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March 12, 2005
The Concert for Bangladesh
Among the old LPs that BP has recently copied to CDs is The Concert for Bangladesh. Listening to it has been something of a shock. We're accustomed to being old and are fairly comfortable with it (though I could do without the aches and pains, and I wish I could've recovered from the concussion a little more rapidly). We also have musical tastes that run the chronological spectrum from Bix Beiderbecke to Killers.
Still, The Concert for Bangladesh was a shock. I haven't listened to it for years and years. In its day, it was the epitome of cool. It was a benefit concert. Since then, Farm Aid, Live Aid, etc., have made benefit concerts mundane, but in 1971 it was a somewhat fresher concept. It was during George Harrison's earnest and intriguing collaboration with Ravi Shankar. The cognoscenti knew that it was Bob Dylan's first performance since his motorcycle accident. The Concert for Bangladesh was just cool.
And now, to my shock, it is an antiquarian relic. Listening to it for the first time in well over 20 years, I was stunned by how quaint it sounded. And that precipitated one of those Moments for me. They don't come often, which maybe means they're a bit harder on me when they do: The Concert for Bangladesh is old and quaint, and so am I. All that cool from 1971 is now just a little funny.
I got over it, and now I'm again enjoying the music. I played Shankar's long piece on continuous loop yesterday morning for a couple of hours, and it was pure pleasure. The morning is sunny, the snow is deep, and I think I'll go snowshoeing.
Posted by senioritis at March 12, 2005 07:25 AM