Episode 50 – Beatles ’71 pt4

With RAM sitting high atop the charts, It Don't Come Easy blaring across radios worldwide and the finishing touches being placed on the Imagine album, the summer months of 1971 were bustling with former Beatle activity. Though mocked for its perceived underperformance by George and John, Paul McCartney's second outing was a steady seller that leap-frogged early criticism and seemed to only improve with age, even to this very day. But while a success for Paul was welcome news in the McCartney camp, it was another former Beatle in the summer of '71 that would steal the show...by putting one on. The Concert for Bangladesh was conceived and executed by George Harrison after his friend and mentor Ravi Shankar expressed to George the plight of refugees from war-torn Bangladesh. George was moved by his friend's plea and hastily prepared what was, at the time, an unprecedented benefit concert that included the likes of Eric Clapton, Billy preston, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, Badfinger, Jesse Ed Davis, Klaus Voorhman and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, Bob Dylan. It was a charitable event that would go on to inspire an entire movement, from Live Aid to Farm Aid and many more in the decades beyond. The spotlight may have been uncomfortable for Harrison, but in the summer of 1971 it was blazing as brightly upon him as the star underneath, and George rose to the occasion.