by Robert Wilkinson
It was 51 years ago today that George Harrison created the first global concert to aid the children. Two shows took place at Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971, featuring some of the biggest stars in rock. Today we celebrate that pioneering effort which led to ten thousand benefit concerts after it.
From Wikipedia, “The event was the first-ever benefit of such a magnitude, and featured a supergroup of performers that included Harrison, fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger. In addition, Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan – both of whom had ancestral roots in Bangladesh – performed an opening set of Indian classical music. The concerts were attended by a total of 40,000 people, and the initial gate receipts raised close to $250,000 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by UNICEF.
After collecting the musicians easily, Harrison found it extremely difficult to get the recording industry to release the rights for performers to share the stage, and millions of dollars raised from the album and film were tied up in IRS tax escrow accounts for years, but the Concert for Bangladesh is recognised as a highly successful and influential humanitarian aid project, generating both awareness and considerable funds…
By 1985, through revenue raised from the Concert for Bangladesh live album and film, an estimated $12 million had been sent to Bangladesh, and sales of the live album and DVD release of the film continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. 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…."
Speaking in 2005, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner described the "buzz" preceding the first Concert for Bangladesh show as being at a level unexperienced in New York since the Beatles' 1966 visit.”
If you want to know more about the backstory to the show, including how Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton almost didn’t perform and John Lennon would have but for Yoko, as well as some other eye opening tidbits, please check out the entire Wikipedia article.
While the movie is nowhere on you tube, I found the album in its entirety. So for your remembrance of a better time when good people cared to make a difference helping the poorest of the poor, here’s Nelson “Spike” Wilbury with his brother Lucky “Boo” Wilbury and a bunch of friends including a hair raising performance by Brother Leon in the prototypical benefit event of all time,
Here are seven videos from that historic show!
From the rehearsal, The Concert for Bangladesh - “If Not For You”
The Concert for Bangladesh - “Beware of Darkness”
The Concert for Bangladesh - “Here Comes the Sun” (please forgive the obnoxious freeze frames).
The Concert for Bangladesh - “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall”
The Concert for Bangladesh - “My Sweet Lord”
The Concert for Bangladesh - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Here’s the closing number intercut with pictures from Bangladesh. The poor are with us to this day in even greater numbers than then. Here is the song about the people of ”Bangladesh”
Here’s a 5 minute clip of George and Ravi explaining why it happened set to a medley of various numbers from the show! Wow. The Concert for Bangladesh, August 1, 1971
This was the show that inspired me to do projects for UNICEF in the 1980s, including an attempt to do something globally which had never been done before. Through a twist of fate, it all came down almost exactly 14 years after The Concert for Bangladesh. If you want to know more about that part of my life, when you’re done here please check out Michael Jackson, Live Aid, We Are The World, and Me (and yes, it’s all true. I had great dreams of a better world when younger. I still do.)
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
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