George Harrison and his spiritual mentor, Ravi Shankar, organized the Concert For Bangladesh to relieve the country from a couple of big messes.

First off, on Nov. 12, 1970, a devastating tropical storm, known as the 1970 Bhola Cyclone, struck East Pakistan (currently Bangladesh). Equivalent in strength to a category 3 hurricane, it flooded the Ganges Delta and was responsible for the loss of 500,000 people in the region, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters of modern times.

Secondly, the Bangladesh Liberation War, according to many reports, had resulted in three million deaths and widespread violation of human rights by the Pakistan Army. Many civilians were killed, raped and tortured, and their exact numbers to this day are not known, but the genocide tactics used by West Pakistan against the Bengali and Indians of the region has been considered by many historians as comparable to the atrocities of World War II.

Beginning in the summer of 1970, George and Ravi organized both an afternoon and evening concert with a large array of musical artists, including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and Badfinger. The event, held at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. The initial monies raised for the show came to $243,400 and some change, and to this day, the ongoing sales of the Concert for Bangladesh albums, CDs, DVDs, etc. continue to go to UNICEF (to benefit children in countries devastated by war).

This video clip features a rehearsal duet between Bob Dylan and George recorded at a soundcheck made on August 1, 1971, before one of the shows. If Not For You is a Dylan composition that was featured on his 1970 New Morning album and had also recently been covered by George on his triple album, All Things Must Pass, also from 1970. Bob had also co-wrote the opener for All Things Must Pass with George (a song called I’d Have You Anytime), and George had played on a few tracks from Bob’s recent Self Portrait sessions. As the two were working so well together, it was only natural to invite Bob to be a part of the event.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Concert for Bangladesh
– 2005 remaster DVD of the Concert for Bangladesh with bonus materials that include the If Not For You rehearsal seen here.

2) Concert for Bangladesh
– 2005 2-CD remaster of original 1971 album by George Harrison & Friends

3) All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION] – 2001 2-CD remaster of original 1970 album by George Harrison featuring his well-known cover version of If Not For You.

4) New Morning
– 2009 CD remaster of original 1970 album by Bob Dylan featuring original version of If Not For You.

5) The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991 – 3-CD set of rare and previously unreleased Bob Dylan tracks including If Not For You with George Harrison on slide guitar.

6) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. George Harrison – Bangla Desh Sixty-eight years ago today George Harrison, MBE, was born in...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – If Not For You (30th Anniversary Concert Celebration) Welcome to this week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week and...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Abandoned Love (George Harrison covers Dylan) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. Throughout the...

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. George Harrison’s live appearances in the aftermath of The Beatles were infrequent to say the least. Aside from a major 1974 tour of the United States and a 1991 tour of Japan with Eric Clapton, George’s live performances onstage were limited to special events or charities such as the Prince’s Trust Rock Gala in 1987 or the Concert For Bangla Desh in 1971. This week’s BROW features a sizzling performance by George from the last full concert in his lifetime.

On April 6, 1992, George held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party, a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The venue was the Royal Albert Hall, making this George’s first live performance in London since the famous rooftop concert by The Beatles in January 1969. Joining George on stage for his performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps was the late Gary Moore. Gary was a phenomenal blues and rock guitarist and had worked with greats such as B.B. King and Albert King. He was also a member of the 70′s rock band Thin Lizzy. He had worked with George before, and had even played the lead guitar solo on the Traveling Wilburys recording, She’s My Baby (check that out here if you like). Sadly, Gary passed away due to a heart attack this past February (2011).

Also joining George onstage for this Beatles White Album classic was a drummer, I’m sure you’ve heard of, by the name of Ringo Starr.

With a large focus on George now, perhaps due to the upcoming Martin Scorsese film on his life, I thought this was a good time to share this little piece of history with you. Enjoy…

George Harrison, circa 1992

Additional info: While this recording comes from George’s last full concert, he did make a subsequent appearance at Madison Square Gardens on October 16, 1992 at a tribute concert for Bob Dylan celebrating the 30 year point in Bob’s career. George performed the Dylan classics If Not For You (which you may listen to here) and Absolutely Sweet Marie (available on the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration CD set, linked to below).

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Prince’s Trust Rock Gala [VHS] – VHS (not out on DVD/Blu-Ray!) tape of June 1987 Pince’s Trust Rock Gala with many special musical guests, including George Harrison who performs The Beatles classics While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes The Sun.

2) 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration – 2-CD 1992 Bob Dylan tribute concert footage, starring George Harrison. George performs the Dylan composition Absolutely Sweet Marie.

3) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. George Harrison – Bangla Desh Sixty-eight years ago today George Harrison, MBE, was born in...
2. Here Comes The Sun – Live At Prince’s Trust Concert 1987 On June 5-6, 1987 George Harrison and Ringo Starr performed...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – If Not For You (30th Anniversary Concert Celebration) Welcome to this week’s Beatles Rarity Of The Week and...

The five piece supergroup, Traveling Wilburys, released their first CD, Volume One, in October of 1988, and two months later one member, the rock legend, Roy Orbison, died of a massive heart attack. This was just before a planned trip to London to make two music videos for the album. The surviving members carried on with a follow up album released in October 1990 with the title Volume Three. In case you’re wondering what happened to ‘Volume Two’, the name Volume Three was simply credited to “George (Harrison) being George.”

Inside Out followed the opening single for Volume Three which was titled She’s My Baby and featured lead vocals from Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Tom Petty. All were using their Wilbury pseudonyms, which were respectively Boo, Spike and Muddy. Jeff Lynne, as Clayton Wilbury, plays guitar and provides backing vocals while Jim Keltner, as Buster Sidebury, plays drums. For more on the history of the Traveling Wilburys check out this post and/or this post.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 – 2007 remastered edition of the original 1990 CD (with 2 bonus tracks), including Inside Out.

2) Traveling Wilburys (2 CD / 1 DVD) (See all Pop Music CDs) – 2007 2-CD/1-DVD expanded set containing both Volume One & Volume Three Traveling Wilbury CDs with added bonus tracks and a DVD that features a Wilbury documentary and 5 promo music videos (including Inside Out)

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

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3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Runaway (original mix) Welcome to the BROW. A couple of months ago when...

The Concert For Bangla Desh was held at New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971. It was a charity event to raise funds for relief to the refugees in East Pakistan (now Bangla Desh) after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and during the Bangla Desh 1971 atrocities and Bangla Desh Liberation War. The event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. Present for the show was it’s organizer, George Harrison, along with musicians Ravi Shankar, Leon Russell, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Jesse Ed Davis and Jim Keltner.

It’s great that Eric Clapton plays lead guitar on George’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps, just as he did on The Beatles White Album. With Ringo Starr on drums, it must have seemed very reminiscent of those 1968 sessions. The triple album highlighting the concert was released on Apple Records on December 20, 1971 and a film of the show was released later in 1972.

An interesting side note is that some of the crowd noise from the film was used in the Aerosmith recording of Train Kept A Rollin’ on their Get Your Wings album.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are a few links from Amazon to read about or purchase releases related to this post:

1) Concert for Bangla Desh – 2005 expanded remaster of original triple album featuring While My Guitar Gently Weeps

2) The Concert for Bangladesh (Limited Deluxe Edition) – 2005 restored DVD version of original Concert for Bangla Desh film featuring While My Guitar Gently Weeps (includes 5.1 mixes of all tracks)

3) Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison – 2009 remastered collection of George Harrison hits including the Concert for Bangla Desh version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps

4) More links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

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2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – George Harrison Live at the Royal Albert Hall, April 1992 Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. George Harrison’s...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Deep Blue (the “Bangla Desh” b-side) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Back on...

Although, I have featured the Traveling Wilburys a couple of times in the past on the site, this will be the first video feature with the super group. A BROW posted in December 2009 (accessible here) went over some background information on the band and goes on to feature a b-side to their She’s My Baby single, the subject of this week’s VOW. The group decided to put out another album after the death of legendary former bandmate, Roy Orbison and the album was titled Volume 3. She’s My Baby was the lead single for the release and has lead vocals from all four surviving members (Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan & George Harrison, in order of appearance). The exciting lead guitar solo was handled by Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore (not seen in the video) and the drums are played by old friend, Jim Keltner, who worked with George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr throughout the 70′s and 80′s. Jim also played on the other Traveling Wilburys album Volume One.

The aliases the Wilbury’s used for Volume 3 are as follows:

* Clayton Wilbury (Jeff Lynne) – acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards, lead & backing vocals
* Spike Wilbury (George Harrison) – acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, sitar, lead & backing vocals
* Boo Wilbury (Bob Dylan) – acoustic guitar, harmonica, lead & backing vocals
* Muddy Wilbury (Tom Petty) – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, lead & backing vocals
* Buster Sidebury (Jim Keltner) – drums

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are a few links from Amazon to read about or purchase releases related to this post:

1) The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 2007 remaster featuring She’s My Baby

2) Traveling Wilburys (2 CD / 1 DVD) – collection of their 2 studio CDs (Vol. 1 & Vol. 3, which contains She’s My Baby, along with bonus DVD of extras including the promo film featured here, remastered in 2007.

3) More links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Runaway (original mix) Welcome to the BROW. A couple of months ago when...
2. Inside Out (1990 Traveling Wilburys promo clip) The five piece supergroup, Traveling Wilburys, released their first CD,...
3. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – New Blue Moon (instrumental version) I’m going to break some ice with this week’s BROW....

Sixty-eight years ago today George Harrison, MBE, was born in Liverpool, UK, and went on to receive international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. So, yeah, we all know that. I don’t feel like I need to type up that George was such a great guy or why he was such a great guy because most that are here and reading this already know that. So whether you are into his flexible and innovative guitar playing with The Beatles, the element of mystique he added to the group’s image, his cheerful approach as one of the Traveling Wilburys, his enthusiasm toward various types of world aid (i.e Bangla Desh relief, Greenpeace, etc.), his humorous Handmade Films productions, his solo works, his enthusiasm with motor car racing, his looks, his books, his attitude, his style, or any combination of the above, or anything else you might love about him…just remember that today is a good day to reflect on how lucky we were to have him around with us for the time that we did. Let’s be thankful that his spirit in song lives on.

When Ravi Shankar told George about the starving refugees in his country during the Bangla Desh Liberation War, George was on fire to help out. The Concert For Bangla Desh he organized was actually two shows performed at Madison Square Gardens in New York on August 1, 1971. It drew 40,000 people, with all proceeds going to UNICEF. It is recognized as the first rock and roll charity event. Bangla Desh was the closing track from the famous benefit concert that also included Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Ravi Shankar and others. All artist royalties from the re-issued DVD & CD continue to go to UNICEF.

Click the image above to play the video. Note: I have included the closing credits so you can see the complete list of artist and contributors to this great concert.

Click to read about or purchase these related releases from Amazon.com:

1) Concert for Bangladesh – 2005 remaster of original 1971 triple album set on 2 CDs + 1 bonus track by Bob Dylan

2) Concert for Bangladesh – 2005 issued DVD of complete concert film

3) Best of – George Harrison 1976 hits compilation featuring Bangla Desh (1971 single version)

4) I, Me, Mine – a memoir of George Harrison originally published in 1980

Here’s more Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps – George Harrison (at the Concert for Bangla Desh, 1971) The Concert For Bangla Desh was held at New York’s...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Deep Blue (the “Bangla Desh” b-side) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Back on...
3. George Harrison & Bob Dylan – soundcheck rehearsal at Concert for Bangladesh George Harrison and his spiritual mentor, Ravi Shankar, organized the...

The Kennedy Center Honor is America’s most prestigious award for creative artists and today Paul McCartney travels to Washington to receive it. The Huffington Post has writes that in the 40 years since the breakup of The Beatles, Paul has developed into a Renaissance Man of our times. For the honors this weekend, Paul has asked Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler to re-imagine the final four songs from the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road (Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End, Her Majesty) and perform them at the ceremony. Steven has agreed to perform. The Kennedy Center Honor is given to those who have significantly contributed to U.S. culture and has previously been awarded to Bob Dylan.

Update: The awards ceremony will air on CBS Tuesday Dec. 28, 2010 (check local listings).

Paul McCartney, 2010

More information: Huffington Post article, Gigwise article

Here’s a few Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

No related posts.

Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week.

Throughout the 1960′s, The Beatles came to have a lot of respect for Bob Dylan. George Harrison worked with Bob on numerous occasions after the Beatles broke up, and also covered a few of his songs over the years. If Not For You on George’s triple album All Things Must Pass comes to mind, as well as the Concert for Bangla Desh or Absolutely Sweet Marie on the Bob Dylan tribute, 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration released in 1993. Of course, Bob and George also played together as part of The Traveling Wilburys on two albums in 1988 and 1990. Some time in late 1984, George went into the studio and laid down a couple of Bob Dylan tracks. One was called I Don’t Want To Do It and it went on to be used in the soundtrack to the 1985 comedy film Porky’s Revenge. Another Dylan cover he recorded around the same time called Abandoned Love has never been issued officially. Bob Dylan recorded Abandoned Love in 1975 to use on his Desire album. But he decided later to replace it with the song Joey. Bob wrote Abandoned Love during the time of his breakup with Sara Lownds (the subject of his well-known song Sara), and his version of the song was finally released on the 1985 compilation Biograph. George handles the song quite well, adding some gentle vocal harmonies and slide guitar embellishments to adorn it with his trademark sound.

George Harrison & Bob Dylan

This excellent BROW request was given to me by Mike Ray. Thanks Mike!

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Click on the links below to read about or purchase these related releases from Amazon:

1) Bob Dylan’s version of Abandoned Love on Biograph (3 CDs in Double Jewel Case).

2) George Harrison’s cover of Bob Dylan’s I Don’t Want To Do It on Porky’s Revenge Soundtrack.

3) George Harrison’s cover of Bob Dylan’s I Don’t Want To Do It on Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison.

4) George’s version of Dylan’s If Not For You plus I’d Have You Anytime (written by Dylan/Harrison and performed by George) is on All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION].

5) George and Bob played together on the Concert for Bangladesh.

6) Bob Dylan honored by host of stars including performances by George Harrison, Neil Young, Tom Petty and many, many others including Bob himself at the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration.

7) Bob Dylan’s Desire (Reissue) featuring the tracks Sara and Joey.

8) Traveling Wilburys (2 CD / 1 DVD) featuring great music by Bob, George, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty.

…and here’s more Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

Related posts:

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In 1997 George Harrison visited VH1 for a short chat with host John Fugelsang and was talked into performing a few songs on acoustic guitar while he was there. In his company were Ravi Shankar and his wife, Sukanya. George performs the Traveling Wilbury Vol. 3 tune If You Belonged To Me (sung on the album by Boo Wilbury aka Bob Dylan). Not included in the clip is his performance of All Things Must Pass, Any Road (later released on Brainwashed) and with Ravi Shankar, Prabhujee.

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Welcome to the BROW. A couple of months ago when I made a post about The Traveling Wilburys, the song I featured had no vocal, so I’ve decided to let you hear them sing this time. The lead vocals here are handled by Clayton Wilbury (i.e. Jeff Lynne), though you can hear, Spike, Muddy and Boo (i.e. George Harrison, Tom Petty & Bob Dylan) singing right along with him in the background of the chorus.

Runaway as you may know was a major international hit in 1961 by Del Shannon and written by him and keyboardist Max Crook. Back in June of 2007, a remixed version of this great cover by the Wilburys appeared as a bonus track on the Traveling Wilburys Collection CD/DVD set. It had never appeared on LP/CD, but the original mix appeared in the UK on the 12 inch vinyl single and CD single of She’s My Baby (no longer available), as a b-side, in November of 1990. It was never released in the US.

The remixed version on the newer CD has a new clavioline solo replacing the guitar/harmonica solo heard on the original. This was such a “full-circle” addition considering that Max Crook was actually the inventor of his own clavioline-based keyboard which he called a musitron back around 1960. The recording below illustrates how the 2 mixes differ and show you first, the original solo (also heard above), then, the remixed 2007 solo.

My personal copy of the 12 inch UK single She's My Baby by The Traveling Wilburys, released in 1990

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? Then let me hear from you. Read about more Beatles rarities and suggest one for me to post. You can begin by searching for different versions of specific tracks right here.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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2. Traveling Wilburys – She’s My Baby (1990 promo) Although, I have featured the Traveling Wilburys a couple of...
3. Inside Out (1990 Traveling Wilburys promo clip) The five piece supergroup, Traveling Wilburys, released their first CD,...