I leapt into a Billy Preston rabbit hole a few days ago. It all started while I was writing a Stylus Counsel column about Jimmy Swaggart. I included a playlist of Christian songs that are actually good, which included a Preston track — and I nearly included three or four.
While listening to Billy’s catalog on Spotify, I found an album I’d never heard of before: Club Meetin’ (1967). It’s been out of production since it came out. Its predecessor, Wildest Organ In Town (1966) has had a couple of budget re-issues during the 1970s, and the two albums were also issued together on a single CD in 2004. But no new vinyl. Don’t be fooled by a 2006 German CD called Soul Meetin’ featuring a mid-70s Billy on the cover — it’s a different album, a compilation.
I actually tagged Jack White and Third Man Records in an Instagram post about this — urging him to consider re-releasing Club Meetin’ on his label. I’ve seen copies of this album sold for $380 USD as long ago as 2015. There are currently none available on Discogs. The last one sold in Sept. 2020 for $615 CAD. The lowest price I’ve seen was in 2019, when it sold for $296. There have only been five sold on Discogs in four years. One thing which may explain this is a note I spotted in a collector forum that the album was recalled, pulled from shelves and never re-released. I have no idea if this is true or why it happened.
The album was recorded live at the former West Hollywood nightclub The Trip, which was located at 8572 West Sunset Boulevard — the site of a former jazz club called The Crescendo. It was right next door to the towering Playboy Club. The Trip was owned by Elmer Valentine and his partners, who also owned the nearby Whiskey A Go Go. The Whiskey opened in January 1964 and The Trip in April 1965 — though Valentine didn’t advertise the place until September. It was only open until May 1967.
Preston was one of the first acts booked. According to Setlist.fm, he played shows every night from Nov. 11 to 17. I believe Club Meetin’ was recorded during these shows. But it’s hard to tell. I found reprinted text from newspaper ads that list “November 11-17, 1965: The Miracles/Billy Preston.” As a side note, Smokey Robinson wasn’t yet being billed separately from The Miracles or featured. A year later they were billed at The Trip as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.
The album was promoted by Capitol Records as “a continuation” of Wildest Organ In Town, which was recorded Sept. 11, 1965 — two months to the day before the start of Preston’s week-long run at The Trip. There are no duplicate songs on the albums, which suggests it was meant to be a continuation, placing the live recording sometime during Nov. 11-17, 1965 — as opposed to Dec. 10, 1965, Preston’s next and last advertised gig at The Trip. However, this time the ad text I found has him billed with The Soul Brothers — who are on the album providing backing vocals. I haven’t been able to determine who the musicians are on the live recording, but there’s clearly a full stage. I hear drums, Billy’s Hammond organ, an electric piano, electric bass, percussion, vibes, trumpets, saxes and a trombone.
Who were/are The Soul Brothers? God only knows. They seemed to not be big enough at the time to warrant much press, or at least much archived press. And, there are no individual musician credits on Club Meetin’ apart from Billy. Making matters worse, there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6,000 groups called Soul Brothers. It’s possible one of the sax players was Wrecking Crew session man Steve Douglas, who was the Capitol staffer who produced the album. Douglas had a storied career — that’s him on He’s A Rebel by The Crystals — although he’s also on Leonard Cohen’s Death Of A ladies Man, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and End Of The Century by The Ramones, among others. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2003.
Club Meetin’ was arranged by H.B. Barnum, as opposed to the previous album, which was arranged by none other than Sly Stone (before he and Preston had a falling out over Sly sleeping with Billy’s lady — whom Mr. Stewart would later marry on stage at Madison Square Garden). Barnum was a vocalist who also produced and arranged for artists like Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Frank Sinatra and The Supremes. The liner notes give him credit for crafting the 12 songs on the album:
“Here’s Billy Preston with the wildest organ in town, coming to you “live” from Hollywood’s famous Sunset Strip.
“Though this is only Billy’s second album, he’s already known everywhere as the top-of-the-charts favourite who not only plays the most exciting, the most rockin’ organ anywhere, but also sings up a storm!
“He’s aided here by the music of H.B. Barnum, the sensational singing sounds of the Soul brothers and the shoutin’, stompin’, singin’ and cheerin’ sounds of his on-the-spot fans who really help to put you there for this session.”
I have no idea if this recording is from a single show, but it certainly is lively. They’re not lying about the crowd. It really makes for an exciting experience and the band feeds off the energy of the crowd’s “back talk” — as Billy calls it. I also don’t know just how much the crowd noise has been manipulated or boosted, or if any edits or overdubs were done in production. It sounds pretty legit, with maybe a bit of crowd-sound embellishment. But all the stage patter is included.
Live albums — or any albums — with “introductions” are awesome. Club Meetin’ has one, subtitled as Billy’s Theme. On the record labels, the songwriting credit is given to Preston alone. Other albums with great introduction songs include Cheap Trick Live at Budokan (Hello There) and Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera (Intro/Mother Writes). This track sets the tone for the whole album and it really feels like a single gig. Introduction is a fairly short cut, which flows right into a great, instrumental version of Sunny. The crowd goes bonkers for the next one, the Willie Dixon-penned Muddy Waters classic Hoochie Coochie Man.
Billy’s Groove is next, perhaps my favourite on the album. This is another instrumental, credited to Preston on the label. Then you’re treated to the album’s stinker, No Man Is An Island, which he performs with vocals from the Soul Brothers. It’s a bit cornball and doesn’t really fit in the set as a standalone track.
The Soul Brothers stick around for the next song — another Preston composition called Let The Music Play. The crowd is quiet to start, perhaps still lulled by No Man Is An island. The coolest thing about Let The Music Play is the arrangement of the backing vocals, with different singers taking individual “heys” in the hey-hey-hey, hey-hey-hey chorus. This wraps up the side, which ends with the same crowd handclaps you hear starting the second side — and an instrumental version of Wade In The Water arranged by Barnum and Preston. Billy gets some nice grit on his Hammond here. The crowd is finally back in it. This track is flat-out awesome.
Billy puts on a clinic on a cool version of the Gershwin standard Summertime. Goddamn he was talented. No wonder he’s the only person ever given artist credit on a Beatles song (Get Back). He keeps the mojo flowing with another inspired cover, this time of This Little Light Of Mine — arranged by himself and Barnum. Preston gets the crowd into it right from the opening sick beat. You get the sense he could play this song for hours. The horns and sax really make themselves known in this. The Preston-penned Ike’s Theme is next, another upbeat soul instrumental presumably named after Ike Turner (as opposed to Eisenhower).
If any of the songs on this album standout as perhaps being from a different show, or having overdubs, it’s the penultimate track Together, written by Betsy Buchanan. This excellent album wraps with a convincing James Brown medley.
It’s a wonderful portal into Preston’s transition period when he went from band member and featured performer to rookie headlier. In four years he’d be making records with The Beatles and writing hits for himself like Outa Space, Will It Go Round In Circles, Nothing From Nothing and hits for others like Joe Cocker (You Are So Beautiful, which Preston actually penned for his mother).
This is also years before Preston’s troubled childhood as a sexually abused kid, his closeted homosexuality and related $1,000/day cocaine addiction began to ruin his life and career. As a devout Christian, his faith often put him in an awkward position with his chosen career, and struggling with his sexuality. As his popularity declined, he found himself in jail a few times and convicted of sexually assaulting a minor as well as being involved in an arson fraud scheme. Preston declared bankruptcy multiple times. As much as I don’t condone his choices, it’s still delightful to hear him — just 19 years old — with a crowd in the palm of his hand.
Props to Spotify for having this. Let’s hope somebody gives it the remastered reissue it deserves.
4/5
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
