Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends Page #3

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# I'll go see her again

# Nobody has to guess

# That baby can't be blessed

# Now she sees finally

# That she's like all the rest

# With her fog

# Amphetamine and her pearls

# She takes

# Just like a woman

# And she breaks

# Just like a woman

# And she wakes

# Just like a woman

# But she breaks just like a little girl... #

I was on tambourine and Bob did his couple of numbers.

And...you know, we just sort of... It was a jammy sort of way,

but we just sort of played, it was 4/4.

HE HUMS THE TUNE

Then we all went to the hotel, came back for the second show, and we came to Bob's set.

And so we all get down, ready to do it.

It was very weird, so I looked over at Leon...

"Oh, it's... It's a waltz this time, boys! Let's go!"

MUSIC:
"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"

# Oh, where have you been my blue-eyed son?

# Oh, where have you been my darling young one?

# I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains

# I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways

# I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

# I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

# I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

# It's a hard

# And it's a hard

# It's a hard

# And it's a hard

# It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

# Oh, what did you see my blue-eyed son?

# And what did you see my darling young one?

# I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

# I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

# I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'

# I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'

# I saw a white ladder all covered with water

# I saw 10,000 talkers whose tongues were all broken

# It's a hard

# It's a hard

# It's a hard

# It's a hard

# It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall... #

The Concert For Bangladesh came along at a moment

at which the rock'n'roll scene had been dispirited.

A number of things that happened that made you think maybe the life was going out of it.

Or it was kind of drifting. I mean, there were the prominent deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin,

which suggested the drug scene was too heavy.

Altamont had happened only 18 months earlier, I think.

Er...Bob had not put out a record in a long time.

So the kind of leading voices of rock'n'roll were still or quiet - it was a moment of drift.

And then to see something come along like this, which had such a purpose, a spirit,

and The Beatles had broken up and that was really depressing.

The collapse of the sixties philosophy

sort of seemed to be starting around that time.

It had a lot to do with... What I was going through was very indicative of that.

But it was only... From where I looked at it,

it was only towards the end of the sixties that hard drugs

got really involved in the music industry and the entertainment world.

So it seemed like that was killing the dream.

All sorts of things had been written about

what the music stands for at its best and its highest,

what the generation should stand for, you know - peace and love and all these things.

And here it was, in actual real truth and fact.

And, er...it couldn't have made you feel better

or more proud of...of music.

Friends...

We are trying to set the music to this special event,

this historical programme, which is just not a programme as usual,

but which has a message.

We are not trying to make any politics, we are artists,

but through our music, we would like you to feel the agony

and also the pain

and lot of sad happenings in Bangladesh

and also the refugees who have come to India.

Thank you very much.

The Indian instruments are very sensitive.

And with the strong lights, it does effect them.

'Sometimes, the strings were a little out of tune,

'so it took about a minute and a half or so to properly tune them.

'And after we finished tuning, we were silent,

- 'and there was tremendous clapping.'

- CROWD CHEERS

Thank you. Since you appreciate the tuning so much,

I hope you enjoy the playing more. Thank you.

Many of them, who were new to our music,

I suppose they thought that was an item.

STRINGS AND PERCUSSION PLAY

MUSIC STOPS, CROWD CHEERS

'It was such a unique thing.

'Everybody was so moved.

'But it had a special meaning apart from this performance.'

Overnight, everybody knew the name of Bangladesh all over the world,

because it came out in all the newspapers everywhere,

so it had a tremendous value, didn't it?

I think the awareness is maybe even more important than the money,

because again, even if we make 5 million,

it's still small compared to the size of the problem,

so it's more important to bring the awareness to a mass of people.

HE PLAYS THE GUITAR INTO TO: "Here Comes The Sun"

CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS

# Here comes the sun Doo-de Doo-doo

# Here comes the sun

# And I say it's all right

# Little darlin'

# It's been a long cold lonely winter

# Little darlin'

# It seems like years since it's been here

# Here comes the sun

# Here comes the sun

# And I say it's all right

# Little darlin'

# The smiles returning to their faces... #

'Well, they got the money from the concert.

'From the two shows, it was 250,000.

'I mean, just on the gate for Madison Square Garden, it beat Ravi's 20,000.'

What the Concert For Bangladesh did was to provide an additional infusion

of resources, so that UNICEF would be using those resources

to buy the food supplements and other equipment that was needed.

It also helped with some of the real pioneering work in treating cholera...

and oral rehydration solution -

sugar and salt with a little bit of potassium put into water.

You give that to child, and it dramatically increases their absorptive capacity.

# Sun, sun, sun Here it comes... #

It was a great thing that can be done.

And it was the first of its kind which set an example.

# Little darlin'

# I see the ice is slowly meltin'

# Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been clear

# Here come the sun Doo-de, doo-doo

# Here comes the sun

# It's all right

# Here come the sun Doo-de, doo-doo

# Here comes the sun

# It's all right

# It's all right. #

MUSIC STOPS, CROWD CHEERS

Bangladesh was important, and it was the first...

..huge show for charity with a mass ensemble.

And it showed that musicians can make a difference if they work together.

And before that, it had always been everybody on their own.

Everybody would come out, do their set, then go off,

but to see guys working together really made a statement.

MUSIC:
"My Sweet Lord"

CROWD CHEERS:

Hare Krishna.

# My sweet Lord

# Hm, my Lord... #

Since then, there have been hundreds of special programmes

raising funds for different calamities happening in different places of the world.

All the musicians, they got an inspiration -

an idea from the Bangladesh concert.

It was an immense success artistically,

and I'll use the word spiritually,

because he decided

he would use this great ability he had for another reason.

# Really want to go with you

# Really want to show, you Lord

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