From Owen Gleiberman‘s Variety review of That’s The Way God Planned It:

“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 — and magnificently — as Sly Stone’s performance of ‘Wanna Take You Higher’ did from Woodstock.

“The sound of a holy organ rang out, and the camera zoomed in on a stylish-looking man in a big wool cap and a Billy Dee Williams mustache, with a handsome gap-toothed grin and a gleam of reverence. He began to sing (‘Why can’t we be humble, like the good lord said…’), and it sounded like a hymn, which is just what it was. The lyrics lifted you up, and Preston caressed each cadence as if he were leading a gospel choir.

“As he launched into the chorus, with its delicate descending chords, its bass line following in tandem, at least until the climax, when that bass began to walk around like it had a mind of its own, you could feel the song start to…ascend. Preston, rocking back and forth, tilting his head with rapture, the notes pouring out of him like sun-dappled honey, was the only black performer on that stage, and he was offering what amounted, in the rock world, to a radical message: that God was here.

“As the song picked up speed in the gospel tradition, Preston, moved by the spirit he was conjuring, got up from his keyboard and began to dance, jangling his arms, his legs just about levitating. It was an ecstatic dance, one that seemed to erupt right out of him, as if he couldn’t stop himself.

“Paris Barclay’s eye-opening documentary Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It opens with that sequence, and it’s cathartic to see it again.”