41 years ago today (8/1/71), I (Mark) attended the afternoon Concert For Bangla Desh Concert at Madison Square Garden in NYC. To this day it is still up there as one of the greatest concerts EVER! It became the blueprint for all future benefit concerts. And to think it was George Harrison who put it all together for his friend Ravi Shankar. The complete line up was not known, even to George, but both Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton did show up and the music blew us all away. Leaving the Garden at the end of the show, we were all mesmerized and amazed at what we had witnessed, to the point that the deluge awaiting us outside didn’t seem to bother anyone. I predicted it would win a Grammy for Album of the Year. Well, because of all the quarreling between Capitol and Columbia Records, it did not get released until December 20, 1971, making it eligible for 1972 not 1971. It did indeed win that Grammy, but had it been released more timely, it would not have won as Carole King’s Tapestry was clearly the album of the year. Timing is everything! So the brilliantly packaged three record set arrived at the Sam Goody Store I managed, in Paramus, NJ at 3PM that day to a store full of fans waiting for them. We couldn’t get them off the truck fast enough! We sold 256 copies that afternoon and evening and was the biggest one day total of an album sold in the 5 years I worked there!
The Original & Longest Running Beatles Celebration, Since 1974!