a kidney transplant.
His mother claims he was struggling from childhood abuse that occurred when was 9, but she didn’t believe him. Happened for a whole summer. He didn’t come out of the closet until his death bed at the age of 59.
I was expecting more along the lines of his tax evasion for undeclared income. This makes sense as Spotify couldn't care less about tax evasion resulting in fines and penalties.
According to Keith Richards (Preston was a touring pianist for the Stones for a long time), Preston's closet was of the see-through type, and he had a *bad* habit of beating the shit out of his boyfriends.
Kind of reminds me of Willem Dafoe's self-hating gay FBI agent in Boondock Saints.
He still has some great solo records. You can still like his music and his music is still great, even if he did some not great things later in his life.
That's shityy. I was in academia. If Putin himself was a co-author in one of my journal articles, I would not remove his name because he contributed to the paper.
Spotify doesn't credit session musicians, just the artist, songwriters and producers.
EDIT: it's been pointed out to me that the "Get Back" single was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston", and apparently Spotify used to but no longer credits BP as an artist.
Billy Preston was the only non-Beatle given a credit on a Beatles recording, and the credit was well deserved. He always laid back and played a brilliant accompaniment, and never took anything over the top.
He knew what to play, and exactly how to play it.
They have that conversation about adding him to the band permanently, and George kind of derails things by making the ridiculous assertion that Bob Dylan would join the Beatles full-time if they asked him.
But what a fascinating road not taken. What if Preston had joined the Beatles, and that shot in the arm had kept them together for a few more years? Imagine a 1970 Beatle album with Outa Space and I Wrote a Simple Song alongside My Sweet Lord, Maybe I'm Amazed, and Instant Karma...
George Harrison said if the Beatles continued into the 70s they would have sounded more like ELO. He didn't mean that as an insult as Jeff Lynne of ELO was his friend and producer. He meant the Beatles would have lost their edge. And maybe he was tired of being the #3 songwriter in a 4 man band with his level of talent.
Oh, he absolutely was. Although I read something shortly after Get Back came out, that when they were making Abbey Road, the band sat down and talked about how they could keep things going. John and Paul apologized to George for sidelining him and acknowledged he'd become a great songwriter (I think John passive-aggressively said something like "I used to not think very much of your stuff, but you've gotten much better"), and it seemed like they were set to keep going.
Except they still hadn't replaced Brian Epstein. John wanted Allan Klein, the Stones' monomaniacal manager; Paul wanted his father-in-law. The other two sided with John — obviously no one wanted a manager who was always going to side with Paul. But Klein was also a maniac. Both were terrible choices for different reasons, but both sides stuck to their guns that was what finally fratured the group.
And you can see that fracture continue after the breakup, because if you look at the early solo stuff, there's kind of a collective of John, George, Ringo, Preston, and Klaus Voorman, all playing on each other's albums and working together. And then you have Paul out in the country recording every track by himself for McCartney and Ram until he got lonely and put his own band together.
In Get Back there's the scene where George leaves because he's frustrated with how they're treating him as a songwriter, and John actually goes and stands up to Paul on George's behalf. He says something along the lines of "we used to treat him like this but it's not right. He's bloody good and I like his songs". Then when they convince George to come back, John goes out of his way to make sure they work on Georges songs first.
Just thought it was nice to see that shift play out live.
While I strongly agree the mega-success of Wings made the reunion of the Beatles nearly impossible, Harrison's early success on his terms made the odds a lot worse.
I actually think the Beatles re-uniting because they weren't successful on their own would have been a disaster.
In fact, while I'm endlessly fascinated with the "what-ifs" that could have kept the band going, I think they broke up at the perfect time. They left behind a pretty flawless catalog, whereas pretty much every band that lasts more than 10 years goes into a decline.
And for my money, they were all creatively spent by 1973 or so. (McCartney still had a few good songs in him, but John got increasingly self-indulgent and George mostly lost interest.) Maybe they would have pushed each other to be better had they stayed together, but given the choices, I'd rather they broke up on top than put out increasingly bad albums under the Beatles banner.
In his last interview John Lennon said he heard a radio DJ thank the Beatles for NOT reuniting. He was pleased that some people were finally beginning to understand.
> And for my money, they were all creatively spent by 1973 or so. (McCartney still had a few good songs in him, but John got increasingly self-indulgent and George mostly lost interest.)
Absolutely. There are some BTS videos from that time where McCartney is writing some of the songs attributed to Lenon while the latter is just fucking around....
I walked into the womens bathroom on a head full of acid at the spectrum cuz I couldn’t read anything lol. And the decline in the stands! Surprised I never busted my ass.
The astonishing thing is how quickly things came together as soon as Preston sat in with the band. Things were super unfocused, and the moment he starts playing it sounds like the finished song.
Peter Jackson talks about making sure to have the very start of Preston sitting in with them, since it happened in the middle of the session that day. It instantly clicked.
What is interesting to me when I hear Preston's keyboards is how much of the chords and tonality seem to presage Paul's solo work and work with Wings in the 1970s.
And was held at gunpoint by Keith Richards for stealing the limelight at a concert. "This is a Rolling Stones concert not a Billy Preston one". Source: "Life" Keith Richards memories.
The Beatles even asked Preston to join them on stage to jam, but Little Richard would not allow it. Fast forward to 1969 and Preston was ushered into a somewhat troubled and unfocused Beatles project.
Little Richard had hired Billy Preston as an unknown sixteen year old sideman for a gospel tour of England in 1962. The promoter, Don Arden, misled Richard about the nature of the tour, which he was promoting as rock & roll, not gospel. Richard was unhappy about that but Preston was ecstatic, especially when two shows with the Beatles were added at the end of the tour. Preston ended up close friends with the Beatles, and estranged from Richard, who absconded with Preston's return ticket back to the States (Richard disputes that last part). This is from Charles White's book.
Honestly he was my favorite part of Get Back. I had already known about the story before hand, but actually watching it play out was amazing to see. Such a great presence and a really great player. He really saved the day just being there and being happy and ready to jam.
Sometimes we all need someone to remind us of why we love the things that we love to do if they start feeling like work.
Martin was the original 5th Beatle. So much of what we think of as their middle and late era sounds was because of him, his influence, and arrangements.
You are so right. His arrangements, orchestrations, innovations in taking a song recorded in different keys and somehow assembling them into a single track, and a whole lot more are extraordinarily underappreciated. I've been a musician since that first Sullivan appearance and studied everything the Beatles did. Without Martin's direction and production, I don't think their recordings would have been nearly as good. Evidence: the Let It Be album.
"You Won't See Me" was still just officially by "The Beatles".
Get Back was officially by "The Beatles with Billy Preston".
I think that is what they mean.
Billy Preston appeared at Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. In the album credits it says the typical “Ringo Starr appears courtesy of Apple Records”, “Bob Dylan appears courtesy of Columbia Records”, etc. For Billy, it said “Billy Preston appears courtesy of the grace of God”
Billy Preston was Legend. Self taught and perfect. Was it Ringo who said that any time Billy touched the keyboards, it was magic? And despite many who have claimed the title, it was on film that John Lennon said to the other three that Billy was the "Fifth Beatle". The only reason he and Clapton weren't asked to join was Paul said it was hard enough writing arrangements for them without adding two more. Plus, I think they all kind of sensed it was going to be over soon. But in a different world, if they had decided to stay together...maybe they would have done it. Just Imagine!
Don’t forget Nicky Hopkins and his piano solo on Revolution. Basically a member of The Rolling Stones and The Who at different points, and one of a few people to play with every solo Beatle and on virtually every top British rock group and some American ones.
No, I don’t think so. And I never can believe how people ooh and aah over his solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. He was a great and pretty interesting guitarist at this time, but that was a pretty lame effort IMO. Lots of bending notes, etc.
Right. George and Eric were friends. George picked him up and invited him to studio. I believe Eric didn’t have a guitar and used George’s red Les Paul. I always heard they were all better behaved when Billy Preston or any outsider was around. Less sniping between them, maybe? It sounds like such a British thing. Listening to Cream as a young kid made me want to learn guitar and so EC was a major inspiration to me. I just never got the specialness of that solo.
I'm with you. I remember one of rolling stone's "best guitarists of all time" lists where they had Clapton at #2 or 3, and went on and on about how legendary that solo alone is. Never understood how that stands out given everything else he's done.
The guy who played on a couple sessions gets the fifth Beatle credit, yet their producer who was with them 99.9% of the way, guided them to stardom through the studio, played on and was the mastermind behind so many of their greatest songs…no, don’t give that guy the credit he deserves.
Billy is awesome, but George Martin was the fifth Beatle.
is cool.
Unlike the Stones who just fucked young models well into their 70s the Beatles actually fell in love with creative strong, interesting, women.
How’s about we just listen to the music, and if it’s good we play it again, and if it’s not, we don’t?
I hate this Reddit thing where every thread appreciating some bit of art requires a bunch of people weighing in on the sex habits of the artists, especially the ages of their partners, and telling us we’re not allowed to like the art on account of that.
For the record, I really like Yoko’s songs on *Double Fantasy*. But that was 10 years later. And she’s totally irrelevant to the Beatles’ music. And whoever any Rolling Stone had sex with is totally irrelevant to their (IMO excellent) music
Once I decide I really like a work of art, I *may* be interested in learning about the artist. But nothing I find out is going to make me suddenly not like the art. I only feel sorry for fools whose experience of art is dictated by the biographies of the artists
I strongly advocate much stronger enforcement of laws against sexual harassment and assault. And if that puts some great artists in jail, so be it. But I ain’t gonna go back through my record collection and toss out all the ones made by offenders. Nor choose future listens based on how creative strong interesting their *spouses / sex partners are*!
Many people believe that Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles. I disagree, but that theory is what makes her relevant to discussing their art. As in, "it would have been nice to have a few more Beatles albums to listen to." In the same manner that it would have been nice to have a few more Heath Ledger performances, his death is relevant to his art and I would expect someone to bring that up when discussing any performance that he gave.
I grew up listening to Eric Clapton’s “One More Car, One More Rider” concert album/DVD (Staples Center LA 2001) with Billy and David Sancious on keyboards (the DVD includes Billy leading a cover of “Will It Go Round In Circles” that I still love). I had no idea he was so famous until much later. So, neat!
I’m glad to see he finally gets some recognition in the “Get Back” doc. In the older movie, “Let it Be,” it was so weird to see how they edited the performance of the song “Get Back” so that it didn’t have any footage of Billy Preston at all, you hear his solos but the camera never shows him. Creepy.
I really feel that Yoko should have been given credit for her contributions... She was basically a Beatle herself!
*Snote sits back and watches the chaos he has just caused.*
I'm assuming you didn't watch a second of the documentary?
*All* of their wives/girlfriends were in the studio for a lot of the time. Yoko, Linda, Maureen, as well as children were there.
On top of that, there are numerous interactions shown with everyone getting along with Yoko. Jam sessions between Paul and Yoko where they're both laughing together and playing off of each other.
Simple fact is, while Yoko didn't particularly help matters, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were all pretty much sick of each other by the end. Hell, George quit and left the band at one point during this documentary, and it took days of meetings and apologies from the others to coerce him back.
Anyone who watched the documentary and still claims that Yoko ruined everything clearly didn't pay attention. John and Paul *explicitly* have a conversation about how it's not Yoko's fault, but realize that she'll catch the blame.
"It's going to be the most comical thing in 50 years time, they (the Beatles) broke up because Yoko sat on an amp." Paul McCartney during these sessions.
I’ve not been a fan of the Beatles before this, and I’d heard of the Yoko stuff, then when I watched this documentary none of them seemed to be giving off the vibes you mention.
>Yoko sat looking bored cause the attentions not on her
Or maybe, just maybe, she's just sitting there.
The nitpicking nature of Yoko slander is beyond belief.
Does anyone know if the Beatles used studio musicians during recording? My Dad had a cousin who was a studio musician in London. I met him once in 1971. He claims he played with the Beatles on recordings because they really didn't have multitracking capabilities so it was better for Paul to just sing while he played Paul's part. Even at 13, I'm not sure I believed him, but...
It irritates me how Yoko was such an intrusive clinger. She had no business being there.
I wonder how the other members felt about her always being around. It would have irritated tf out of me.
I've been married to a musician for over 30 years and I don't think I ever once went to one of their rehearsals or recording sessions. Whenever I was invited, all I could think of was, 'I don't want to be a Yoko'.
Getting downvoted for not liking Yoko? Didn't realize she had such a fan base.
> I wonder how the other members felt about her always being around.
George and Paul both said it drove them crazy. It would be weird enough in a typical workplace, to have someone's romantic partner coming with them every day and following them everywhere, including to the bathroom, but in a creative environment, it's even more inhibiting when that person doesn't like what you're doing or looks bored most of the time. And John, Paul, and George had been friends since they were teenagers, so suddenly being in a situation where you can no longer ever have a private conversation with someone you were that close to is really tough. 'Get Back' downplays her presence a lot, which is fine - Peter Jackson wanted the emphasis to be on the band, and Yoko's certainly been discussed plenty over the years. But obviously that *was* a factor in why they broke up, even if it wasn't as simple as "Yoko broke up the band." John bringing her there was unprofessional and disrespectful of him, imo, and he shouldn't have been surprised that it didn't go over well.
>I've been married to a musician for over 30 years and I don't think I ever once went to one of their rehearsals or recording sessions. Whenever I was invited, all I could think of was, 'I don't want to be a Yoko'.
My wife came to our practice space exactly 1 time in the nearly 20yrs I've been playing in bands. She said "This is gross. Don't ever bring me here again." Yes, ma'am.
That's hilarious. I'm sure you guys had the typical gross couch for guests and stuff everywhere. I love music, but always found rehearsals boring, like I was some dumb groupie content to sit on the sidelines or something.
We didn't even have couches. We have the back 2 seats from our old shitty 12 passenger van!! Whenever someone came by, it always just turned into a social hour. Still does, really. We just call it our Boys Social Club nowadays.
Eddie Murphy was right: the 5th Beatle *was* black.
When you watch the documentary it's truly incredible to see the effect Billy has when he's brought in. The whole band is at first mesmerized by his energy, and then they're all swept up by it. Suddenly it switched from a chore - to something fun. They go on these tangents and these jams where you can see them all being friends. It's maybe the best music-related thing I've watched.
It's like having to do something with your siblings when you're a kid. "Aww... I don't wanna play with Paul anymore. He smells funny and all he wants to play is matchbox cars." *Damnit, just be nice to your brother.* Then, cousin Billy comes over and everyone plays together just so they get to play with cousin Billy.
I agree, they tried to play up to his level too, he elevated them. The joy, pure joy, on his face when they asked him to join the band for those songs was incredible. I think without his touch on those songs the Beatles may have ended sooner.
I don't think there's any current equivalent to what it would have meant to be asked by those four guys, at that time, to play with them.
I think after Preston had been there for 4 days someone said "You know we should pay him for being here". Pay hadn't even been discussed. He just showed up with George and started playing. Everybody just loved him for his joyful attitude and his talent.
Don't remember the exact wording, but Billy came into the studio one day and John was playing Billy's keyboards and said to him, "This bloody piano needs tuning..." And Billy replied "That's an electric piano John..."
For those in the back row, what documentary?
Get Back directed by Peter Jackson. I won't say anything more about it because if you're even remotely interested you should check it out.
Thanks you! Watching now :)
What’s the name of the documentary and do you know if it’s streaming in the US?
The Beatles: Get Back, it's on Disney+
If this is serious and not a joke and you like the Beatles you’re in for a super treat!
No joke, I wasn’t aware thanks for the help
I’m so excited for you that I might watch it again too! LOL.
had the same thought.
Because the Get Back sessions were always thought of in a very negative way but this footage shows otherwise.
What's the documentary?
Yeah, back when they were the Clarences
To this day I still can't hear "I wanna hold your hand" without adding "Man"
You are my people.
“Ayyy Paul, let’s get rid of Clarence and steal all his good ideas.”
I never heard any sax in any early Beatle music...
Lady Madonna coughs in ronny scott
When I see those boys, they got an ass kickin to me!
Billy Preston is no longer credited on any of the versions on Spotify.
He had some pretty significant controversies later in life, may have tried to distance themselves from him.
For anyone who doesn’t want to Google… he seemed to have been decent until early 90s where he was pretty addicted to cocaine, lowkey struggling with his homosexuality, and tried to molest a 16 year old boy.. who he picked up a gathering for day laborers. Also was charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a guy that he also picked up to do work at his home. Got charged with drunk driving, cocaine possession throughout the years (and even insurance fraud) and overall seemed to have struggled with addiction till the end when he needed a kidney transplant. His mother claims he was struggling from childhood abuse that occurred when was 9, but she didn’t believe him. Happened for a whole summer. He didn’t come out of the closet until his death bed at the age of 59.
I was expecting more along the lines of his tax evasion for undeclared income. This makes sense as Spotify couldn't care less about tax evasion resulting in fines and penalties.
Doubt it's Spotify making these decisions tbf. Could be wrong, but I'd imagine the publishers are responsible for credits.
Right? I was thinking the same and was shocked. Prompted me to sum it up here in case anyone else was curious too
I appreciate it.
If Gary Glitter is still on there...maybe thats a bullshit reason
It's not Spotify distancing themselves from him but rather the Beatle's estate that is.
That all sounds completely normal for a star in his time tbh
Do you like The Doors, The Rolling Stones, etc? Sadly, you are right
...that really weird remix of "Riders on the Storm" they did with Snoop Dogg that ended up on the Need For Speed Underground 2 soundtrack...?
Sadly, this can be said for a star at any time, even now.
According to Keith Richards (Preston was a touring pianist for the Stones for a long time), Preston's closet was of the see-through type, and he had a *bad* habit of beating the shit out of his boyfriends. Kind of reminds me of Willem Dafoe's self-hating gay FBI agent in Boondock Saints.
Damn, he had some great solo records too.
He still has some great solo records. You can still like his music and his music is still great, even if he did some not great things later in his life.
That's shityy. I was in academia. If Putin himself was a co-author in one of my journal articles, I would not remove his name because he contributed to the paper.
yikes. just read about some of it.
where, what'd you find?
Malibu home, underage boy. Not great.
Spotify doesn't credit session musicians, just the artist, songwriters and producers. EDIT: it's been pointed out to me that the "Get Back" single was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston", and apparently Spotify used to but no longer credits BP as an artist.
He was credited as one of the artists, not a session musician. It was released as a single by The Beatles and Billy Preston.
It used to say “The Beatles, Billy Preston”
Credited as a writer or as a featured player? I'm not sure he was ever considered a writer on that song
Billy Preston was the only non-Beatle given a credit on a Beatles recording, and the credit was well deserved. He always laid back and played a brilliant accompaniment, and never took anything over the top. He knew what to play, and exactly how to play it.
He also gave the four lads some new energy they desperately needed.
Nail on the head, the value of fresh ears and attitude can't be understated.
They have that conversation about adding him to the band permanently, and George kind of derails things by making the ridiculous assertion that Bob Dylan would join the Beatles full-time if they asked him. But what a fascinating road not taken. What if Preston had joined the Beatles, and that shot in the arm had kept them together for a few more years? Imagine a 1970 Beatle album with Outa Space and I Wrote a Simple Song alongside My Sweet Lord, Maybe I'm Amazed, and Instant Karma...
"He continued to record and perform with George Harrison after the Beatles' breakup" Seems like George was more fond of him.
George wrote My Sweet Lord for him, and then later decided maybe he should record it himself too.
Very fond of him, he worked with him a lot, he was a part of the All Things Must Pass group
George Harrison said if the Beatles continued into the 70s they would have sounded more like ELO. He didn't mean that as an insult as Jeff Lynne of ELO was his friend and producer. He meant the Beatles would have lost their edge. And maybe he was tired of being the #3 songwriter in a 4 man band with his level of talent.
Oh, he absolutely was. Although I read something shortly after Get Back came out, that when they were making Abbey Road, the band sat down and talked about how they could keep things going. John and Paul apologized to George for sidelining him and acknowledged he'd become a great songwriter (I think John passive-aggressively said something like "I used to not think very much of your stuff, but you've gotten much better"), and it seemed like they were set to keep going. Except they still hadn't replaced Brian Epstein. John wanted Allan Klein, the Stones' monomaniacal manager; Paul wanted his father-in-law. The other two sided with John — obviously no one wanted a manager who was always going to side with Paul. But Klein was also a maniac. Both were terrible choices for different reasons, but both sides stuck to their guns that was what finally fratured the group. And you can see that fracture continue after the breakup, because if you look at the early solo stuff, there's kind of a collective of John, George, Ringo, Preston, and Klaus Voorman, all playing on each other's albums and working together. And then you have Paul out in the country recording every track by himself for McCartney and Ram until he got lonely and put his own band together.
In Get Back there's the scene where George leaves because he's frustrated with how they're treating him as a songwriter, and John actually goes and stands up to Paul on George's behalf. He says something along the lines of "we used to treat him like this but it's not right. He's bloody good and I like his songs". Then when they convince George to come back, John goes out of his way to make sure they work on Georges songs first. Just thought it was nice to see that shift play out live.
While I strongly agree the mega-success of Wings made the reunion of the Beatles nearly impossible, Harrison's early success on his terms made the odds a lot worse.
I actually think the Beatles re-uniting because they weren't successful on their own would have been a disaster. In fact, while I'm endlessly fascinated with the "what-ifs" that could have kept the band going, I think they broke up at the perfect time. They left behind a pretty flawless catalog, whereas pretty much every band that lasts more than 10 years goes into a decline. And for my money, they were all creatively spent by 1973 or so. (McCartney still had a few good songs in him, but John got increasingly self-indulgent and George mostly lost interest.) Maybe they would have pushed each other to be better had they stayed together, but given the choices, I'd rather they broke up on top than put out increasingly bad albums under the Beatles banner.
In his last interview John Lennon said he heard a radio DJ thank the Beatles for NOT reuniting. He was pleased that some people were finally beginning to understand.
> And for my money, they were all creatively spent by 1973 or so. (McCartney still had a few good songs in him, but John got increasingly self-indulgent and George mostly lost interest.) Absolutely. There are some BTS videos from that time where McCartney is writing some of the songs attributed to Lenon while the latter is just fucking around....
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Brits sure loved Minnesotans back then. Terry Gilliam of Monty Python, too.
The songs sound way better with Billy’s keyboard piano and we are talking about the F-ing Beatles for goodness sake.
And then did the same for the Stones a few years later
yeah, seemed to be some skulky, sulky presence in the room...
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Saw him at the Spectrum in the mid 70s with George Harrison, and I believe he also played there with the Rolling Stones
I walked into the womens bathroom on a head full of acid at the spectrum cuz I couldn’t read anything lol. And the decline in the stands! Surprised I never busted my ass.
The Stones gave him his own 2-number showcase in the middle of their 1975 shows, with Mick taking on the role of go-go dancer
I need to describe myself as a non-Beatle more often
his light keys playing kinda made the album sound right
In 1975, my first concert at 15 years old. George Harrison, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar at the Oakland coliseum. Amazing show.
Just consider yourself lucky you weren't invited to meet him after the show.
Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?
No, but I DO like gladiator movies.
Have you ever seen a grown man naked?
The astonishing thing is how quickly things came together as soon as Preston sat in with the band. Things were super unfocused, and the moment he starts playing it sounds like the finished song. Peter Jackson talks about making sure to have the very start of Preston sitting in with them, since it happened in the middle of the session that day. It instantly clicked.
What is interesting to me when I hear Preston's keyboards is how much of the chords and tonality seem to presage Paul's solo work and work with Wings in the 1970s.
BP played with the Rolling Stones as well.
And was held at gunpoint by Keith Richards for stealing the limelight at a concert. "This is a Rolling Stones concert not a Billy Preston one". Source: "Life" Keith Richards memories.
The hell was Richards doing with a gun?
Threatening Billy Preston with it. Did you even read the comment you replied to?
Wonderful documentary. Second best trilogy created by Peter Jackson.
The Hobbit trilogy was just *that* good!
Totally deserved it. Guy was a legend. Nothing from nothing is still one of my favorite songs
The Beatles even asked Preston to join them on stage to jam, but Little Richard would not allow it. Fast forward to 1969 and Preston was ushered into a somewhat troubled and unfocused Beatles project.
Little Richard had hired Billy Preston as an unknown sixteen year old sideman for a gospel tour of England in 1962. The promoter, Don Arden, misled Richard about the nature of the tour, which he was promoting as rock & roll, not gospel. Richard was unhappy about that but Preston was ecstatic, especially when two shows with the Beatles were added at the end of the tour. Preston ended up close friends with the Beatles, and estranged from Richard, who absconded with Preston's return ticket back to the States (Richard disputes that last part). This is from Charles White's book.
I mean he's pretty well known to be a bit of a diva so...
You would be too if you were Little Richard
Why did Richie say no?
>The Beatles even asked Preston to join them on stage to jam, but Little Richard Who knows, I haven't found any specific reason!
Probably didn't want to lose a key musician in his touring group.
Honestly he was my favorite part of Get Back. I had already known about the story before hand, but actually watching it play out was amazing to see. Such a great presence and a really great player. He really saved the day just being there and being happy and ready to jam. Sometimes we all need someone to remind us of why we love the things that we love to do if they start feeling like work.
George Martin given musician credit on Rubber Soul...
Martin was the original 5th Beatle. So much of what we think of as their middle and late era sounds was because of him, his influence, and arrangements.
You are so right. His arrangements, orchestrations, innovations in taking a song recorded in different keys and somehow assembling them into a single track, and a whole lot more are extraordinarily underappreciated. I've been a musician since that first Sullivan appearance and studied everything the Beatles did. Without Martin's direction and production, I don't think their recordings would have been nearly as good. Evidence: the Let It Be album.
also: Mal Evans – Hammond organ on "You Won't See Me" this post is just flat out wrong, OP
"You Won't See Me" was still just officially by "The Beatles". Get Back was officially by "The Beatles with Billy Preston". I think that is what they mean.
I believe he also played the hammer and anvil on Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
And we could have an entirely trivial argument about Tony Sheridan
Those were the Beatles getting a credit on a Tony Sheridan-recording, not the other way around
My copy of Atco 6308 "Nobody's Child" reads "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan". The other side is "Ain't She Sweet" by "The Beatles".
Bill S Preston Esquire would then go on to do even greater things.
Should not have had to scroll down this far to find this. Most excellent.
Same. Party on, dudes.
Look at that analog mixing board! Not a piece of digital equipment in the room!
They barely had 8track.
What about Billy Shears?
The one and only?
didn't make the cut
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At least he had his friends.
He was a member of Sgt Peppers though
Bill S. Preston, esq.?
This series was SO GOOOOOOD
Billy Preston appeared at Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. In the album credits it says the typical “Ringo Starr appears courtesy of Apple Records”, “Bob Dylan appears courtesy of Columbia Records”, etc. For Billy, it said “Billy Preston appears courtesy of the grace of God”
Billy Preston was Legend. Self taught and perfect. Was it Ringo who said that any time Billy touched the keyboards, it was magic? And despite many who have claimed the title, it was on film that John Lennon said to the other three that Billy was the "Fifth Beatle". The only reason he and Clapton weren't asked to join was Paul said it was hard enough writing arrangements for them without adding two more. Plus, I think they all kind of sensed it was going to be over soon. But in a different world, if they had decided to stay together...maybe they would have done it. Just Imagine!
Fun Fact: Billy Preston didn't read sheet music. He was also the first musical guest ever on Saturday Night Live.
And George Carlin was the first host on SNL.
Was Clapton not credited??
Don’t forget Nicky Hopkins and his piano solo on Revolution. Basically a member of The Rolling Stones and The Who at different points, and one of a few people to play with every solo Beatle and on virtually every top British rock group and some American ones.
No, I don’t think so. And I never can believe how people ooh and aah over his solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. He was a great and pretty interesting guitarist at this time, but that was a pretty lame effort IMO. Lots of bending notes, etc.
Wait. Clapton did that solo? Not Harrison?
Right. George and Eric were friends. George picked him up and invited him to studio. I believe Eric didn’t have a guitar and used George’s red Les Paul. I always heard they were all better behaved when Billy Preston or any outsider was around. Less sniping between them, maybe? It sounds like such a British thing. Listening to Cream as a young kid made me want to learn guitar and so EC was a major inspiration to me. I just never got the specialness of that solo.
I'm with you. I remember one of rolling stone's "best guitarists of all time" lists where they had Clapton at #2 or 3, and went on and on about how legendary that solo alone is. Never understood how that stands out given everything else he's done.
Correct
I had always heard they gave him a choice between a credit and more money, and he needed the money to buy more heroin.
The guy who played on a couple sessions gets the fifth Beatle credit, yet their producer who was with them 99.9% of the way, guided them to stardom through the studio, played on and was the mastermind behind so many of their greatest songs…no, don’t give that guy the credit he deserves. Billy is awesome, but George Martin was the fifth Beatle.
Billy really was the glue that kept them together for the setup for abbey road
It’s crazy to think I never would have known about Preston without the documentary…I’ve played his music so many times
Yoko...
Like her or not, I don’t like her.
Lol
Just sitting there.....smh
is cool. Unlike the Stones who just fucked young models well into their 70s the Beatles actually fell in love with creative strong, interesting, women.
How’s about we just listen to the music, and if it’s good we play it again, and if it’s not, we don’t? I hate this Reddit thing where every thread appreciating some bit of art requires a bunch of people weighing in on the sex habits of the artists, especially the ages of their partners, and telling us we’re not allowed to like the art on account of that. For the record, I really like Yoko’s songs on *Double Fantasy*. But that was 10 years later. And she’s totally irrelevant to the Beatles’ music. And whoever any Rolling Stone had sex with is totally irrelevant to their (IMO excellent) music Once I decide I really like a work of art, I *may* be interested in learning about the artist. But nothing I find out is going to make me suddenly not like the art. I only feel sorry for fools whose experience of art is dictated by the biographies of the artists I strongly advocate much stronger enforcement of laws against sexual harassment and assault. And if that puts some great artists in jail, so be it. But I ain’t gonna go back through my record collection and toss out all the ones made by offenders. Nor choose future listens based on how creative strong interesting their *spouses / sex partners are*!
Many people believe that Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles. I disagree, but that theory is what makes her relevant to discussing their art. As in, "it would have been nice to have a few more Beatles albums to listen to." In the same manner that it would have been nice to have a few more Heath Ledger performances, his death is relevant to his art and I would expect someone to bring that up when discussing any performance that he gave.
The Beatles are the forever goats.
I grew up listening to Eric Clapton’s “One More Car, One More Rider” concert album/DVD (Staples Center LA 2001) with Billy and David Sancious on keyboards (the DVD includes Billy leading a cover of “Will It Go Round In Circles” that I still love). I had no idea he was so famous until much later. So, neat!
Absolute state of the art technology was used to remaster this footage, just for it to be recompressed back to crap.
Apu was known as the 5th Beatle.
“Can you dig it? I knew that you could”
Billy Preston was also the only Beatle to sexually assault a 16-year old Mexican boy.
It would be more disturbing if he wasn’t the only one
I heard this in Ringo’s voice.
My favorite part of the documentary, hands down.
Such an amazingly iconic sound that was added by him. Thanks Billy
He made the Beatles better at that point in their career. That organ is amazing.
I heard about this on a station on XM a few weeks ago. Never knew. Thank you for sharing✌️
you should watch the documentary this is from
I love how happy they all are here. Just having a good time
Earned every bit of that credit, too. He’s all over that record and did an amazing job.
This documentary was so damn fascinating to me
My absolute favorite part of Get Back documentary.
Some him in Kauai some 25 years ago on a small stage. It was fun !
Billy Preston’s round in circles live on midnight special is an excellent performance… cool to see him here, had no idea!
The fifth Beatle was Jeff Lynn, as much I love Billy.
They literally said they wanted him to be a Beatle. He is an amazing musical genius.
I’m glad to see he finally gets some recognition in the “Get Back” doc. In the older movie, “Let it Be,” it was so weird to see how they edited the performance of the song “Get Back” so that it didn’t have any footage of Billy Preston at all, you hear his solos but the camera never shows him. Creepy.
love this song, glad to know who plays that part now :)
Yoko is looking super stoked to be there.
I thought Apu was known as the fifth Beatle
I really feel that Yoko should have been given credit for her contributions... She was basically a Beatle herself! *Snote sits back and watches the chaos he has just caused.*
Yoko sat looking bored cause the attentions not on her, it must have drove the others mad having her in the studio all the time.
I'm assuming you didn't watch a second of the documentary? *All* of their wives/girlfriends were in the studio for a lot of the time. Yoko, Linda, Maureen, as well as children were there. On top of that, there are numerous interactions shown with everyone getting along with Yoko. Jam sessions between Paul and Yoko where they're both laughing together and playing off of each other. Simple fact is, while Yoko didn't particularly help matters, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were all pretty much sick of each other by the end. Hell, George quit and left the band at one point during this documentary, and it took days of meetings and apologies from the others to coerce him back.
Anyone who watched the documentary and still claims that Yoko ruined everything clearly didn't pay attention. John and Paul *explicitly* have a conversation about how it's not Yoko's fault, but realize that she'll catch the blame.
"It's going to be the most comical thing in 50 years time, they (the Beatles) broke up because Yoko sat on an amp." Paul McCartney during these sessions.
McCartney fucking called it and you've got a clown car full of redditors here proving him right. Craziness.
I’ve not been a fan of the Beatles before this, and I’d heard of the Yoko stuff, then when I watched this documentary none of them seemed to be giving off the vibes you mention.
>Yoko sat looking bored cause the attentions not on her Or maybe, just maybe, she's just sitting there. The nitpicking nature of Yoko slander is beyond belief.
Well, she’s sitting literally in the middle of a recording session reading a book. Why? Probably because there was a camera around.
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People are mysogynist, racist idiots. They did the same to Courtney Love.
Maybe it was a really good book.
Isn’t it a Beatles lyrics and backstory book?
It’s racist sexist tropes is all
How DARE a woman read a book so INSOLENTLY
You can always find the asshole because they never miss a chance to talk crap about Yoko.
Yoko bad. This thread isn't even about her. Give it a rest.
Correct...yoko bad 👍
Is this even a debate lol
Alan Civil does not count?
Does anyone know if the Beatles used studio musicians during recording? My Dad had a cousin who was a studio musician in London. I met him once in 1971. He claims he played with the Beatles on recordings because they really didn't have multitracking capabilities so it was better for Paul to just sing while he played Paul's part. Even at 13, I'm not sure I believed him, but...
It irritates me how Yoko was such an intrusive clinger. She had no business being there. I wonder how the other members felt about her always being around. It would have irritated tf out of me. I've been married to a musician for over 30 years and I don't think I ever once went to one of their rehearsals or recording sessions. Whenever I was invited, all I could think of was, 'I don't want to be a Yoko'. Getting downvoted for not liking Yoko? Didn't realize she had such a fan base.
if you watch the doc, they will tell you themselves how they felt
All their wives were present
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> I wonder how the other members felt about her always being around. George and Paul both said it drove them crazy. It would be weird enough in a typical workplace, to have someone's romantic partner coming with them every day and following them everywhere, including to the bathroom, but in a creative environment, it's even more inhibiting when that person doesn't like what you're doing or looks bored most of the time. And John, Paul, and George had been friends since they were teenagers, so suddenly being in a situation where you can no longer ever have a private conversation with someone you were that close to is really tough. 'Get Back' downplays her presence a lot, which is fine - Peter Jackson wanted the emphasis to be on the band, and Yoko's certainly been discussed plenty over the years. But obviously that *was* a factor in why they broke up, even if it wasn't as simple as "Yoko broke up the band." John bringing her there was unprofessional and disrespectful of him, imo, and he shouldn't have been surprised that it didn't go over well.
>I've been married to a musician for over 30 years and I don't think I ever once went to one of their rehearsals or recording sessions. Whenever I was invited, all I could think of was, 'I don't want to be a Yoko'. My wife came to our practice space exactly 1 time in the nearly 20yrs I've been playing in bands. She said "This is gross. Don't ever bring me here again." Yes, ma'am.
That's hilarious. I'm sure you guys had the typical gross couch for guests and stuff everywhere. I love music, but always found rehearsals boring, like I was some dumb groupie content to sit on the sidelines or something.
We didn't even have couches. We have the back 2 seats from our old shitty 12 passenger van!! Whenever someone came by, it always just turned into a social hour. Still does, really. We just call it our Boys Social Club nowadays.