You can finally Listen to George Harrison's star-studded song Bangladesh Concert The album is on major streaming services. The 1971 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in New York featured Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and many others joining forces to raise money for UNICEF and awareness of the humanitarian crisis that followed the Bangladesh Liberation War the previous year. It was the first time the musicians had come together for a large-scale charity concert.
As with the original concert, proceeds from purchases or streaming of the album will go to the George Harrison UNICEF Fund at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. A short trailer for the film shows Harrison singing his final performance of the night, “Bangla Desh,” and highlights the artists who joined him. The album also includes the studio version of Harrison's single “Bangla Desh” as a bonus track.
At the time, some ten million Pakistani refugees had fled to India and were living in misery. The Western media had not covered the crisis in depth, so Harrison and Shankar decided to organize a major show that would draw attention to the crisis. They held two concerts, a matinee and an evening, on August 1, 1971. A three-disc set of the album was released before the end of the year, and a film of the concert, directed by Sol Swimmer, was released in cinemas in 1972. Each release raised more money and awareness for UNICEF.
Rolling Stone The New York Times covered the original concert and praised it. “In a year when organizers and the press have decried the motives of musicians and the caliber of audiences, and each New Woodstock festival has been more greedy than the last… the Bangla Desh concert, in the splendor of its music and the altruism of its motives, was proof that art and spirit were alive,” it said. “And audiences, musicians and producers respected and cherished it, not just as history but also as a sign of spring.”
Bangladesh Concert Playlist:
1. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, “Introduction by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar”
2. Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Ali Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty, “Bangla Dhun”
3. George Harrison, “Wah Wah”
4. George Harrison, “My Dear Lord”
5. George Harrison, “Waiting for You All”
6. Billy Preston, “That’s How God Planned It”
7. Ringo Starr, “It Don’t Come Easy”
8. George Harrison and Leon Russell, “Beware the Dark”
9. George Harrison, “Band Introduction”
10. George Harrison, “While My Guitar Softly Weeps”
11. Leon Russell, “Jumpin' Jack Flash / Young Blood”
12. George Harrison, “Here Comes the Sun”
13. Bob Dylan, “There’s Gonna Be a Hard Rain”
14. Bob Dylan, “It takes a lot to laugh, and it takes a train to cry.”
15. Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”
16. Bob Dylan, “Mr. Tambourine Man”
17. Bob Dylan, “Like a Woman”
18. George Harrison, “Something”
19. George Harrison, “Bangla Desh”
20. Bob Dylan, “Love Minus Zero / No Limit”
21. George Harrison, “Bangla Desh” (studio version)
