Badfinger & Bangladesh
by Tom Brennan

It was May, 1971. Badfinger had just had their first attempt at recording their new album which was rejected by George Harrison in April for allegedly sounding too Beatles-like. George Harrison had been brought in to replace Geoff Emerick as producer. In the first set of sessions that were booked at Abbey Road Studios, Badfinger & Harrison got as far as remaking two songs ("Suitcase" and "Name Of The Game") and recording two new songs ("Day After Day" and "I'd Die, Babe"). The sessions took place between May 30 and June 10, 1971. Harrison never completed final mixes.

While waiting for George to schedule the next set of sessions, Badfinger worked on new material at Clearwell Castle, a place they had just recently rented for more space to rehearse and record their demos. Finally, after George Harrison finished recording the song "Bangla Desh," they received a call on July 16th scheduling a meeting. Harrison told Badfinger, "I've got to help Ravi. I can't produce you any further." The band waited, and a few days later, they got a phone call from George telling them he would like them to play at the charity concert he was putting together.

Tom Evans, Pete Ham, Joey Molland during rehearsals

Badfinger had played acoustic guitars & percussion on the All Things Must Pass album and Tom & Pete had sung backing vocals on Ringo's single, "It Don't Come Easy," Badfinger were among the first artists that George invited to help him with the Concerts For Bangladesh, since they already knew much of the material that would be performed. Also invited was Leon Russell, who had been helping George out on the eventual Straight Up sessions, overdubbing a guitar "horn" part to the remake of "Suitcase" on June 7, and also overdubbing a piano part to "Day After Day" on June 8.

During the concerts on August 1st at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Mike Gibbins played tambourine, while the other three played acoustic guitars. In addition, George brought Pete Ham into the spotlight to assist him on acoustic guitar to play "Here Comes The Sun." Pete said in an interview, "George just said he wanted to keep it simple. He told me to use a capo on it and what changes were important. Then I went back to the hotel and listened to the Abbey Road tape. We never rehearsed it - no time!"

This showed how much George respected Pete as a guitarist, probably a result of all the hours working in the studio recording with Pete on the Straight Up album project and All Things Must Pass sessions had given George confidence he could pull this off. In fact, at early rehearsals in late July, Mike Gibbins recalled that Pete was singing "My Sweet Lord" with George.


Pete Ham, George Harrison at the evening concert

After Badfinger's return to London in August, Pete Ham was teased by Joey & Kathie Molland for being "the lucky one" chosen by George to help him play "Here Comes The Sun." As a result of this, Pete's one-time girlfriend, Beverley Ellis said that Pete let out his frustrations through writing the song "Take It All." Badfinger recorded the song when sessions resumed for their Straight Up album in late September with Todd Rundgren taking over as producer, as George Harrison was busy elsewhere mixing & producing the live concert album & film with Phil Spector.

The first line of Ham's "Take It All" is the obvious reference to his acoustic guitar duet with Harrison ("In a way, the sun has shone on me..."). This can be interpreted in two ways. "The sun" meaning the song "Here Comes The Sun," or as a reference to Pete being in the spotlight with George having the light shining on him as opposed to when he was in the relative darkness onstage with Tom & Joey for the rest of the time during the concerts playing backing acoustic guitars which the audience could barely hear. Another significant line ("Any day, the sun will shine on you. Makes it silly to take it bad...") is a reference to Joey's jealousy for not being chosen by George to play with him.



All-in-all the Bangladesh Concerts were acknowledged by the band members as a great experience, though nerve-wracking. For Tom Evans, he was obviously starstruck by meeting Bob Dylan: "...before the gig, me and Pete were just having a blow on acoustic guitars in the dressing room, heads down, you know, going away there and another guitar joins in and it's Dylan playing along and it's like -- uuh, and I just froze, and he says, "No, carry on. It's good, you know."

As Pete Ham once said, when asked about the duet spot in a taped interview: "Can you record shaking?" But Harrison had all the confidence in the world in Pete, as Mike Gibbins once stated: "George thought he was superb. I mean George wouldn't have said, 'Come and do "Here Comes The Sun" with me,' if he didn't think he was good; I mean he was GOOD."

sources: "Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger" book, Dan Matovina, Concert For Bangladesh DVDs (2005), Glenn A. Baker.

August, the MONTH OF GIVING...
Now on iTunes, you can purchase a download of the Concert for Bangladesh album (including the studio version of the song Bangla Desh). Please donate to help children affected by the famine in Africa. Just like George asked his friends Badfinger to help with the benefit concert, I’m asking Badfinger fans to help. Honor the memories of Pete Ham, Tom Evans & Mike Gibbins + help kids in Africa by texting FRIEND to 864233 to donate $10! Check out Concert for Bangladesh info now at http://bit.ly/4afriend

The Month of Giving Campaign has been raising much needed funds to support UNICEF’s emergency relief efforts in drought-affected Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti (known as the Horn of Africa). UNICEF is one of the very few international organizations delivering aid in Somalia, the epicenter of the crisis, and is the single largest provider of life-saving therapeutic food for children in the country. Because of your support, UNICEF has been able to provide children the basics they need to survive, including clean water, food, medicine, and vaccinations to prevent killer diseases like measles and polio that prey on malnourished children. Unfortunately, the situation is worsening and famine has now spread to five areas of southern Somalia. Tens of thousands of children are dying, and we must continue to bring immediate attention to this crisis. UNICEF has called this situation in the Horn of Africa “the most severe humanitarian emergency in the world.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T63sIphcC3E