The world was suffering Beatle withdrawal symptoms. Despite the fact that individual Beatles were coming out with solo albums like someone shelling peas, the magic had somehow gone. With the wonderful gesture of the Concert for Bangla Desh, George Harrison took a big step towards generating some substitute magic (having already gone some way towards that with the majestic All Things Must Pass album).
The Beatles had broken new ground in so many ways during their career, and now George chalked up another first - the first major all star multimedia benefit event.
And it didn't hurt that the music was pretty good, either.
Yes, it was a surprise to everyone that Dylan turned up and knocked out a short set (I'm not a great Dylan fan, so it didn't do a lot for me) but, to me, the highlight was hearing George doing a sprinkling of Beatles songs which sounded very unlike what I was used to (in those pre-bootleg, pre-Anthology days).
And, I understand, a splendid time was guaranteed for all.
The Beatles had broken new ground in so many ways during their career, and now George chalked up another first - the first major all star multimedia benefit event.
And it didn't hurt that the music was pretty good, either.
Yes, it was a surprise to everyone that Dylan turned up and knocked out a short set (I'm not a great Dylan fan, so it didn't do a lot for me) but, to me, the highlight was hearing George doing a sprinkling of Beatles songs which sounded very unlike what I was used to (in those pre-bootleg, pre-Anthology days).
And, I understand, a splendid time was guaranteed for all.