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 —
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