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Summary: Before Ringo, there was George Harrison and his All-Star Band
Comment: This 1971 album was the first of the all-star benefit albums. And arguably the best. In a nut shell, George Harrison, fresh off his success with "All Things Must Pass" raised his profile even further when he joined with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar for 2 benefit shows at Madison Square Garden. At the time, Bangladesh was ½ a world away and largely unknown and forgotten by Americans and the rest of the world for that matter. Plus it had been born out of a war between religions and torn apart even further by devastating floods. George's idea was simple; gather as many musician friends as he could for a concert and maybe raise some money to aid the citizens of the emerging nation of Bangladesh. But even with his high profile, George was uncertain the shows would even be sellouts, billing it only as "George Harrison & Friends". Other than a few gigs as a sideman, he hadn't performed live since the final Beatles tour in 1966. And never as a solo act. Everyone here was established stars whose careers got a boost as a result of the shows. Harrison wisely lets Shankar open the show with a set of Indian sitar music that receives a warm response from the crowd, before kicking off his own set with "Wah-Wah" from ATMP. Eric Clapton was still in the midst of his heroin addiction, but kept himself together for this show to recreate "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with George onstage (although in his memoirs, he regretfully admits that the haze of drugs fogged whatever memories he has of the show). Ringo Starr contributes a rousing version of "It Don't Come Easy", complete with lyric flubs. Bob Dylan was the big surprise here, it was questionable weather or not he'd show up at all. Like Harrison, he'd largely retreated from live performances (the last being at the Isle of Wight Festival the year before). Here, he does a 5 song acoustic set with help from George and Leon Russell (an extra Dylan song is included as a bonus track). We can only imagine (sorry, Mr. Lennon!) what George could've been as a solo performer live. For his own songs, he performs here with a great ease, especially on the delicate rendition of "Here Comes the Sun". But other than a disastrous 1974 tour, he rarely ever performed live again except in situations like this where he could fade into the background if he chose and let others like Dylan, Billy Preston or Ringo bask in the spotlight. The context of this show certainly forced him to give his all.
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Summary: a great improvement over the vinyl box set
Comment: Besides the upgraded sound, the great thing about this cd edition is that all the music fits on two discs. The vinyl version averabed about fifteen minutes of music on a side, so you had to keep changing records to hear it. If I remember, the final side of vinyl was only two songs. Maybe ten minutes of music?
George Harrison is OUTSTANDING on this album. When he performs "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," you get the closest thing there is to a live Beatles performance at the end of their career, because with Eric Clapton present you have 3 of the five musicians who play on the White Album version. The Bob Dylan material is a wonderful acoustic performance.
The only negative is that the vinyl box set gave you a big book of photos, and here you have the little tiny booklet.
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Summary: Holy shnike, what a concert
Comment: This is right up there with 'The Last Waltz,' Joe Cocker's 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' and the Dead closing the Winterland in '78 in my pantheon of concert DVDs, and it might be better than all of them. Two drummers are always better than one, even if one of those drummers IS Ringo Starr, rocking the freakiest beard I've ever seen (I'm actually reviewing the DVD, but it's the same songs, soooo...).
But the setlist just rocks all to hell. It kicks into high gear with "Wah Wah," as Harrison and Clapton peel licks off one another and the beat bangs out. Leon Russell, if I'm not mistaken, assembled most of this band as well as Cocker's slapdash group, and I think a lot of the same musicians are here as well (Badfinger, "the Space Choir," Leon himself).
The appearance of Bob Dylan doing a three-song set is icing on the cake, but the true showstopper is a "Jumping Jack Flash > Young Blood > Jumping Jack Flash" medley, sung by Russell, that plain and simple knocks the Rolling Stones' version out of the park. A slick little riff after the chorus and the double-drum drive propels it beyond a bluesy rocker and into the stratosphere. I can seriously watch/listen to it over and over and not get tired of it.
A great buy.
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Summary: Concert for Bangledessh
Comment: Wow dose this bring me back it is sad that George n friends are all but forgotten by most
This show was epic and a wonderful snapshot in time
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Summary: The power of music
Comment: Rock can always contribute to a gentle cause in a unique manner. Real good music. Excellent performances by the artists. Sensational late 60's -early 70's. Buy it and listen to it.
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