The Concert for Bangladesh

Above: Klaus Voormann, George Harrison and Jesse Ed Davis
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Above: Billy Preston and George Harrison
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Above: One of Flickhead’s most profound lust issues of the ‘70s, singer Claudia Lennear (orange blouse). The Rolling Stones song “Brown Sugar” was written about her, the David Bowie song “Lady Grinning Soul” was written about her, and she appeared in Playboy. All before my stunned and ravenous eyes.

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Above: Leon Russell, a significant influence on my own style of piano playing.
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It’s been nearly thirty years since I last saw The Concert for Bangladesh (1972) on the big screen. After its initial run, the film became a common and popular attraction on the midnight show circuit. How many times I watched it in 35mm and 70mm is anyone’s guess. But as video put the squeeze on things in the early ‘80s, those midnight shows became a memory, and the film and I parted ways.

    Seeing it now on a brand new DVD edition, the flaws that were once obscured by a clouded mind in theatres thick with marijuana smoke (Flickhead used to frequent only the most accommodating venues) are now patently visible. The image is grainy, several of the songs feel rushed, the concert seems much shorter than it should be. Which brings us to the part where objectivity goes out the window.

    Held at New York’s Madison Square Garden in August 1971, the concert was a fundraiser organized by George Harrison. His ‘back-up band’ included Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan. If younger readers of this blog are barely cognizant of those names, they’d probably draw a blank on Klaus Voormann, Carl Radle, Jesse Ed Davis, and Jim Keltner.

    At the time, however, these were the crème de la crème of studio musicians. Drifting freely from album to album, studio to studio, star performer to star performer, you could hear virtually any combination of them on just about anyone’s recording. It happened after the breakup of The Beatles, when orderliness became a joke; by the end of the decade, their kind would dissolve in the war between commercial pop and punk.

    After The Beatles, Harrison made the excellent All Things Must Pass, a three-album set. He was poised to become the ex-Beatle most likely to succeed. Concert for Bangladesh draws on several of its songs, notably “Wah-Wah” and “Beware of Darkness,” sharing vocals with Russell on the latter. I was a big Leon Russell fan at the time, believing his high-energy medley of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Youngblood” to be the movie’s centerpiece. It holds up remarkably well, a grand composite of rock, gospel and guttural sexuality.

    I had a lump in my throat and got teary-eyed when Billy Preston performed “That’s the Way God Planned It”. Regardless of the present climate of conservative Christianity that’s been a nagging concern in newspapers and magazines, I doubt if contemporary popular music shares such strong ties to spirituality as demonstrated on that stage thirty-five years ago — by artists once regarded as heathens by the mainstream, no less. Preston, Russell, Dylan and Harrison sang of faith and healing, of holiness and love. Deliberately void of glamour, they offered a comprehension and appreciation for the existence of something greater than themselves. Preceded by Ravi Shankar (whose introductory set, “Bangla Dhun”, dances on air), the spirituality becomes manifest.

    The keyword, though, is repeated in Preston’s lyric: humble. An intentional demeanor locked squarely in faith, it abandons self will, and liberates with humility, a state of grace. Although they’re quick to announce their Christianity, I haven’t seen or heard such words or actions out of the corporate-minded conservative right presently taking charge, and I doubt I ever will. But they can set an example for others to do differently, if that’s the way God planned it.

Buy the DVD from Amazon


Buy the CD from Amazon

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Jesse Ed Davis

Klaus Voormann

Carl Radle

George Harrison

Ravi Shankar

Eric Clapton

Jim Keltner

Billy Preston

Leon Russell