AUTOR

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Various Artists-"The Concert For Bangladesh" (1971)

"The Concert for Bangladesh", was recorded on August 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York and published in December of that same year, many years later it was considered one of the best live shows in history, by the prestigious magazine Rolling Stone.
One of the reasons why this triple live album had this mention is due to the production of Phil Spector who transferred his famous wall of sound to the stage (much more appreciable in the remastered edition of the double cd released years later), that's why during the entire recital (except for the first part, exclusively by Ravi Shankar and his sitar) the band was made up of two drums and a percussionist, two keyboardists, six guitarists, a bassist and a seven-person choir. Among all these, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Bob Dylan or Billy Preston. This concert was also Bob Dylan's first public appearance in five years and here he performed five of his most famous songs.
"The Concert for Bangladesh" was the result of an initiative by former Beatle George Harrison and Ravi Shankar in defense of Bengali refugees, reprisals for the armed conflict between Pakistan and India for the independence of what is now Bangladesh. It was the first benefit concert, and a model for what years later were massive events like Live Aid.
Among the songs performed stand out those of George Harrison "My Sweet Lord", Bob Dylan "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", "Blowin´ In the Wind", Eric Clapton "Jumpin´Jack Flash / Young Blood", or "Something" with the whole band.
For his part, George Harrison, in the brightest moment of his career after The Beatles, brought the best of his triple debut album, "All Things Must Pass" released a year earlier, to live with conviction, spirituality and fervor that the songs required.
However, if the artistic result was very anthological (this direct was undoubtedly one of the best advertising operations that the Bengali cause could achieve), financially it was a complete disaster, in such a way that Harrison himself had to put his own pocket a check of almost a quarter million dollars for the benefit of the victims.

No comments:

Post a Comment