Immigration files on George Harrison and The Concert for Bangladesh
Immigration Professor Michael A. Olivas, whose radio show The Law of Rock and Roll is syndicated nationally, shares this huicy rock and roll and immigration crossover tidbit:
USCIS has helpfully posted the A-file of the late George Harrison, as he was petitioning to be allowed to perform in the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. As we all know, his fellow Beatle John Lennon had his own famous interaction with the then-INS, featured in books and a movie about the case, but this is a lower-watt matter, allowing George to be admitted despite a misdemeanor drug bust in the UK. His request was “To permit me to appear on television shows in connection with the promotion of· a charity drive for the relief of children living in Bangla Desh.”
The Concert was among the very first multi-star concerts with a humanitarian and political fundraising goal, and the record is a classic, starring Ravi Shankar, fellow former-Beatle Ringo Starr, Dylan, Leon Russell, Eric Clayton, Billy Preston, and many others. The documentary was also very successful, and contained many of the songs from George’s towering first post-Beatle record, “All Things Must Pass.”
Here is the entire Concert for Bangladesh.
KJ