Billy Preston “Will It Go Round in Circles” / “Blackbird”
/The reason, for me, I think, that a Beatles cover on an album often feels like a… bummer (I know I’ve said “shit-anchor”—but maybe that’s too harsh) is because, in most cases, it makes you just want to hear the Beatles’ version. So whenever I come upon an exception to that “rule” I find it memorable. In this, case, of course, it’s a side of a Billy Preston 45—a great version of “Blackbird.” I like the big sound, and the band—well, except for the harpsichord flourishes—an instrument that we should only hear in dated who-done-it’s (and for that matter, never)—but that’s just me, and overall, this is my favorite rendition of this song. The part that always bugs me a little when Paul McCartney sings it (“Into the light of a dark black night”), Billy Preston turns into the highlight of the song by giving it the full gospel treatment—and just does it once—all you need—and now it’s the center of the performance. Or maybe he finds it as awkward as I do, and just leans into it, who knows. The other side, “Will It Go Round in Circles,” is the song I always used to think of, with fond memories of Billy Preston—it’s a great song—and it only sounds better now, on this brown, 1972, A&M 45—than I remember it, even—a little slower than in my mind, with a steadier groove than my memory can ever pull off. The only downside is the little flourish with the “mouth organ”—which, I guess, looking at the credits—isn’t a harmonica—my mistake—but a melodica—which I guess is a “mouth piano.” Either way, it’s just a funny bit, put in there like a few raisins in your coleslaw. There’s a version of this song from Midnight Special you can find on internet that’s really great—though a somewhat different band than the studio recording (no Brothers Johnson)—that I’m sure I saw on TV when I was a kid—that just forever ingrained it in my mind, in a good way—along with this version from the radio, of course.
8.21.26