The Texan who SAVED the Beatles! In Peter Jackson’s documentary The Beat-…
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Beatles
— 4 years ago(December 23, 2021 10:05 AM)les: Get Back, Houston-born pianist Billy Preston makes a strong case for himself as the fifth Beatle.
Billy Preston performing onstage at the BBC Television Centre.
RB/Redferns/Getty.
In 1969, the Beatles were on the brink of collapse.
They stopped touring in 1966, exhausted by years on the road and increasingly manic fans whose screams were so loud that the Fab Four very often couldn’t hear their own music. Then, disaster struck the following year: manager Brian Epstein, the man most responsible for the band’s superstardom (and, crucially, for keeping the four disciplined), died suddenly of an overdose. The Beatles managed themselves while they argued over Epstein’s replacement, and by 1969, mounting interpersonal and business tensions threatened to destroy the friendship at the core of the group. Following Ringo Starr’s brief departure from the band in 1968, it was clear to everyone around The Beatles that their future as friends, let alone as a band, was in jeopardy.
Desperate to remedy their relationships, the band members (in particular Paul McCartney) latched onto the idea of getting back to basics by recording an album. A documentary crew helmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg would follow their process as they holed up together and capped off the completed record with a concert. Lindsay-Hogg’s resulting film, Let It Be, was supposed to be a promotional feature film celebrating the release of the band’s album of the same name. But after an interview with McCartney was seen as confirmation of the band’s official breakup in April 1970, the film, which premiered a month later, became instead a miserable and tedious visual obituary.
In November 2021, director Peter Jackson revisited the project in The Beatles: Get Back. The three-part documentary, available for streaming on Disney+, draws from sixty hours of archival film and 120 hours of audio recorded during the 21-day session that culminated in the band’s iconic rooftop concert.
From the start, it’s obvious that the Beatles have their work cut out for them. Tasked with creating an album from scratch in three weeks, the longtime friends struggle to make progress, bickering over their work ethic and creative vision until a withdrawn and increasingly frustrated George Harrison quits the band just seven days into recording. After a series of off-camera meetings, Harrison returns, but the band is now behind schedule and feeling even more pressure to deliver. And then Billy Preston shows up.
The pianist drops by their studio at Apple Corps headquarters—the band’s London digs where they were recording—on the invitation of Harrison, who had been singing his praises to his bandmates after seeing Preston perform in concert with Ray Charles. “He’s better than Ray Charles, really,” Harrison tells John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Charles would’ve agreed: at the concert Harrison attended, Charles reportedly told the audience, “Since I heard Billy play, I don’t play the organ anymore—I leave it to him.”
And Lennon and McCartney probably didn’t need much convincing. A self-taught child prodigy born in Houston, Preston moved to Los Angeles with his mother to pursue music. He played backup in the city’s gospel scene before making his TV debut at eleven years old alongside Nat King Cole, kicking off his professional career. His natural talent and ability to combine gospel, soul, and rock influences made him a highly sought-after collaborator for decades to come.
The Rolling Stones together in their hotel at 0200 after a British concert, 19th May 1976. Accompanying the group on tour is Keith Richards' six year-old son Marlon. Left to right: Charlie Watts, keyboard player Billy Preston, percussionist Ollie Brown with Marlon Richards, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Ron Wood.
Keyboard player Billy Preston (second from left) with the Rolling Stones and others in the Stones’ hotel at 0200 after a British concert in 1976.
Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty.
Preston was no stranger to the Beatles. He first met them in the early sixties when they opened for Little Richard, for whom the sixteen-year-old Preston was playing the organ. While the Liverpool act was just starting to practice stage presence in front of small audiences, Preston was already a seasoned performer.
So when he strolls into Apple Corps wearing a cool, black leather jacket, he’s hardly starstruck. He doesn’t know the band has been looking for a keyboardist; he’s just there to hang. Earlier in the recording sessions, the band was hoping to gain some momentum by hiring a keyboard player so they could record live, rather than having to pause so one of them could lay down a track. Preston’s arrival was so perfect that Lennon casually offered him the gig: “If you’d like to do that, you’re welcome to, and then you’d be on the album.”
Throughout much of Get Back, it’s clear that all four band members are experiencing varying degrees of disillusionment with the fame and success of the Beatles. Still, judging by t