
āWeād always got on very well with him,ā Beatles band member Paul McCartney remembers in 2000ās āThe Beatles Anthology.ā āHe showed up in London and we said, āOh, Bill! Greatā letās have him play on a few things.āā So he sat in on the sessions because he was an old mate really.ā
But the new Disney+ docuseries āGet Back,ā which premiered on Thanksgiving weekend, shows that R&B musician and pianist Preston was more than just an āold mate.ā Preston was a talented keyboardist who had the respect of the legendary music group, and whose addition clearly improved the quality of songs on which he played. He also came very close to being the only Black Beatle.
The three-episode, seven-plus-hours-long series is derived from over 60 hours of never-before-seen-or-heard film and 150 hours of audio, footage from the Beatlesā practice, rehearsal, and recording sessions. Held over 22 days in January 1969, they culminated in the bandās first live performance in two years and the albums āLet It Beā and āAbbey Road.ā
Directed by Peter Jackson (āLord of the Ringsā trilogy), āGet Backā chronicles the legendary group as they mostly joyfully, sometimes painfully, create the music that would be part of the soundtrack of the lives of multiple generations.
The series also debunks the pervasive myth that Preston, a child prodigy who never took a piano lesson, was just invited to the sessions in order to keep the peace among the Beatles, who were going through much conflict at the time.
First, the Beatles knew plenty of people, musicians and non-musicians alike. Their rehearsals were regularly attended by an assortment of people they knew. Itās more likely Preston would have been at the bottom of the list of people brought in merely to ākeep the peace.ā
Further, Preston was already a highly respected, thriving musician when the Beatles were just growing in popularity. The group, composed of McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, met Preston in 1962 because they were the opening act for Little Richard in Hamburg, Germany, when Preston was the then-superstarās pianist.Ā
Because the tour manager insisted on providing meals only for the main act, Preston used to order extra food so that the British rockers could also eat. It was an act of kindness they always remembered.
Still, by the time Preston serendipitously dropped in around day 13 of the āGet Backā sessions, as shown in Jacksonās docuseries, he was playing with Ray Charles, the Rolling Stones, and other venerable acts.
āGet Backā shows Preston was the first person they thought of when they realized they needed someone to play piano to enhance the sound of some of the songs they were creating. Lennon then invited him to play on the album.
Preston agreed, seamlessly joining in. The delighted looks on the band membersā faces after Preston joins say it all. Lennon was moved to declare, āYouāre in the group!ā immediately upon finishing.
He continued playing with them for the āGet Backā sessions, in between his own prior professional commitments. Preston became only one of two people credited on a Beatles album, and they signed him to their Apple Records label.
Later, Lennon stated, āIād just like him in our band, actually. Iād like a fifth Beatle.ā Harrison replied, āWe can do that as well.ā Lennon repeats this entreaty, but was met with opposition from McCartney who posits that they have a hard enough time with just the four of them.
In actuality, the amiable Preston didnāt become the fifth Beatle not because he was just there to ākeep the peace,ā but because the band was experiencing irreconcilable differences. McCartney saw the writing on the wall and figured it would do no good to bring someone else in. Indeed, the iconic group broke up within a year.
Preston was inducted by Starr into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2021.
Nadine Matthews is a contributing writer at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. She can be reached at nmatthews@spokesman-recorder.com or onĀ Twitter at @deeniemedia.