Scott @ Power Line links to Los Angeles Times' very nice obit on him.
As a product of the 1970s, my primary cultural recollections of him were from the film release of "Let It Be" forward. I had no clue who he was before that time (did anybody who wasn't intimately acquaited with the music scene?), but saw him at a college showing of the film, heard his playing with the Beatles, and, of course, was hooked. This addiction wasn't something one came by on one's own in a small midwestern college town. I was introduced to Preston's work by others -- a handful of college students with whom I played cards in the Student Union while I played hooky from junior high school. Some days, I tune in the "oldies" radio station while I'm running errands, and they'll be playing "Will It Go 'Round in Circles" (it's fairly regular on the local playlist), and I'll immediately return to the peculiar sanctuary where I was first shown that independent thought and "being different" could be a good thing. The college students seemed so completely mature, so wise and understanding (well, I was only thirteen or fourteen, and, to some extent, they were pretty clear about woes adolescent, since, in retrospect, they had been considered "freaks" as well). They encouraged me to celebrate my difference from others.
I remained different, but it has only been within the last decade that I have learned to (nervously) celebrate it. That's more than Nothing From Nothing.
I'll rewind and watch his segment in my tape of "Blues Brothers 2000" tonight, and raise a glass of rhubarb wine in Billy Preston's honor.
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