The Concert for Bangladesh
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- This article is about the concert. For the album see The Concert For Bangla Desh.
Background
As East Pakistan struggled to become the separate state of Bangladesh, tremendous political and military turmoil led to a massive refugee problem. This problem was compounded by torrential rains causing devastating floods and threatening a humanitarian disaster.Bengali musician Ravi Shankar consulted his friend George Harrison regarding a means of providing help to the situation. Harrison recorded the single "Bangladesh" to help raise awareness and pushed Apple Records to release Shankar's single "Joi Bangla" in a dual-pronged effort to raise funds.
Shankar also asked Harrison's advice regarding a small fund-raising concert in the United States. Instead, Harrison took over and persuaded his friends to join him at a large concert at Madison Square Garden. The event was organised within five weeks.
Harrison first asked his fellow Beatles to appear. John Lennon agreed to take part in the concert, however Harrison stipulated that Lennon's wife Yoko Ono not perform with him. Lennon agreed, but left New York two days before the event following an argument with Ono regarding his and Harrison's agreement that she not participate. Paul McCartney declined because of the bad feelings caused by The Beatles' legal problems on their break-up. Ringo Starr, however, readily agreed to appear.
Concert program
Shankar opened the concert with a 17-minute recital of Indian music (Bangla Dhun). Eric Clapton made his first public appearance since the end of the five-month Derek and the Dominos tour the previous December. Clapton was still in the grip of a heroin addiction, and had been unable to attend any rehearsals until the final soundcheck.Musical help was also on hand from Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Klaus Voormann and Badfinger (along with Jim Horn, Carl Radle, Jesse Ed Davis, Don Preston and a host of backing singers organized by Don Nix).
Bob Dylan made his first stage appearance since the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1969. Apart from sitting in for a few numbers with The Band on New Year 1972 and an unannounced appearance backing John Prine on harmonica at a Greenwich Village club, he did not play live again until January 1974.
Album release
The event was recorded for an album and released as a triple-LP box set (later a 2-CD set), produced by Harrison and Phil Spector. This record was Dylan's first official live release. The concert was also filmed, although Harrison later complained that half the camera operators appeared to have been indulging in illegal substances, which left the focus of some shots rather soft. There was a theatrical release for the film and it was later issued on video.
While the LP was issued on Apple Records (distributed by Capitol Records in the US and EMI worldwide), tape distribution (cassette and 8-track cartridge) was given to Columbia Records, Bob Dylan's label, in exchange for being allowed to include his set as part of the package. When the album was reissued on CD in 1992, Columbia (now owned by Sony Music) in turn reissued the cassette version.
The 2-CD set was re-released in 2001, and Harrison had been working on an expanded deluxe edition prior to his death. In October 2005, Apple and Rhino Entertainment jointly re-released the concert album and film on remastered CD and as special edition two-DVD set.
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