Here Comes the Help: George and Bangladesh

In 1971 George Harrison reunited The Beatles. Or, at least he tried to.

Harrison, whom biographer Phillip Norman called “The Reluctant Beatle,” did not attempt a reunion for his own pleasure. He was at peace with ending his Fab days, but he wanted to help his friend Ravi Shankar. The Concert for Bangladesh was Harrison’s plan to raise funds for Shankar’s war-torn country, and what better way to do that than to have The Beatles perform a charity performance.

He organized two benefit shows at Madison Square Garden with the goal of generating funds via tickets, and later through an album and a film. He would sing Beatles songs with his former bandmates if required. Help was what mattered, and Harrison wanted to do “good.”

Doing “good” and what is “good” is often difficult to evaluate or make sense of. Is it good for the receiver or the giver, or both? How does one measure the results? There are no easy answers to these questions. It’s difficult to have a consensus about what the best way is to provide aid or be a “do-gooder.” George was put to the test with his noble, humanitarian impulse.

Harrison was doing well in the early 1970s. Freed from the constraints of being a Beatle with the bestselling All Things Must Pass and a number one single, “My Sweet Lord,” things were going his way. His friend Ravi Shankar, however, was in serious pain. Shankar’s friends and family were suffering in Bangladesh. George asked if he could help. This led to the Concert for Bangladesh. It was a giant success.

The album won a Grammy, and the concert tickets generated immediate cash, and arrangements were set up to make millions more with album and film sales. However, getting all of this in place and distributing the funds was an excruciating ordeal.

George’s first struggle was with his close friends and business associates. Ringo agreed to help, but John and Paul refused. His manager, Allen Klein, helped — but eventually helped himself a little too much, getting in trouble for misappropriating those charitable funds.

When George wasn’t minding his associates, other friends, like Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, were not being cooperative. They didn’t want to fully commit, and George was worried about playing a packed Madison Square Garden without them. He eventually persuaded them to appear.

Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Klaus Voorman, Jim Keltner, and members of Badfinger all played brilliantly, and George managed to pull together two amazing shows. After the final concert, which raised over 250K, and sales of albums and film distribution started pouring in, that was when the real struggle began.

George was given the frustrating news that the funds could not be sent to Bangladesh because the appropriate forms for tax-exempt status weren’t filled out. A serious tax issue developed, and the money could not be given to the sick and starving people of Bangladesh. How could this be? The superstar musicians had played for free, the concerts sold out, the album and film were generating money, but nothing was going to Bangladesh.

In the end, the US funds were eventually released. George had to personally write a check to pay the UK taxes, and then those funds were distributed. Eventually, Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh raised over ten million dollars. Today, funding continues through the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.

But oh, the hoops required to perform a simple act of kindness.

-Vincent Maganzini

Photo: Getty