The Concert for Bangladesh, the live album featuring performances recorded at a pair of star-studded 1971 benefit shows co-organized and headlined by George Harrison, has been made available via streaming services for the first time.
Videos by American Songwriter
Harrison organized the concerts with his friend and musical mentor, Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar. The goal of the shows, which were held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on August 1, 1971, were to raise awareness about and aid for refugees from the brutal civil war in Pakistan that eventually led to the creation of the country of Bangladesh.
[RELATED: Remember When: George Harrison Staged The Concert for Bangladesh]
The Concert for Bangladesh featured performances by Harrison, Shankar, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, and Leon Russell. Eric Clapton made a guest appearance on Harrison’s rendition of the Beatles classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Other musicians who took part in the shows included the members of Badfinger, drummer Jim Keltner, bassists Carl Radle and Klaus Voormann, and guitarist Jesse Ed Davis.
The concerts marked Harrison’s first live performances since The Beatles broke up in 1970. Among the songs he played were tunes from his 1970 solo album All Things Must Past and his Fab Four gems “Something,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and the aforementioned “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” George also performed a new song called “Bangla Desh” that he wrote in conjunction with the benefit and released as a single a few days before the concerts.
The studio version of the song peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Reflecting on the shows, Harrison said, “The musicians were great. I mean they completely put down their own egos to play together and to do something because the whole vibe of that concert was that it was something bigger than the lot of us.”
More About The Concert for Bangladesh Album
The Concert for Bangladesh was released as a triple-LP set in December 1971. It went on to top the U.K. albums chart and reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
In 1973, the record was honored with the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
About the Streaming Version of the Album
The digital version of The Concert for Bangladesh includes the studio version of “Bangla Desh” as an extra track. Proceeds raised by streams of the album will be donated to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. The charity is a joint project between the late Harrison’s family and UNICEF USA that provides assistance to children around the world in need of health care, education, nutrition, and emergency relief.
Additional Information
After the original album’s release, a Concert for Bangladesh movie featuring highlights from the shows premiered in March 1972 in the U.S. and July 1972 in the U.K.
Proceeds raised by the “Bangla Desh” single, the concerts, the album, and the movie all were donated to UNICEF to benefit its humanitarian efforts for those affected by the conflict.
The Concert for Bangladesh Track List:
- Introduction – George Harrison & Ravi Shankar
- “Bangla Dhun” – Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Ali Rakha, & Kamala Chakravarti
- “Wah-Wah” – George Harrison
- “My Sweet Lord” – George Harrison
- “Awaiting on You All” – George Harrison
- “That’s the Way God Planned It” – Billy Preston
- “It Don’t Come Easy” – Ringo Starr
- “Beware of Darkness” – George Harrison & Leon Russell
- Band Introduction – George Harrison
- “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – George Harrison
- “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”/“Young Blood” – Leon Russell
- “Here Comes the Sun” – George Harrison
- “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” – Bob Dylan
- “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” – Bob Dylan
- “Blowin’ in the Wind” – Bob Dylan
- “Mr. Tambourine Man” – Bob Dylan
- “Just Like a Woman” – Bob Dylan
- “Something” – George Harrison
- “Bangla Desh” – George Harrison
- “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” – Bob Dylan
- “Bangla Desh” (studio version) – George Harrison
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