The shows were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to raise international awareness of, and fund relief for refugees from East Pakistan, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide and the 1970 Bhola cyclone.

The event was the first-ever benefit of such a magnitude,[2] and featured a supergroup of performers that included Harrison, fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger.

[9] East Pakistan had recently in 1970, endured devastation as a result of the Bhola cyclone, and the Bengalis' desperate plight increased in March that year when torrential rains and floods arrived in the region,[10] threatening a humanitarian disaster.

[11][12] Quoting figures available at the time, a Rolling Stone feature claimed that up to half a million Bengalis had been killed by the cyclone in November 1970 and that the Pakistani army's subsequent campaign of slaughter under Operation Searchlight accounted for at least 250,000 civilians, "by the most conservative estimates".

"[9] Appalled at the situation affecting his homeland and relatives,[10][11] Bengali musician Ravi Shankar first brought the issue to the attention of his friend George Harrison in the early months of 1971, over dinner at Friar Park, according to Klaus Voormann's recollection.

[12][24] By then, the Sunday Times in London had just published an influential article by Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, which exposed the full horror of the Bangladesh atrocities,[25][26] and a distraught Shankar approached Harrison for help in trying to alleviate the suffering.

[36][37] Almost all of Harrison's first-choice names signed on immediately,[29] while a day spent boating with Memphis musician Don Nix resulted in the latter agreeing to organise a group of backing singers.

[41] The song's opening verse documents Shankar's plea to Harrison for assistance,[42] and the lyrics "My friend came to me with sadness in his eyes / Told me that he wanted help before his country dies" provided an enduring image for what United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan later recognised as the basic human aspect behind the cause.

[9][nb 1] Also around the middle of July, the upcoming concert by "George Harrison and Friends" was announced "via a minuscule ad buried in the back pages of the New York Times", author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1977.

[9][55] A short intermission ensued while the stage was cleared and a Dutch TV film was shown,[91] displaying footage of the atrocities and natural tragedies taking place in former East Pakistan.

[7] To thunderous applause from the New York crowd,[93][94] Harrison appeared on stage along with his temporary band, comprising Ringo Starr, a very sick[17] Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner and eighteen others.

[95] Backed by this "full Phil Spector/All Things Must Pass rock orchestra",[96] Harrison began the Western portion of the concert with "Wah-Wah", followed by his Beatles hit song' "Something" and the gospel-rocker "Awaiting on You All".

[91] Harrison then handed the spotlight over to Preston, who performed his only sizeable hit (thus far), "That's the Way God Planned It",[97] followed by Starr, whose song "It Don't Come Easy" had recently established the drummer as a solo artist.

[114] Dylan likewise made some changes, swapping "Blowin' in the Wind" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh" in the order, and then playing a well-received "Mr. Tambourine Man" in place of "Love Minus Zero".

[112] The second show was widely acknowledged as superior to the afternoon performance,[28][115] although Village Voice reviewer Don Heckman noted that many in the audience reacted to the Shankar–Khan opening set with a lack of respect.

[116] Not aiding the Indian musicians was the failure of a microphone on Rakha's hand drums, Heckman observed, so denying the crowd a vital element of the musical interplay between sitar and sarod.

'"[78] Like Harrison, the experience of playing at Madison Square that day did not lead to Dylan immediately re-embracing the concert stage;[121] only a brief guest appearance with the Band on New Year's Eve 1971–72 and sitting in during a John Prine club gig eventuated before he returned to touring in January 1974.

"[132] Dylan's choice of songs, particularly the "apocalyptic" "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall",[114] were found to have a new relevance in the context of the early 1970s[133] – the words made "the more chilling for the passage of years", opined Rolling Stone.

[116] In the wider countercultural context of the time, with disillusion increasingly rife with each post-Woodstock rock event,[116][129] commentators viewed the concerts as, in the words of Rolling Stone, "a brief incandescent revival of all that was best about the Sixties".

"[138] According to Niaz Alam, writing in the Dhaka Tribune, "On artistic merit alone, as encapsulated in the film and LP, the Concert for Bangladesh perhaps holds up better than Woodstock in showcasing the best of its era in terms of music, optimism, and goodwill.

[140] Politically, as Bangladeshi historian Farida Majid would note, the "warmth, care and goodwill" of the August 1971 concerts "echoed all over the world",[74] inspiring volunteers to approach UNICEF and offer their assistance, as well as eliciting private donations to the Bangladesh disaster fund.

[2][5][54] Unlike those later concerts, which benefitted from continuous media coverage of the causes they supported, the Harrison–Shankar project was responsible for identifying the problem and establishing Bangladesh's plight in the minds of mainstream Western society.

[57] Titled "Goodbye to Summer – a rock concert in aid of famine relief of Bangla Desh",[139] it included performances by the Who, the Faces, Mott the Hoople, America, Lindisfarne and Quintessence.

"[155][nb 13] On 5 June 1972, in recognition of their "pioneering" fundraising efforts for the refugees of Bangladesh, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar and Allen Klein were jointly honoured by UNICEF with its "Child Is the Father of the Man" award.

[6] Around this time, according to music journalist Mikal Gilmore, Harrison gave Geldof "meticulous advice" to ensure that Live Aid's estimated £50 million found its way, as intended, to victims of the Ethiopian famine.

He added that, while this figured paled in comparison to ventures such as Live Aid, "you have to remember, that was at a time when nobody was really aware of this kind of benefit concert, certainly there hadn't been anything like that, and, of course, $13.5 million back then was probably much more than it's worth now.

[179] The July 1974 ("Dessert") issue of National Lampoon magazine satirised Tom Wilkes' original cover design for The Concert for Bangladesh, by using a chocolate version of the starving child, the head of which has had a bite taken out of it.

[181] In the sketch, two Bangladeshi stand-up comedians (played by Tony Hendra and Christopher Guest) perform to starving refugees in an attempt to collect a bowlful of rice so that "George Harrison" can mount a hunger strike.

[183] Some of stills photographer Barry Feinstein's shots from the 1971 concerts were used on the covers of subsequent albums by the participating artists, notably the compilations Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol.

[185] At the so-called Concert for Cascara, he, Starr, Clapton, Jon Lord and others make a surprise appearance on stage, supposedly before the United Nations General Assembly, performing the song "Freedom".