The Concert For Bangladesh

Excellent CD and just as I remember it from all those years ago. CD box and inner info pamphlet all in good order.

Fabulous service quick delivery and safe secure packaging. Superb album, sometimes forgotten as the first fundraising concert for the people. Great line up. Bought to replace my damaged copy. So glad I bought this one. Thanks

Excellent, I am speechless. Thank you very much.

great memories

GrEat album! A time when musicians got off their backsides to genuinely assist people in dire straits, a process unfortunately taken over the disgustingly self-absorbed and patronsing red nose crowd post-Live Aid.

In 1971, tens of thousands of refugees were fleeing into India from Bangla Desh, as the government in West Pakistan was attempting to assert its complete dominion over the eastern half of the nation. Pakistan had been created in 1947, following the withdrawal of the British from the Indian subcontinent, into two distinct land areas separated by over one thousand miles of Indian territory. The acclaimed Ravi Shankar, as a Bengali, was naturally concerned with the humanitarian crisis and hoped to arrange some sort of benefit for the cause. After seeking help and advice from his friend George Harrison, the whole project started coming together, eventually raising many times the amount of money Shankar had initially dreamed of. Under the leadership of Harrison, the Concert for Bangla Desh was planned and staged over the course of only some five or six weeks. Not only did the concert benefit a worthy cause, it gave us all an incredible concert performance to enjoy featuring some of the biggest stars of the day.The show starts with an introduction by Harrison and a performance by Ravi Shankar and crew. Bangla Dhun is an incredibly long track that displays all of the mystical beauty and, to many listeners, wholly unknown sound of the sitar and other Asian instruments. The crowd showed a lot of appreciation for the performance, despite the fact that most of them came to see and hear Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan. Such an appearance by the reclusive Dylan was certainly an event in 1971, and he gave by far the strongest performance of the evening, singing five of his classic recordings: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall; It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry; Blowin' in the Wind; Mr. Tambourine Man; and Just Like a Woman.George Harrison, naturally, performed a good number of his own songs - including Beatles tracks alongside songs from his relatively young solo career. Harrison's delivery of Wah-Wah and My Sweet Lord are just terrific. Awaiting On You All, Beware of Darkness, and Something are also fine performances. His voice seemed to let him down a bit as the concert wore on, though, and this took a little something (but not much) away from his renditions of the immortal tracks Here Comes the Sun and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.There were other noteworthy contributions on this night. Ringo Starr stepped out from behind the drums to sing It Don't Come Easy - apparently, remembering the words to the song is one of those things that "don't come easy." He does give an energetic performance, though. Billy Preston emerged to deliver one of the concert's best songs: That's the Way God Planned It, doing his career a lot of good through this one 1971 performance. Leon Russell excited the crowd with a forceful rendition of the Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash and the song Youngblood. The group Badfinger added their talents to the mix, as did guitarist extraordinaire Eric Clapton. One of the most memorable moments of the night must surely have come when both Clapton and Harrison teamed up on the classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps.I actually think the sound quality is pretty good on this CD, especially taking in mind the fact that this concert took place on August 1, 1971. The concert was a great success, raising almost two hundred fifty thousand dollars for the cause, and fans of George Harrison and Bob Dylan will definitely want to add this two-disc album to their CD collections if possible.

This was the one that started it all, Band Aid, Farm Aid and Live8 can trace their inspiration back to this memorable night when George Harrison & Ravi Shankar decided to do something about the dying country that was Bangladesh.George assembled a cast list of some of the great musicians of the day, with the only noteable exceptions his old mates John & Paul! Originally a triple album, it is good to see a decent re-release of this monumental concert.Listen to it all in one sitting, though and you are struck by how dated some of it sounds. Leon Russell's stuff is a lesson in endurance and misogyny, and even Billy Preston's 'That's the Way God Planned It' seems to have lost some of its verve over the years. George Harrison does creditable versions of some of his 'All Things Must Pass' era material; poor old Ringo completely loses his way in 'It Don't Come Easy' but inevitably it's the appearance, unconfirmed even at the last minute, of that maestro himself, Bob Dylan that makes this set worth the asking price.At the time of its release, there was little or no live Dylan stuff available apart from bootlegs, and so to hear him deliver some of his best songs with a new voice, albeit over the ponderous hesitant backing band, was a revelation! Even thirty years on, he brings new vigour to the songs, 'Just like a Woman' being a particular highlight.The first twenty minutes of sitar playing, with the famous line "Thank You, if you enjoyed the tuning up so much, we hope you enjoy the playing even more!", will probably be skipped by most, but persevere; the final Bangla Dun piece is in 16 time, so western ears can soon attune to the maginficent musicianship on display.This album is a relic, a piece of history, and it sounds like it here and there, but it does contain too many magnificent moments to ignore!