Guide to British Music of the 1960s
December 2005
DVD Review
The Concert for Bangladesh
CD of the event
After the Ravi Shanker opener, the main band takes to the stage. Dressed all in white with a huge black beard, Harrison launched into Wah-Wah. This is swiftly followed by cheers for the hit My Sweet Lord. Despite its religious nature, this is a great song. The band contains some of the great names in music of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alongside the former Beatle are his previous bandmate Ringo Starr. Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and Beatles friend/former Manfred Mann bassist Klaus Voorman.
After Billy Preston's That's the Way God Planned It, the opening chords of You Know It Don't Come Easy provoke a cheer form the audience. Ringo Starr takes the lead for this track. This is one of the best tracks on the album and is a performance that could be said to be more confident that many of Ringo's Beatles vocal cameos.
The inclusion of Eric Clapton on guitar is a perfect excuse to play the White Album track While My Guitar Gently Weeps as Slowhand had played the guitar on the Beatles version. After Leon Russell taking the lead for Jumping Jack Flash, one of the evenings highlights is Harrison's Here Comes The Sun. The appearance of Bob Dylan may promise the later delights of the Travelling Willberries. His four tracks generate tremendous applause in Madison Square Garden. George Harrison is back in the spotlight for the final track Something and the encore of Bangladesh.
A second disc provides interviews, then and now, with some of the major artists featured such as Ringo Starr, Ravi Shanker, George Harrison and Leon Russell. Harrison points to something that is evident during the concert part of the film. This was four years after the Beatles had played their last public performance, Apple roof-top excepted, and Harrison does not appear comfortable when taking lead vocals. However, when he is a guitarist in the band he seems much happier.
The second disc also includes three tracks that were not in the film. Robert Johnson's Come in My Kitchen features Russell in vocals while two Bob Dylan tracks are If Not For You, where he shares vocals with Harrison, and Love Minus Zero/No Limit. These tracks are taken from the rehearsal, soundcheck and afternoon show.
This is an excellent concert DVD featuring some of the greatest artists of the time. It is historic as it was the first time a major concert had been staged for a cause but it was also the return of George Harrison to the stage, a place where he was too infrequently during his solo years.
Track listing:
Disc One
- Introduction by George Harrison and Ravi Shanker
- Ravi Shanker - Bangla Dhun
- George Harrison - Wah-Wah
- George Harrison - My Sweet Lord
- George Harrison - Awaiting on You All
- Billy Preston - That's The Way God Planned It
- Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy
- George Harrison/Leon Russell - Beware of Darkness
- Band Introduction
- George Harrison - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Leon Russell - Medley: Jumping Jack Flash/Young Blood
- George Harrison - Here Comes The Sun
- Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
- Bob Dylan - It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Lot To Cry
- Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind
- Bob Dylan - Just Like a Woman
- George Harrison - Something
- George Harrison - Bangladesh
Disc Two
- Documentary - The Concert for Bangladesh revisited with George Harrison and friends
- Previously unseen footage from rehearsals, sound check and afternoon show: If Not For You, Come on in My Kitchen, Love Minus Zero/No Limit
- Mini features: The making of the film, the making of the album, the original artwork, recollections of 1 August 1971, take a bow