The Concert for Bangladesh was the name for two benefit concerts organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at 2.30 and 8 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows were organised to raise international awareness and fund relief efforts for refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), following the 1970 Bhola cyclone and the civil war-related Bangladesh atrocities. The concerts were followed by a bestselling live album, a boxed three-record set, and Apple Films' concert documentary, which opened in cinemas in the spring of 1972.
The event was the first-ever benefit concert of such a magnitude and featured a supergroup of performers that included Harrison, fellow Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger. In addition, Shankar and another legend of Indian music, Ali Akbar Khan,
performed a separate set. Decades later, Shankar would say of the
overwhelming success of the event: "In one day, the whole world knew the
name of Bangladesh. It was a fantastic occasion"
which was administered by UNICEF. Although the project was subsequently marred by financial problems
– a result of the pioneering nature of the venture – the Concert for
Bangladesh is recognised as a highly successful and influential
humanitarian aid project, generating both awareness and considerable
funds as well as providing valuable lessons and inspiration for projects
that followed, notably Live Aid.By 1985, through revenue raised from the Concert for Bangladesh live album and film, an estimated $12 million had been sent to Bangladesh in relief.The concerts raised close to US$250,000 for Bangladesh relief,
Sales of the live album and DVD release of the film continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.
Afternoon show
In his role as "master of ceremonies", Harrison began the afternoon
show (or matinee) by asking the audience to "try to get into" the
opening, Indian music portion of the programme.He then introduced Ravi Shankar and the latter's fellow musicians – sarodist Ali Akbar Khan, tabla player Alla Rakha, and Kamala Chakravarty on tamboura.Shankar first explained the reason for the concerts, after which the four musicians performed a traditional dhun, in the format of a khyal rather than a standard raga, titled "Bangla Dhun".Their set included a second piece, authors Chip Madinger and Mark
Easter suggest, citing Harrison's own description that each show's
Indian music segment lasted for three-quarters of an hour, whereas only
seventeen minutes of music appears on the Concert for Bangladesh live album.The recital was afforded a "fidgety respect" from fans eager to discover the identity of George's advertised "Friends",although the audience's goodwill was more than evident.A short intermission ensued while the stage was cleared and a Dutch TV film was shown,displaying footage of the atrocities and natural tragedies taking place in former East Pakistan.
To thunderous applause from the New York crowd,George appeared on stage along with his temporary band, comprising Ringo Starr, a very sick Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner and eighteen others.Backed by this "full Phil Spector/All Things Must Pass rock orchestra", George began the Western portion of the concert with "Wah-Wah", followed by his Beatles hit song' "Something" and the gospel-rocker "Awaiting on You All". Harrison then handed the spotlight over to Preston, who performed his only sizeable hit (thus far), "That's the Way God Planned It",followed by Starr, whose song "It Don't Come Easy" had recently established the drummer as a solo artist.Nicholas Schaffner was in the audience for this first show and later
described Starr's turn as having received the "biggest ovation" of the
afternoon.
Next up was Harrison's "Beware of Darkness", with guest vocals on the third verse by Russell, who covered the song on his concurrent album, Leon Russell and the Shelter People (1971).After pausing to introduce the band, Harrison followed this with one of
the best-received moments in both the shows – a charging version of the
White Album track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", featuring him and Clapton "duelling" on lead guitar during the long instrumental playout.Both the band introduction and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" are among
the few selections from the afternoon show that were included on the
album and in the film.Another one was Leon Russell's medley of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Coasters' "Young Blood",which was also a highlight of Russell's live shows at the time.With Don Preston crossing the stage to play lead guitar with George,there were now temporarily four electric guitarists in the line-up.Don Preston, Harrison and Claudia Linnear supplied supporting vocals behind Russell.
In an effective change of pace,George picked up his acoustic guitar, now alone on the stage save for Pete Ham on a second capo-ed acoustic, and Don Nix's gospel choir, off to stage-left.The ensuing "Here Comes the Sun" – the first live performance of the song, as for Harrison's other Beatle compositions played that day[50] – was also warmly received.At this point, Harrison switched back to his white Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and, as recounted to Anthony DeCurtis in 1987, he looked down at the setlist taped to the body of the guitar and saw the word "Bob" followed by a question mark. "And I looked around," Harrison recalled of Bob Dylan's entrance, "and he was so nervous – he had his guitar on and his shades – he was sort of coming on, coming [pumps his arms and shoulders] ... It was only at that moment that I knew for sure he was going to do it." Among the audience, Schaffner wrote, there was "total astonishment" at this new arrival.As Harrison had envisaged,Dylan's mini-set was the crowning glory of the Concert for Bangladesh for many observers.Backed by just Harrison, Russell (now playing Voormann's Fender Precision bass) and Starr on tambourine, Dylan played five of his decade-defining songs from the 1960s:"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Blowin' in the Wind", "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "Just Like a Woman".Harrison and the band then returned to perform a final segment, consisting of "Hear Me Lord" and his recent international number 1 hit, "My Sweet Lord", followed by the song of the moment – "Bangla Desh".
Evening show
George was reportedly delighted with the outcome of the first show,
as was Dylan, who accompanied him back to the Park Lane Hotel
afterwards.They discussed possible changes to the setlist for the evening performance,beginning at 8 pm.
The songs played and their sequence differed slightly between the
first and second shows, most noticeably with Harrison's opening and
closing mini-sets.[103]
After "Wah-Wah", he brought "My Sweet Lord" forward in the order,
followed by "Awaiting on You All", before handing over to Billy Preston.The afternoon's "creaky" "Hear Me Lord" was dropped,so that the post-Dylan band segment consisted of only two numbers:
"Something", to close the show, and a particularly passionate reading of
"Bangla Desh", as an encore.Dylan likewise made some changes, swapping "Blowin' in the Wind" and
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh" in the order, and then playing a well-received
"Mr. Tambourine Man" in place of "Love Minus Zero".
The second show was widely acknowledged as superior to the afternoon performance,although Village Voice reviewer Don Heckman noted that many in the audience reacted to the Shankar–Khan opening set with a lack of respect.
Not aiding the Indian musicians was the failure of a microphone on
Rakha's hand drums, Heckman observed, so denying the crowd a vital
element of the musical interplay between sitar and sarod.
During the Western portion of the show, Harrison's voice was more
confident this time around, the music "perhaps slightly more lustrous",
according to Rolling Stone.Towards the end of "That's the Way God Planned It", Preston felt compelled to get up from behind his Hammond organ and take a show-stealing boogie across the front of the stage.
Dylan's walk-on was again the show's "real cortex-snapping moment", Heckman opined.Dylan finished his final song, "Just Like a Woman", with a victorious salute – "holding up both fists like a strongman", Rolling Stone's reviewer remarked shortly afterwards.Following Dylan's set, Harrison introduced the band,[103] before taking the show "to yet another peak" with "Something".Watching from the wings, Pattie Harrison described her husband's performance throughout that evening as "magnificent".
Following the two sellout concerts, all the participants attended a celebratory party in a basement club known as Ungano's.Dylan was so elated, Harrison recalled sixteen years later, "he picked me up and hugged me and he said, 'God! If only we'd done three shows!'" Like Harrison, the experience of playing at Madison Square that day did not lead to Dylan immediately re-embracing the concert stage;only a brief guest appearance with the Band on New Year's Eve 1971–72 and sitting in during a John Prine club gig eventuated before he returned to touring in January 1974.
The post-concert party featured live performances from Harrison and Preston, after which a "roaring drunk"Phil Spector played a "unique" version of "Da Doo Ron Ron".The celebrations broke up in the early hours once Keith Moon of the Who began smashing up the drum kit, which actually belonged to Badfinger's Mike Gibbins.
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