George Harrison classic live album finally arrives streaming services
George Harrison‘s The Concert for Bangladesh is now available to listen to on streaming platforms for the first time, with all proceeds going to UNICEF.
The charitable event took place in 1971, and came around due to Harrison’s close friendship with fellow musician, Ravi Shankar. Two concerts took place at Madison Square Garden, New York, with each show attracting a star-studded cast of icons such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Jim Keltner, Klaus Voorman, Billy Preston and Badfinger.
It was a reaction to a horrific humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh, and as Shankar was born into a Bengali family, it was a disaster close to his heart. Harrison felt compelled to put his contact book to good use by bringing the biggest stars of the music industry together for a first-of-its-kind event, which would set a precedent for future fundraisers such as Live Aid and Farm Aid.
Harrison and Shankar initially hoped to raise $25,000 with the shows, but ticket sales alone generated close to $250,000. Furthermore, through the triple-disc release of The Concert for Bangladesh, it has ended up gifting the charitable organisation with millions of dollars, that have been valuably spent aiding the unfortunate.
Harrison once said of The Concert for Bangladesh: “The musicians were great. I mean they completely put down their own egos to play together and to do something because the whole vibe of that concert was that it was something bigger than the lot of us.”
Meanwhile, Shankar once remembered the conversation between the pair that led to the creation of the two Madison Square Garden shows: “I was in a very sad mood, having read all this news, and I said, ‘George, this is the situation, I know it doesn’t concern you, I know you can’t possibly identify.’ But while I talked to George he was very deeply moved… and he said, ‘Yes, I think I’ll be able to do something.’”
In 1992, Harrison stated that The Concert for Bangladesh was a direct result “of my relationship with Ravi”. He explained, “I said, ‘If you want me to be involved, I think I’d better be really involved,’ so I started recruiting all these people.”
At the time of the concerts, Bangladesh was undergoing immense political turmoil which is still the case today, but few in the Western world were aware about the conflict. However, Harrison and Shankar not only raised millions of vital dollars, but they also put the Bangladesh situation on the radar of the masses.
In 2005, Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, founded the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, and all proceeds from streams will be directed to the charity.
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