It’s amazing what is out there on the internet for materials to blog about…in registering my blog with various search engines, I came across an interesting post on the Concert for Bangladesh from The Third World View. Although I was well aware of George Harrison’s roll in the concert, I didn’t know much about the context surrounding the concert:
The US government was against the Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971. They were allies of Pakistan and even sent the 7th fleet to intimidate India for not interfering with the events.
But it was the peace loving people of US who created the forum “Americans for Bangladesh” and arranged a poetry recital program on 20th November 1971 in Saint George Church, New York. Among the poets who performed were Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovski, Ed Sanders etc. Ginsberg wrote and recited the famous poem “September on Jessore Road.”
But the greatest effort was the “Concert for Bangladesh“. George Harrison of the Beatles with the help of Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Allen Klein and Joan Baez arranged the phenomenal fund raising event in 1st of August 1971 in Madison Square Garden, New York. Some 40,000 peoples attended and $243,418.50 was collected from the event and was given to Unicef for the war affected children of Bangladesh. An album was produced (of 3 LPs) which is available here.
The artists of the concert and album were:
* Bob Dylan
* George Harrison
* Ravi Shankar
* Ustad allarakha
* Ringo Star
* Eric Clapton
* Billy & Don Preston
* Leon Russell
The lyrics can be found here. Some of the lines from George Harrisons’ Bangla Desh:
My friend came to me, with sadness in his eyes
He told me that he wanted help
Before his country dies
Although I couldn’t feel the pain, I knew I had to try
Now I’m asking all of you
To help us save some lives
Bangla Desh, Bangla Desh
Where so many people are dying fast
And it sure looks like a mess
I’ve never seen such distress
Now won’t you lend your hand and understand
Relieve the people of Bangla Desh.
Bangla Desh, Bangla Desh
Now it may seem so far from where we all are
It’s something we can’t neglect
It’s something I can’t neglect
Now won’t you give some bread to get the starving fed
We’ve got to relieve Bangla Desh
Relieve the people of Bangla Desh
I think it is more appropriate to say Ravi Shankar and friends. It was he who wanted to help his people. It was his brainchild and he asked for George to help. We all know that George helped him but it hurts us Bengalis that he is given more credit for this.