Billy Preston ‘Saver’ For SPAC Concert

by Bill Rice, The Troy Record, June 30, 1972

Four rock groups were heard in concert Wednesday evening at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It was unfortunate so many were there. It was unfortunate they took so long to set up and tune up and, in fact, it was unfortunate that one of the groups was there at all.

But it was fortunate that among the groups was the band of one fabulous entertainer, Billy Preston.

The show opened with a piano player/singer, Billy Joel, who was not bad as a lead-off man. Joel plays fine piano and sings well enough but may lack the individual stamp of personality needed to take him much farther.

Next came Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. If you think their hit record, Silvia’s Mother, is bad, you should hear the rest of their material. It seemed some musicianship might be hidden somewhere in the group but it was well covered by an incredible lack of taste.

There were points in their performance when I felt Hook and crew were almost masochistic. They seemed to enjoy being booed and derided.

When they finished Silvia’s Mother, and it was loudly booed, the lead singer blew his cool and said, “Do you people realize there are people all over the country who are sick to death of that song?” I’m not sure if it was a Freudian slip or what.

The Hookers proved one thing though. It takes more than long dirty hair to make a rock group.

Then, after the second lengthy intermission of the evening, a tall black man with an ever-present smile and an Atro hairdo to end all Afros pranced out onto the stage.

Pandemonium broke loose as Billy Preston went from organ to piano, to electric piano, playing everything from Summertime, from Porgy and Bess, to his latest hit, Outta-Space.

After playing for what was all too short a time, Preston stood up and dazzled the crowd, now going wild, with some fancy footwork back and forth across the stage. He wound up by taking his jacket off and whirling it over his head as he sashayed across the stage with a sassy strut that would leave most spinal columns in terrible condition.

We didn’t think anybody could follow Preston’s act. A group called Quicksilver tried and proved we were right. Would you believe the concert ended at 1:30 a.m.?