Encouraging Words＜限定盤＞

ビリー・プレストンが2021年10月にRock & Roll Hall of Fame(ロックンロールの殿堂)入りするのを記念して、アップル・レコーズから1970年に発表された不朽の名盤『Encouraging Words』のLPが期間限定発売!

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オリジナル発売は1970年9月11日。ビリーとジョージ・ハリソンの共同プロデュース。ジョージ作の名曲「All Things Must Pass」と「My Sweet Lord」が初めて世に出た作品としても知られる。
LPとしてリリースされたのは1992年が最後。
オリジナルLPのアートワークにミュージシャン・クレジットはなかったが、2010年のCD復刻でEric Clapton、Klaus Voormann、Ringo Starr、Bobby Keys、The Edwin Hawkins Singersの名がクレジットされた。

幼少の頃からMahalia Jacksonのバックでオルガンを奏じ、10才時にはTV番組であのナット・キング・コールとオルガンと歌でデュエット。16才時の1962年にはLittle Richardのツアー・バンドに加入し、リヴァプールでThe Beatlesの前座も務めている。1969年にはそのThe Beatlesのアルバム『Abbey Road』で「Something」と「I Want You (She's So Heavy)」に、そしてそのラスト・アルバム『Let It Be』では「Dig a Pony」、「I've Got a Feeling」、「One After 909」、「The Long and Winding Road」、「Dig It」、「Let It Be」、「Get Back」にハモンド・オルガンで参加。特に1969年4月にリリースされたシングル「Get Back」では"The Beatles with Billy Preston"とクレジットされ、5人目のミュージシャン名がレコード・レーベルに刻まれた唯一の例となった。1969年1月30日にはThe Beatlesによるあの有名な'rooftop concert(屋上コンサート)'にも参加。1970年のドキュメンタリー映画『Let It Be』として記録されている。

Encouraging Words was about as fine an album as Apple Records ever issued by anyone who wasn't a member of the Beatles, and it's also better than many of the Apple albums issued by the ex-bandmembers; but it's also among the most obscure of any album that the label ever issued by a major artist -- without a hit single to drive its sales, the LP never did more than brush the very bottom of the charts, and it was quickly lost amid the financial collapse of the label and the implosion of the Beatles' business ventures; even many Billy Preston fans never had a chance to find out it was there, obscured as it was by his subsequent chart success with "Outta Space" on the A&M label. A bold and searing effort mixing gospel, soul, and rock sounds about as well as any record cut that year, Encouraging Words lived up its killer musical pedigree, partly an offshoot of the evolution of the Let It Be and All Things Must Pass albums, and of sessions that Preston and George Harrison had produced for Doris Troy; but it also picked up where Preston's playing for Ray Charles had left off in 1968. The surging, soaring blues "The Same Thing Again," and the driving rocker "You've Been Acting Strange," both Preston originals, were worth the price of the album, but for those requiring familiar fare, Preston's renditions of "My Sweet Lord," "All Things (Must) Pass," and "I've Got a Feeling" are here too, the first two as stunning gospel numbers (the second with some gorgeous jazz and classical embellishments) that make the Harrison versions seem pallid; and the latter a delightfully funky rendition that makes the Beatles' recording sound like a classy demo; and for truly, delightfully strange sound amalgams, "Sing One for the Lord" manages to couple soaring gospel with some loud lead guitar and a piano part derived from Tchaikovsky (at least according to the annotator -- this reviewer would have said Grieg). [The 2010 reissue of Encouraging Words was remastered by the same Abbey Road team who remastered the acclaimed 2009 Beatles reissues and was expanded by three bonus tracks: the previously uneleased “How Long Has the Train Been Gone,” the scrapped B-side “As Long As I’ve Got My Baby” and “All That I’ve Got (I’m Gonna Give To You),” cowritten by Doris Troy.] ~ Bruce Eder