George Harrison And Friends The Concert For Bangladesh
Cover for the 2005 remastered release The Concert for Bangladesh – originally titled The Concert for Bangla Desh – is a by and celebrity friends, released on in December 1971 in America and January 1972 in Britain. The album followed the two, held on 1 August 1971 at New York's, featuring Harrison, and. The shows were a pioneering charity event, in aid of the homeless refugees of the, and set the model for future multi-artist rock benefits such as (1985) and (2001). Co-produced by and featuring the latter's signature in a live setting, the fundraiser album was delayed for three months due to protracted negotiations between Harrison and two record companies keen to protect their business interests, and. Besides the main performers, the musicians and singers on the recording include, and.
The box set's original packaging included a 64-page book containing photos from the concerts; the album cover, designed by, consisted of an image of a malnourished child sitting beside an empty food bowl. On release, The Concert for Bangladesh was a major critical and commercial success, topping albums charts around the world, and went on to win the in March 1973. Together with the 1972 directed by, the album gained its largest Western audience up until that time. The album was reissued in 2005, in remastered form, featuring a new cover.
Among the many words of acclaim that have been written about The Concert for Bangladesh since its release, author Tom Moon describes it as an album to play 'whenever your faith in the power of music begins to wane'. Sales of The Concert for Bangladesh continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for, which raised $1.2 million for children in the, in a 2011 campaign marking the album's 40th anniversary. That whole show was a stroke of luck. I'd rehearsed some with Ringo, the horn players and the guys from Badfinger, but it was all happening so fast it's amazing we managed to get anything on tape for a live album. – George Harrison to magazine, November 1987 While in Los Angeles in June 1971, and after being made aware of the gravity of the situation in what was then known as by friend and musician, set about organising two fundraising concerts at, New York, to aid the and country.
In the middle of these hurried preparations, he composed the song ' in order to call further attention to the ' cause, and rush-released it as a four days before the shows. Riding high with the recent success of his triple album, Harrison then headlined the all-star benefit concerts, backed by a 24-piece band of musicians and singers, on Sunday, 1 August 1971.
Equally notable were appearances by fellow ex- and, both of whom, like Harrison, had been mostly unavailable to concert audiences for several years. In Dylan's case, it was his first appearance on a major US concert stage in five years, and his participation in the event had been uncertain until he walked on for his segment midway through the afternoon show. The concerts were highly successful in raising international awareness of the plight of the refugees – thought to number up to 10 million – and a for over US$243,000 was soon sent to UNICEF for relief.
Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for The Concert for Bangladesh [DVD] - George Harrison on AllMusic - 2005 - The film made of the. Read the full story behind the The Concert for Bangladesh album in. OF GEORGE HARRISON, WITH A SPECIAL REISSUE OF CONCERT. Friends; George Harrison.
The media lavished praise on Harrison as an ambassador for rock altruism and hailed the event as proof that 'the spirit of the Sixties was still flickering', as magazine put it. With concert recording having been carried out at Madison Square Garden by, using the 's mobile unit, Harrison intended to raise significantly more money via a live album of the event, to be issued on the Beatles' label, followed by ' concert documentary, also to be titled.
Album preparation During his and Shankar's press conference in New York on 27 July, Harrison had stated that a live album might be ready for release within ten days of the shows. Although this estimate would turn out to be highly optimistic, the following year, in an effort to foil, succeeded in delivering a just eight days after his own, much-publicised Madison Square Garden shows. Harrison and co-producer began working on the Bangladesh recordings on 2 August, and work continued there at the Record Plant for around a week. Spector later talked of them spending 'six months' mixing what amounted to a total of four hours of music; in fact, the process took just over a month, as Harrison told talk-show host that November. In their book Eight Arms to Hold You, Chip Madinger and Mark Easter question the extent of Spector's involvement, citing Harrison's subsequent lauding of Kellgren's role in 'capturing the performances' on 1 August, as well as the fact that Spector was 'in and out of hospital' during this time, similar to his erratic attendance at the All Things Must Pass sessions in 1970. Concert recordings Speaking in 2011, Spector identified two issues that prolonged the live album's preparation, both of them reflective of the haste with which the concerts came together: 'It was chaos setting up at Madison Square Garden – we had three hours to the band, then the audience came in, and we didn't know how to mic the audience.'
And rather than a standard 'band', this was a full orchestra: two drummers (Ringo Starr and ), two keyboard players ( and ), six horn players (led by ), three electric guitarists (Harrison, and ), a trio of acoustic guitars to be 'felt but not heard' ('s, and ), the seven members of 's 'Soul Choir', together with bassist and a dedicated percussion player, of Badfinger. In his review of the Concert for Bangladesh film for, John Pidgeon described the scene as 'a roadie's nightmare of instruments, mikes, amps and speakers'. Before the Western portion of the concerts, there were the traditionally hard-to-record of Ravi Shankar and to amplify, together with 's and the drone-enhancing, played by – each offering natural musical tones so easily lost in the 'cavernous Garden'. An additional challenge for Kellgren had been the need to capture the dynamics of a well-paced show designed around professionally presented hit songs, rather than a loose superstar. Post-production.
See also: With ongoing friendships a priority, Harrison had promised the main participants that, should things turn out badly on 1 August, they could be excluded from any album or film release. According to Madinger and Easter, he took early mixes of the concert tapes to Dylan for the latter's approval. Of all the featured performers, only Leon Russell chose to intervene, necessitating a reworking of his '/' medley, which he apparently remixed himself. Post-production on the Madison Square Garden recordings was minimal, the known examples being Harrison's lead vocal on the of ', and a composite edit of his opening song, ', which was assembled from both the shows. In addition, it is possible that Shankar and Khan's 'Bangla Dhun' was severely edited down: Harrison later described their set as having lasted 45 minutes, yet the running time on the album is under 17 minutes and in the film just 15 minutes.
The final mix down of the recordings, for album and film use, was carried out in Los Angeles in September, by engineers Norman Kinney and Steve Mitchell. In their joint interview for the 2005 documentary, Kinney and Mitchell confirm that music from both the and performances was used for the concert film and live album; they also state that Spector repeatedly instructed them to increase the volume of the audience in the mixes, in a search for more 'feel of the room' in the end result. The second show was preferred when it came to selecting the best concert audio.
The exceptions are as follows: 'Wah-Wah', which starts off with the evening version but cuts to the matinee at 2:53; Harrison's band introduction and 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', both sourced from the first show; and Russell's medley, which is also from the matinee on the album, but in the concert film, the audio cuts to the evening show during 'Youngblood'. Harrison's geniality as a host was well represented on the recordings.
As with Shankar's pre-'Bangla Dhun' address, Harrison's band introductions, complete with Russell and Voormann breaking into ' when Starr's name is mentioned, and his other on-stage dialogue – particularly the concert-sealing 'Like to bring on a friend of us all. Mr Bob Dylan' – would become as integral to the legacy of the event as the music itself. Record company obstruction. Capitol Records' headquarters, in Hollywood, California On 23 August, press reports appeared citing 'legal problems' as the reason behind the delaying of the much-anticipated live album – problems that would turn out to be a disagreement between -owned (Apple's US distributor) and (Dylan's label) over who had a rightful claim to release the album. Columbia/CBS were eventually mollified with the granting of tape distribution rights in North America, and record and tape distribution in the rest of the world. Another stumbling block was Capitol's insistence that they receive monetary compensation, thought to be around $400,000, for what the company perceived to be vast production and distribution costs for the boxed three-record set. It was a position from which EMI chairman refused to budge, while Harrison was equally adamant that, since all the artists were providing their services for free and Apple was supplying the album packaging at no charge, the record company 'must give up something' also.
With the sound mix being completed in LA, Harrison spent most of September 1971 in New York working on the of the concert, before heading to London. There he attended the re-opening of on 30 September and produced new signing 's debut single, as well as enduring a fruitless meeting with the British 's financial secretary – the latter activity in an attempt to have the government waive its standard, and so keep the album affordable to record-buyers. Harrison returned to New York on 5 October and announced that the Bangladesh live album would be issued during the following month. At this time, with concert bootlegs now on the market, posters were placed in record shops bearing the slogan: 'Save a starving child. Don't buy a bootleg!'
This record should've been out a month ago really. And the problem is with our distributor Capitol Records. I mean, I'll just put it out with CBS and, you know, Bhaskar will have to sue me. raises fist Bhaskar Menon! – Harrison discussing the album's delay on The Dick Cavett Show, 23 November 1971 In the fourth week of November – well into the lucrative Christmas sales period and close to four months after the concerts – Harrison voiced his frustration at the stalemate with Capitol on 's late-night chat show,. Harrison was on the program to promote the documentary with Shankar, but after making a surprise guest performance with 's new band Wonderwheel, he launched into a complaint about his US record company's interference and threatened to take the whole album package to Columbia.
With the outburst attracting unfavourable attention in the press, where Capitol were viewed as 'profiteering on the backs of famine victims', the company eventually backed down and agreed to release the album on Harrison's terms. Of all the labels involved, only Columbia would make any money from The Concert for Bangladesh – 25 cents on every copy sold. Although none of these royalties went to the artist, Dylan and his record company were already benefiting from the exposure provided by the Bangladesh concerts, through the timely release of. Of the other featured artists at the Concert for Bangladesh, the careers of both Preston and Russell likewise prospered as a result of their participation, but their record companies imposed no such conditions on Apple and Capitol. In January 1972, 's remarked in his Concert for Bangladesh album review: 'Between them, Capitol and CBS have proved that, when it comes to awareness and enlightenment, the business is still several years behind the musicians.' Once the album had been granted a release date, Apple's financial terms ensured that as much money as possible would be raised from each copy sold, but that it would be difficult for retailers to profit financially.
Some retailers responded with 'shameless price gouging' on the three-record set, apparently at Capitol's recommendation. Following the protracted negotiations surrounding the live album's distribution, Harrison's disaffection with EMI/Capitol was a key factor behind his signing with A&M Records in January 1976.
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The Concert For Bangladesh Cd
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