Billy Preston 1949 - 2006

Yes, there's the electric piano solo on 'Get Back', the organ on 'Let It Be', and on so much of Exile on Mainstreet. There's by far and away the greatest instrumental of the 70's (OutaSpace). But for this white boy from suburban Ohio, Billy Preston's performance of his first single, 'That's The Way God Planned It' at The Concert For Bangla Desh opened the door to a deeper understanding of where 'my' music came from and what it can strive to achieve.

This Christmas, when I received the DVD of the concert, it was Billy I wanted to see first. A year earlier when I bought the CD, it too was Billy that I had to hear first. The possibility of transcendent joy never seemed so real, and seldom has since, no matter how much more 'sophisticated' and 'expansive' my tastes may have become, all these years later.

Thanks Billy.