‘Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It’ Review: Eye-Opening Look at the Organ Prodigy Who Fused with the Beatles and Helped to Forge Funk
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Like a lot of people, I first saw Billy Preston in “Let It Be,” where his luscious electric-keyboard noodlings provided the sweet center to songs like “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Get Back.” But it wasn’t until “The Concert for Bangla Desh,” George Harrison’s trend-setting rock-concert movie from 1972, that I registered who Billy Preston really was.
For most of that Madison Square Garden benefit concert, Preston was in the background, tickling those plugged-in ivories. But then, introduced by Harrison, he performed the single he’d recorded in 1969 for Apple Records, “That’s the Way God Planned It.” It stood out from the rest of the show as dramatically — and magnificently — as Sly Stone’s performance of “I Want to Take You Higher” did from Woodstock.
The sound of a holy organ rang out, and the camera zoomed in on a stylish-looking man in a big wool cap and a Billy Dee Williams mustache, with a handsome gap-toothed grin and a gleam of reverence.
He began to sing (“Why can’t we be humble, like the good lord said…”), and it sounded like a hymn, which is just what it was: a rock ‘n’ roll hymn.
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