Billy Preston “Music Is My Life”

I’m not sure if I remember any songs from this 1972 album from when I was 12—maybe so, because that was apparently an impressionable year for music for me. The first couple of songs sound very familiar, even though I don’t know the songs. Billy Preston wrote or co-wrote everything except for “Blackbird.” This is, by the way, a rare record where a Lennon-McCartney cover doesn’t function as a death-anchor, because he improves the song, at least in my opinion, in spite of a prominent harpsichord (in parts). Speaking of keyboard instruments, the back cover photo is a God’s eye view of BP and no less than ten keyboard instruments—your keyboard geek friend might be able to identify them all (I can’t, except for the Hammond and the Wurlitzer, and I’m pretty sure that one is a Hohner Clavinet—one of my favorite instruments). “I Wonder Why” is an excellent soul number, both political and spiritual. Speaking of God, there are quite a few overtly Christian flavored songs. My favorite is “Make The Devil Mad (Turn On To Jesus).” I do remember Billy Preston either having a heavy Christian period, or always being so, but I’m not going to research his bio and paraphrase it—anyone who’s interested already knows—or can easily look.

What I remember about Billy Preston from my childhood was an imposing looking dude with the biggest afro I’d ever seen. His hair really was impressive—and if you search Wikipedia for “afro,” their first photo example indeed is BP. (This recalls the old joke about looking at the dictionary definition of something seeing someone’s picture… that is almost literally true here!) Then I remember him playing with the Rolling Stones a lot—I recall some pretty excellent photos from Rolling Stone magazine, with the Stones—which lent anyone, at that time, a veneer of danger—though that was mostly mythologizing. Many people, I’m sure, have seen that recent Beatles Get Back documentary, which prominently featured a younger Billy Preston—and so it was really nice for me to see this whole other side of him than I remembered. I used to watch those late-night rock shows like Midnight Special pretty religiously, and also Soul Train, whenever that was on—but I don’t recall seeing BP solo—though it’s likely I did at some point. (A quick check with YouTube, and sure enough—good video, and nice orange suit, too!) “Will It Go Round In Circles” is the song from this record that I know—I heard a lot of that one over the years—it brings back the early Seventies like a time machine. That’s a great song.

6.30.23