And it was your world

The Concert for Bangladesh

(1972)

Oh, right: this was the time of All Things Must Pass, which in the original vinyl edition, which I stubbornly treated to as if it were a Beatles album, there was about one listenable side out of six (including a jam disc that even I couldn't listen to more than a few times). Fortunately, either George himself or the director chose mostly the good songs, and in the one exception, "Beware of Darkness," one verse's worth of Leon Russell spices it up nicely.

When Russell or Billy Preston or Ringo gets the spotlight, we're definitely in the B-zone, but then Dylan comes on for 5 terrific songs. I've never seen him live but have heard that he's mumbly and surly, but he was neither here--the adjective I'd choose would be godlike, and I mean that in a good way.

One annoying bit: that old fake encore after the musicians have left the stage before playing one song that everyone in the joint knows they're gonna hear, in this case the theme song for the whole gig.

One pleasant reminder: that Eric Clapton, the consummate team player, has the highest ratio of attention merited to attention demanded in the history of rock & roll, if not the history of music.