Many people today don\u2019t realize what a big deal this concert was back in 1971. A former Beatle who was fresh off the overwhelming critical and commercial success of All Things Must Pass<\/i> was organizing a concert for charity at the famous Madison Square Garden. He was bringing along another former Beatle, plus the likes of Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, and a host of other friends. The rumor in the building was that even Bob Dylan might perform.<\/p>\n
The concert took place August 1st<\/sup>, 1971. There were actually two performances at noon and 7:00 PM. It was a rare event that lived up to its hype, and yes, Bob Dylan did show up. A triple album, The Concert For Bangladesh,<\/i> was issued during December of 1971. It reached the number two spot on the American album charts and attained the number one slot in the United Kingdom. While the money was held up for a number of years, eventually millions of dollars from the album and film were donated to the designated charity.<\/p>\n Over 40 years have passed since this concert, but it remains one of the better live releases in rock history. Once the listener gets past side one, the pacing is excellent and the musicianship first rate.<\/p>\n I have probably only played side one of the first disc of the original vinyl release just once, and am not sure if I made it completely through the whole 22 minutes. The Harrison\/Ravi Shankar introduction is not the best start to the concert, and the sixteen-minute \u201cBangla Dhun\u201d is long and repetitive. Shankar was a sitar virtuoso, but the audience was there for the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. It is more of a philosophical statement than exciting music.<\/p>\n The other five sides are excellent throughout. Harrison wisely places his songs throughout the show and allows his guests to perform in between. \u201cWah-Wah,\u201d \u201cMy Sweet Lord,\u201d and \u201cAwaiting On You All\u201d set the tone and allow the audience to become connected to the music. It is only then that Ringo Starr on \u201cIt Don\u2019t Come Easy\u201d and Billy Preston with \u201cThat\u2019s The Way God Planned It\u201d step into the spotlight.<\/p>\n Side five of the original release was given to Bob Dylan. Here, he is backed by Harrison, Starr, and Leon Russell. His performance came at a time when he had rarely been performing live. He stuck to well-known songs such as \u201cA Hard Rain\u2019s A-Gonna Fall,\u201d \u201cIt Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry,\u201d \u201cBlowin\u2019 In The Wind,\u201d \u201cMr. Tambourine Man,\u201d and \u201cJust Like A Woman,\u201d and his set forms the highlight of the show.<\/p>\n Harrison closes the concert with his Beatles hit \u201cSomething\u201d and his latest solo release \u201cBangla-Desh,\u201d which reached the American top thirty as a single.<\/p>\n The Concert For Bangladesh<\/i> remains a grand gesture by George Harrison and friends. It is the early \u201870s at its musical and generous best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":32531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9729],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-44293","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-george-harrison-various-artists","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44293"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}