Concert for Bangladesh

[LikaNui]

The 90-minute replay just ended on PBS. Anybody else watch it? (TutuSue is excused because the keiki hula was on at the same time.) Anybody else remember it from 1971?
George Harrison was awesome, of course. Ringo on drums, thankfully backed up by Jim Keltner on a second drumset. (He was Ringo's teacher, back in the day.) Jesse Ed Davis (R.I.P.) on guitar. (He taught Paul McCartney to play guitar.) A young Eric Clapton. Billy Preston (R.I.P.) on a classic old Hammond B-4 organ. Leon Russell on piano and his future ex wife Claudia Lennear as a backup singer. (He discovered her when she was a singing waitress at a coffeeshop called "Poppy's" at the corner of La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards; near the Troubadour club.) A young-looking but still whiny-voiced Bob Dylan. And Ravi Shankar, of course.
The original mega-benefit concert, predecessor to LiveAid, BandAid, FarmAid, We Are The World, et al. What a great stroll down memory lane! Hope you saw it.

[tutusue]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

Poop...missed it. I coulda taped it while working tonight. Double poop.
I watched keiki hula last night!

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

If you want to see it again you can rent it from Netflix or buy a copy on DVD from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. They released it for the 35th anniversary I believe. I caught it on VHS or beta circa 1986 or so when it was first released on home video.

KalihiBoy

[scrivener]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

I'm thirty-seven, so too young to remember the original showing, but I was sixteen when they showed it on MTV just before the LiveAid broadcast, and I was blown away. Just. Blown. Away. The performances were brilliant -- once in a lifetime brilliant, I say. Especially Bob Dylan.

When I was sixteen, I didn't have the patience for Ravi Shankar. I thought his wet was long and boring. That's still how I remember it, but I have a feeling I might find a lot more to enjoy about it now.

You know what else impressed me? The quality of the recording. I've seen Woodstock and I was disappointed in the production. Maybe I remember incorrectly, but I really liked the sound of the Bangladesh concert.

Plus, I'm totally a George guy.

[LikaNui]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

When I was sixteen, I didn't have the patience for Ravi Shankar. I thought his wet was long and boring. That's still how I remember it, but I have a feeling I might find a lot more to enjoy about it now.

Seventeen minutes, to be precise. (And I know you meant "set" and not "wet". ) Sitar music is certainly not mainstream here, but every guitar player has to admire the wickedly fast speed of his fingering technique.

You know what else impressed me? The quality of the recording. I've seen Woodstock and I was disappointed in the production. Maybe I remember incorrectly, but I really liked the sound of the Bangladesh concert.

Co-produced by Phil Spector, das why.

Tutu: keiki hula was on last night too. Don't know if it was a replay of Friday night or Part 2 of the event, but.

[tutusue]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

[...]Tutu: keiki hula was on last night too. Don't know if it was a replay of Friday night or Part 2 of the event, but.

My guess is it was a replay as awards were given out during Friday night's performance. Dunno know whether or not all the awards were given out, tho'. I missed a lot on tv last night. Triple poop!

[charlie7]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

Hello. I'm a new user... I just noticed your thread, looking for info re Claudia Lennear... Your post suggests you may know what happened to her... I used to see her backup singing for Leon's band on some PBS specials, and knew from the scuttlebut at the time she'd been around the LA music scene... So I went on a nostalgia trip, and ultimately came upon your site. I just finished watching the Bangladesh thing, too, it was a trip down memory lane... but...

Do you know whatever happened to Claudia?? My memory vaguely suggests she met an untimely death... If so, I don't remember the circumstances. Can you help?

Thanks.

Charlie7

[LikaNui]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

Do you know whatever happened to Claudia?? My memory vaguely suggests she met an untimely death... If so, I don't remember the circumstances. Can you help?

Sorry, but I don't know what happened to her. I did a quick Google search but there were over 800 sites, and I don't have the time. If you do find the answer, though, please let us know.
I looked at just a couple of the Google links, and was surprised to see that Claudia was (allegedly) the inspiration for Mick Jagger to write "Brown Sugar"!

[charlie7]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

Hi, Thanks for your response... I, too, spent a lot of time Googling Claudia, but no real information was available... although I saw SOMEWHERE, can't remember now, that someone had posted that she was a bank teller in Nashville... If that's true, I imagine at some point she saw people around (in the Sunset Strip days of the 70s) starting to die/flip out and decided to seek sanity in a straighter life style... big leap, that thought, though... she had a career on its way with a solo album and a Playboy spread... so I'm still very curious... People at that time seem mainly to have become addicted to the heady lifestyle and usually found a way of staying around the scene somehow... I've been mesmerized by the "Hollywood Hangover" website and have been unable to tear myself away... If you don't know the site already, be forewared, it's not something to surf if you're due at work shortly... (!)

Thanks and best regards,

Charlie7

[Erika Engle]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

Claudia was (allegedly) the inspiration for Mick Jagger to write "Brown Sugar"!

Funny ... this is probably one of those multi-faceted, "it could have been this, or it could have been that," things ... but I remember a TV spot for Pepsi with a bug (ant?) where the music was "Brown Sugar" by the Stones.
I only saw it once or twice, and then heard that Mick had said during an interview that he thought it was ridiculous for Pepsi to use the tune because it was written about/inspired by some heroin experience ... I never saw the spot again.
Wonder which is true? I suppose both could be true, actually.

[charlie7]

Re: Concert for Bangladesh

I've seen the same stories... but they didn't say "heroin 'experience'" was the catalyst, but rather that "brown sugar" is a nickname for heroin. A much more involved site's thread discussed, however, the song's being about slavery and sexual shenanigans taking place during the time of slavery in the US... So I read the lyrics, and I can't argue with that...

charlie7