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| justinkurian |
Singer-songwriter Billy Preston dead at 59
By BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press Writer
Billy Preston, the exuberant keyboardist who landed dream gigs with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and enjoyed his own series of hit singles including "Outta Space" and "Nothing From Nothing," died Tuesday at 59.
Preston's longtime manager, Joyce Moore, said Preston had been in a coma since November in a care facility and was taken to a Scottsdale hospital Saturday after his condition deteriorated.
"He had a very, very beautiful last few hours and a really beautiful passing," Moore said by telephone from Germany.
Preston had battled chronic kidney failure, and he received a kidney transplant in 2002. But the kidney failed and he has been on dialysis ever since, Moore said earlier this year.
Known for his big smile and towering Afro, Preston was a teen prodigy on the piano and organ, and lent his gospel-tinged touch to classics such as the Beatles' "Get Back" and the Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?"
He broke out as a solo artist in the 1970s, winning a best instrumental Grammy in 1973 for "Outta Space," and scoring other hits with "Will It Go 'Round In Circles," "Nothing From Nothing" and "With You I'm Born Again," a duet with Syreeta Wright. He also wrote Joe Cocker's weeper "You Are So Beautiful."
Other career highlights included being a musical guest, in 1975, on the debut of "Saturday Night Live"; having a song named after him, by Miles Davis; and appearing last year on "American Idol." Among his film credits: "Blues Brothers 2000" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
His partnership with the Beatles began in early 1969 when friend George Harrison recruited him to play on "Let It Be," a back-to-basics film and record project that nearly broke down because of feuding among band members. Harrison himself quit at one point, walking out on camera after arguing with Paul McCartney.
Preston not only inspired the Beatles to get along — Harrison likened his effect to a feuding family staying on its best behavior in front of a guest — but contributed a light, bluesy solo to "Get Back," performing the song with the band on its legendary "roof top" concert, the last time the Beatles played live. He was one of many sometimes labeled "The Fifth Beatle," a title he did not discourage.
Preston remained close to Harrison and performed at Harrison's all-star charity event "The Concert for Bangladesh," and at the "Concert for George," a tribute to Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001. He played on solo records by Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon.
Preston also toured and recorded extensively with the Rolling Stones, playing on such classic albums as "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile on Main Street." In the mid-'70s, he parted from the Stones, reportedly unhappy over not getting proper credit for "Melody" and other songs, but reunited with the band in 1997 on its "Bridges to Babylon" record.
His sessions credits included Aretha Franklin's "Young, Gifted and Black," Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" and Sly and Family Stone's "There's a Riot Goin' On," three of the most acclaimed albums of the past 35 years.
"His legacy is so huge I don't even know where to start," Moore said. "It's many genres, so many years. ... It's rock 'n' roll, it's soul, it's funk, it's everything. He was truly, truly, truly a genius."
A Houston native who soon moved to Los Angeles when his parents split up, Preston was in and around show business for much of his life. He was taking piano lessons at age 3 and was just 10 when he played keyboards for gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.
Two years later he portrayed a young W. C. Handy in the 1958 biopic "St. Louis Blues." He toured with mentors and fellow piano greats Ray Charles and Little Richard in the early 1960s, first encountering the Beatles while on the road in Germany.
Exposed to drugs and alcohol early on, Preston had numerous personal troubles in recent years. In 1992, he was given a suspended jail sentence, but ordered incarcerated for nine months at a drug rehabilitation center for his no-contest pleas to cocaine and assault charges. Five years later, he was sentenced to three years in prison for violating probation. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and agreed to testify against other defendants in an alleged scam that netted about $1 million.
"It (jail) was a great lesson, an awakening. I needed to reflect, to get rid of some of the dead weight around me," he later said. "You take the bitter with the sweet and I have to say it was my faith that kept me going. I had nothing else to fall back on." |
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| gustavobala |
sorry, but i like billy preston:
The problem (with the Stones' mid-70s albums), which I was ignorant of for a long time, was studio musicians and sidemen taking over the band. The real problem with those albums was the band was led astray by brilliant players like Billy Preston. We'd start off a typical Stones track and Billy would start playing something so fuckin' good musically that we'd get sidetracked and end up with a compromised track. THAT made the difference.
- Keith Richards, 1983
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| gustavobala |
from timeisonourside.com
BILLY PRESTON (1946-2006)
Texas born Preston has made a career out of being an excellent session keyboardist (piano, organ, synthesizer), but also enjoyed relative success on his own in the 1970s with a string of mid-sized hits. Preston was a child prodigy who got in the business very young, playing with Ray Charles and Sam Cooke among other people. His biggest break, however, was playing with the Beatles in 1969, recording their ill-fated album and movie Let It Be with them (he also plays on I Want You, featured on Abbey Road), and playing with them on their final rooftop concert in London. That allowed Preston to start his own career with Apple Records at the same time as he started making the rounds in the musical circles, bringing his soul and gospel influences with him to bands like Delaney & Bonnie.
Through most of the 1970s (1970-76), Preston was a player onstage and on record with the Stones, and he appears on all their albums from Sticky Fingers to Black And Blue. He became most visible during the Stones' 1975-76 tour (documented on the 1977 album Love You Live), where the Stones regularly allowed him to play a few of his own songs during their set. One of his stand-outs is certainly his duet with Mick on Melody, featured on 1976's Black and Blue. (His material was slightly later also used, credited or uncredited, on Tattoo You.) During this same period, Preston played with a number of other groups and artists that tended to share the same sessions musician, including Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Stephen Stills, and the three ex-Beatles Lennon, Harrison and Starr.
Preston's career slowed down in the 1980s and 90s, but he has continued to contribute to people's records, including in more recent years people like Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Yoko Ono and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. In 1992, Mick recorded his third solo album Wandering Spirit in Los Angeles and hired Billy Preston again, after all these years. Many of the Wandering Spirit players appeared again on the Stones' Bridges to Babylon 5 years later, since the band recorded in Los Angeles. Preston was no exception and his keyboards can be heard on Saint of Me.
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| ListenToTheLion |
Billy is one of the revelations on Black and Blue and also his contributions the El Mocambo side are unforgettable.
Billy is gone, where is Billy?!
[Edited by ListenToTheLion] |
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| gustavobala |
from wikipedia.org
Billy Preston (September 9, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was a soul musician from Houston, Texas and raised mostly in Los Angeles, California. He began playing piano while sitting on his mother's lap at age three. Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eric Clapton, Sammy Davis Jr., Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin, George Harrison, The Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones. He was the only person to receive a credit on a Beatles single, playing the organ on 'Get Back' as part of the rooftop concert.
Career
Billy Preston was probably best known for his work with The Beatles (he is the only artist to receive label credit on a Beatles single: "Get Back"; The Beatles also released an early single with Tony Sheridan, but that is regarded as a Tony Sheridan single on which the Beatles played). He played on their 1970 Let It Be album and on the songs "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Something", from 1969's Abbey Road. Signed to The Beatles' Apple label, in 1969 Preston released the album That's The Way God Planned It and a single of the same name (produced by George Harrison). His relationship with Harrison continued after the break up of The Beatles, with Preston making notable and energetic contributions to The Concert For Bangladesh, a Harrison-organised charity concert, and, after George's death, The Concert For George. Preston also worked on solo recordings by Harrison and two other ex-Beatles, John Lennon and Ringo Starr.
After The Beatles, Preston played keyboards for The Rolling Stones, alongside pianist Nicky Hopkins. Preston appears on the Stones' albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock'n Roll and Black & Blue. He toured as a support act with the Stones in 1973, and recorded his live album Live in Europe in Munich with Mick Taylor on guitar. In 1975 and 1976 he again toured with the Stones, this time getting to play two of his own songs, backed by the Stones, in the middle of every concert. The Stones and Preston parted company in 1977, mainly due to a row over money. He continued to play on solo records by Stones members, and made an appearance again on the Stones' 1997 Bridges to Babylon album.
The 1980s were lean years for Preston. He was arrested and convicted for insurance fraud after setting fire to his own house in Los Angeles, and he was treated for alcohol and cocaine addictions. Preston managed to conquer his problems in the early 1990s, and toured with Eric Clapton, and recorded with a wide range of artists.
Preston played piano/organ on the song "Warlocks" for the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium released in 2006. Although very ill, he jumped out of bed after hearing a tape of the song given to him by the band, recorded his part, and went back to bed[1]. Preston's final contribution was playing Gospel-tinged organ on the Neil Diamond album, "12 Songs".
Death
Billy Preston had battled kidney disease in his latter years. Although he received a kidney transplant in 2002, his health continued to deteriorate. He died on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona, due to complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications. He had been in a coma since November 21, 2005.
[edit]
Trivia
He was the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1975.
"You are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker was written by Preston with Bruce Fisher.
He recorded the song "With you I'm Born Again" with Syreeta Wright as Billy Preston and Syreeta, which reached #2 in the UK in 1979.
Miles Davis titled a song Billy Preston in his honour.
His most recent project was a song called Go Where No One's Gone Before, the theme of the anime L\R.
He is one of several people sometimes credited as the Fifth Beatle.
He was the first artist to enter the UK Singles Chart at number one with his debut hit "Get Back", although was due to the popularity of The Beatles rather than Preston himself.
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| Gimme Shelter |
From Billy's Offical site:
Billy Preston's Sad Passing
June 6th, 2006
BY ROGER FRIEDMAN
'FIFTH BEATLE' BILLY PRESTON DEAD AT AGE 59
The great singer-songwriter and performer Billy Preston, the real "Fifth Beatle" has died after a long illness as a result of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications. As a result of a medical insult he'd been in a deep coma since last November 21st, but was still struggling to recover. He died at Shea Scottsdale Hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona where he'd lived for the last couple of years.
Billy was called the Fifth Beatle because he played keyboards on Let it Be, The White Album and Abbey Road. He also played on the Rolling Stones's hit song Miss You, and often played with Eric Clapton. He also did the organ work on Sly & the Family Stone's greatest hits. Preston's own hits included "Nothing from Nothing," "Will it Go Round in Circles," and "You Are So Beautiful," which Joe Cocker turned into an international hit.
Preston was actually mentored by Ray Charles, and acts like Little Richard (see below), Mahalia Jackson, and James Cleveland had a huge impact on him at a young age. In the early 60s, Billy went to Europe with Little Richard who playing in Hamburg. The Beatles were the opening act and as the story goes he was the one who made sure they got fed.
His friendship with them lasted through the 1960s and he was the first act signed to Apple Records thanks to George Harrison. The resulting album is called "That's the Way God Planned It." In 1971, Preston played in "The Concert for Bangla Desh." Last year, in one of his final appearances, he performed at a reuion in Los Angeles for the release of the Bangla Desh DVD with Ringo and Harrison's son Dhani on guitar.
More recently, Billy can be heard on the latest albums by Neil Diamond and Red Hot Chili Peppers. He's also featured on the Starbucks soul album "Believe to My Soul" featuring Mavis Staples and Ann Peebles.
I had the good fortune to know Billy the last few years, and saw him perform--as chronicled in this column--last August at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut and last October at the Atlantis in the Bahamas. He was one of those spectacular performers who put everything into his show even though he had no working kidneys by then and was receiving dialysis. He was a warm, wonderful human being with a mile wide smile. He was also a genius musician, the likes of whom we will not see again.
Rest in peace, Billy. You deserve it.pe
9.9.1946 -6.6.2006
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| glencar |
No more cockdances...
RIP Billy. |
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| Maxlugar |
I will...remember...yoooooooouu...
R.I.P. Billy.
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| sirfito |
Very sad news.
RIP, Billy.
Fito |
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| Chuck |
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VizaIB-Wwx0&search=billy%20preston
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| sammy davis jr. |
Whatever a "Medical Insult" is....I don't want it. Hats off to a fabulously talented and soulful cat. |
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| luxury1 |
will he be buried wearing his huge afro? |
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| the good |
quote:
gustavobala wrote:
The problem (with the Stones' mid-70s albums), which I was ignorant of for a long time, was studio musicians and sidemen taking over the band. The real problem with those albums was the band was led astray by brilliant players like Billy Preston. We'd start off a typical Stones track and Billy would start playing something so fuckin' good musically that we'd get sidetracked and end up with a compromised track. THAT made the difference.
- Keith Richards, 1983
Keith is wise man. |
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| Poplar |
quote:
Chuck wrote:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VizaIB-Wwx0&search=billy%20preston
fucking awesome. god speed billy. |
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| BILL PERKS |
ANY COMMENT FROM THE STONES? |
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| Joey |
quote:
BILL PERKS wrote:
ANY COMMENT FROM THE STONES?
Yes !
" Billy Preston died in Arizona USA today after a long illness. He was 59. Billy Preston worked with the Beatles as well as the Stones, recording such tracks as "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Heartbreaker," and playing on several tours. Quote by Mick Jagger today: "Billy was a fantastic and gifted musician. A superb singer in both recording sessions and onstage. He was great fun to be with onstage when touring with us and I will miss him a lot." See Reuters. "
http://www.iorr.org/news.htm
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| MrPleasant |
"The problem (with the Stones' mid-70s albums), which I was ignorant of for a long time, was studio musicians and sidemen taking over the band".
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| sirmoonie |
quote:
gustavobala wrote:
The problem (with the Stones' mid-70s albums), which I was ignorant of for a long time, was studio musicians and sidemen taking over the band. The real problem with those albums was the band was led astray by brilliant players like Billy Preston. We'd start off a typical Stones track and Billy would start playing something so fuckin' good musically that we'd get sidetracked and end up with a compromised track. THAT made the difference.
- Keith Richards, 1983
He was talking about Mick Taylor, right? |
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| Saint Sway |
Billy Preston's Greatest Hits With The Stones:
• Cant You Hear Me Knockin
• Miss You
• Melody
• Heartbreaker
• Saint Of Me
• If You Really Want To Be My Friend
I know theres a bunch more.... what else would you add on? |
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| Twostoned |
Shit... RIP Billy |
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| Saint Sway |
quote:
Joey wrote:
Quote by Mick Jagger today: "He was great fun to be with onstage."
DOH! |
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| Soldatti |
quote:
A lot of those songs like Miss You on Some Girls... were heavily influenced by going to the discos. You can hear it in a lot of those four on the floor rhythms and the Philadelphia-style drumming. Mick and I used to go to discos a lot... It was a great period. I remember being in Munich and coming back from a club with Mick singing one of the Village People songs - YMCA, I think it was - and Keith went mad, but it sounded great on the dance floor.
- Charlie Watts, 2003
I can't imagine Charlie or Keith on the dancefloor dancing YMCA. |
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| Gazza |
quote:
Saint Sway wrote:
Billy Preston's Greatest Hits With The Stones:
• Cant You Hear Me Knockin
• Miss You
• Melody
• Heartbreaker
• Saint Of Me
• If You Really Want To Be My Friend
I know theres a bunch more.... what else would you add on?
you left out the best one of them all, and one which is very appropriate in the light of today's news....
'Shine A light' |
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| Riffhard |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
you left out the best one of them all, and one which is very appropriate in the light of today's news....
'Shine A light'
Thank you Gazza! I was just going to say the exact same thing. Billy was just so important to the Stones back in the seventies. I know that he got a little bit carried away with it after awhile,but there is no denying what he brought to the table. Shine A Light is his crowning achievment though. Hands down.
RIP Billy.
Riffy |
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| ebmp |
Didnt he play I got The Blues?
I wonder why noone mentioned it |
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| PeerQueer |
quote:
sirmoonie wrote:
He was talking about Mick Taylor, right?
_________-
LOL!!
Best line of this thread by far... |
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| texile |
keith's comment is pure keith....
mr. pleasant, are those frying eggs supposed to signify keith's mental state - 'this is keith richards brain on drugs....'
keith resented musicians like billy in the studio with the stones because they were close to mick - and it worked!
keith just wasn't THERE - period.
billy is part of that stones period that made me first fall in love with them and i don't think of him as a 'studio musician' ...
listen to shine a light again, keith. |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
texile wrote:
keith's comment is pure keith....
Actually it's quite profound....provided one doesn't impugn Keith's motives. |
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| texile |
quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
Actually it's quite profound....provided one doesn't impugn Keith's motives.
yeah but ten -
the stones 70s period was all about everybody but keith....
he wasn't there - therefore, he denigrates it.
i loved the billy era stones. |
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| Martha |
Oh my what sad, sad news.
R.I.P. Billy Preston...and bless you for sharing your musical gifts with the world.
peace,
Martha |
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