George Harrison’s ‘Concert For Bangladesh’ live album arrives on streaming for first time
nme.comGeorge Harrison’s 1971 ‘Concert For Bangladesh’ live album, featuring Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and more, is set to arrive across streaming platforms for the first time.Held across two sold-out concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden back in August 1971, the concerts are considered to be the first major music benefit of its kind and saw the music icon assemble a star-studded event for a common humanitarian goal.Titled ‘The Concert For Bangladesh’, Harrison organised the shows in a bid to raise both awareness and funds for the 10 million East Pakistani refugees who had fled over the border into India, and were facing challenges including the threat of hunger and disease.Setting the precedent that music could be used to serve a higher cause, the MSG shows saw the former Beatle team up with Ravi Shankar, and invite Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell and Billy Preston to perform at the non-profit event.By the point they took to the stage, little public attention had been drawn to the crisis in East Pakistan/Bangladesh and few outside of the region were aware of how to help those affected.“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,” Harrison said at the time.
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