Concert for Bangladesh Beginning - Raising Awareness of Human Need

Anonymous - Special to Boatman News Service and Associated Content

It was less than a month after we celebrated about the 195th anniversary of our country's independence. It's August 1, 1971. We're at Madison Square Garden in New York to attend The Concert for Bangladesh. This was to be great rock entertainment with a serious purpose. Raise awareness of a humanitarian need and raise some money to help our fellow man. The page was turning.

My friend and I arrived early. We slipped past the crowds and cameras on our way in. Most of the performers were already in the house. Many were tuning up. Last minute sound checks. A lot of people back stage and in the dressing rooms and hallways. Getting ready for the show. She knew most everyone on a first name basis of course. She wanted to go around and say hello and I tagged along.

A few minutes before curtain we headed to our seats. I actually knew some of the people we were sitting with. Front rows, stage left, almost on stage. We joined our friends, and about twenty thousand others in waiting.

The Concert. In the beginning. House lights flashed and dimmed. The stage was set. It was time.

George Harrison introduces Ravi Shankar and his fellow musicians to us in the audience. They both are explaining Indian classical music we are about to hear. We were so ready. We applauded when they finished tuning their sitar and tabla. They played a moving fifteen minutes plus raga evoking both the beauty and the suffering in their homeland.

This was not merely an opening act by any means. This was the dawning of our new age. At least partially resulting from the world wide publicity of his relationship with George Harrison and The Beatles, Ravi Shankar's popularity and audience in the United States had expanded beyond the norm for sitar music. It defined transcendental.