The Concerts For Bangla Desh - Fifty Years

It was fifty years ago today, Sunday, August 1, 1971, that George Harrison staged rock's first major benefit concert.

When the non-contiguous Pakistani region of East Pakistan, also known as Bangladesh, began a war of liberation from the rest of Pakistan with the support of India, the Pakistani military responded brutally, creating a humanitarian disaster that was compounded by a tropical cyclone that hit the region.  Sitar player Ravi Shankar, whose family came from East Pakistan, went to George Harrison and asked him if there was anything he could do.  Harrison did the only thing he, as a musician, knew how to do - stage a benefit concert to raise money for the people of East Pakistan as they strove to overcome the odds of poverty, oppression, and natural disaster and create a new Bangladeshi nation. He was able to get the top musicians of the time to participate, including Billy Preston, Leon Russell, and Shankar himself.  But the biggest coup Harrison pulled off was getting his buddy Bob Dylan - who had only played once concert in the previous five years (the second Isle of Wight festival in 1969) - to take part.

The twin concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden - an afternoon show followed by an evening show - were nothing short of magic.  Backed by a band that included Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann, drummer Jim Keltner, Pete Ham of Badfinger, and Taj Mahal guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, Harrison performed his biggest Beatles hits and choice cuts from his All Things Must Pass solo album, along with his charity single "Bangla Desh."  Preston also shone when he performed a rousing rendition of his song "That's The Way God Planned It."  Leon Russell - then the hottest singer-songwriter in rock and roll - did an astonishing medley of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Coasters' "Young Blood," bringing rock down to the core of its rhythm and blues roots.  There was great applause when George Harrison brought out a special guest - Ringo Starr, who sang his new song "It Don't Come Easy," providing the closest anyone ever got to a Beatles reunion in the seventies.  (John Lennon had been invited to take part and agreed to do so without his wife Yoko Ono, per Harrison's insistence, but Yoko's objections led to his withdrawal; Paul McCartney agreed to participate provided Harrison agree to the dissolution of the Beatles' legal partnership, to which Harrison said no can do.)    Dylan's sets of each concert were the highlights, though, with Harrison and Russell joining him for one of them.

Ravi Shankar opened each show with his orchestra, performing Indian classical music, at at one show, as seen in the movie, the audience committed a faux pas after several minutes of music when they applauded Shankar and his musicians.  Shankar thanked them for appreciating the tune-up and promised that they'd appreciate the performance even more. 😄

On a negative note, Stephen Stills, who was on tour promoting his second solo album and had performed at the Garden two days earlier, donated his stage and sound equipment to the Bangla Desh concerts but Harrison inexplicably didn't think to invite him to play in them. 

The proceeds from the concert and the subsequent album and movie got held up in all sorts of legal difficulties, but once those problems were all resolved, the money started flowing to Bangladesh - in 2021 marking a half century of independence - totaling $45 million by the 1990s.  Harrison has since been recognized as a farther to the modern Bangladeshi state. Shankar, for the record, was pleased with the results.  "In one day, the whole world knew the name of Bangladesh," he later said. "It was a fantastic occasion."

The Concerts for Bangla Desh is too monumental to do justice to in my Music Video Of the Week feature.  Instead, here's an audio-only video of the concert for your listening pleasure.  (Sound quality may be spotty.) 

The Concert For Bangla Desh - Forty Years Later

I saw today, for the first time ever, the documentary film of the Concert For Bangla Desh documentary film forty years to the day after the original concert in New York's Madison Square Garden. It's probably one of the finest concerts - and the greatest benefit concert - in rock and roll history. George Harrison organized it in response to a plea for help from his friend, Indian musician and sitar master Ravi Shankar, whose father was born in Bangladesh (now one word), when the country than known as East Pakistan was fighting for independence from Pakistan proper. The India-Pakistan war that resulted was an embarrassment for the Nixon administration, as I recall - they backed Pakistan, the ultimate loser - but Bangladesh lost a great deal even after winning its independence. The humanitarian crisis that resulted was beyond comprehension, and Shankar hoped that his Beatle buddy Harrison could help do something about it.

Harrison did not disappoint, bringing together some of the greatest rock and roll musicians of the time (and all time, in many instances) for a pair of concerts in which some mighty fine music was generated. Concertgoers supported a good cause with the price of admission to either the afternoon or evening show and got Leon Russell performing a medley of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Coasters' "Young Blood;" Billy Preston offering up his tune "That's the Way God Planned It;" Ringo Starr (the only other Beatle in the show) performing "It Don't Come Easy," his big hit at the time; and Harrison performing solo and Beatles tunes. And this all-star band included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, and Taj Mahal guitarist Jesse Ed Davis.

But the biggest surprise for the audience was Bob Dylan, then making few public appearances - coming onstage to sing classics such as "Blowin' In the Wind" and "Just Like a Woman" with Harrison and Russell backing him on guitar and bass, respectively - and backing vocals. Magic!

The Concerts for Bangla Desh were far more focused, musically and philanthropically, than many other benefit concerts. It targeted a specific cause for relief in a specific place. And unlike Live Aid, which tried to be all things to all people by offering a sixteen-hour revue of popular performers that suggested quantity more than quality (what was Duran Duran doing at that show, anyway), the Bangla Desh shows had a small list of like-minded musicians for whom the music mattered as much as the cause. (After all, the shows started off with Ravi Shankar and his group Indian musicians playing a disciplined form of music that required attention and concentration to listen to as well as play.) George Harrison didn't try to draw more people by inviting the Osmonds to take part, did he?

Although it took more than a decade for the proceeds from the concert to make it to Bangladesh, it was still a success on balance. Money from record and video sales has continued to go to relief for what is still a very poor country. And they need it.

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