The second date of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar’s 1974 North American tour took place at the Seattle Center Arena in Seattle, Washington, USA, on 4 November 1974.
The 30-date tour was to promote Harrison’s Dark Horse album and Dark Horse Records label, and took in 45 concerts in 26 cities. It was the first North American tour by a former Beatle, and Harrison’s first live performance since the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.
Harrison’s opening instrumental piece was beautiful: the fullest, finest explosion of rock ‘n’ roll that I think I have ever heard. Harrison’s voice was at best raspy. ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ developed into a hectic jam session that thundered through the audience. Tragically, Shankar’s beautiful music was wasted on a noisy minority of meatheads… George Harrison’s concert tour will be a successful, well-remembered entry in rock history.
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Harrison’s band included Billy Preston on vocals, keyboards, organ, and clavinet; Robben Ford on guitars and vocals; Tom Scott and Jim Horn on saxophone and flute; Chuck Findley on trumpet and flute; Willie Weeks on bass guitar; Andy Newmark on drums; Emil Richards on marimba and percussion; and Kumar Shankar on percussion and vocals. Jim Keltner joined the tour midway through on 27 November.
Ravi Shankar’s orchestra featured Shankar on sitar; Lakshmi Shankar on vocals and swarmandal; Alla Rakha on tabla; TV Gopalkrishnan on vocals, mridangam, and khanjira; Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansuri; Shivkumar Sharma on santoor and vocals; Kartick Kumar on sitar; Sultan Khan on sarangi; Gopal Krishan on vichitra veena and vocals; L Subramaniam on South Indian violin; Satyadev Pawar on North Indian violin; Rijram Desad on pakavaj, dholki, nagada, huduk, and duff; Kamalesh Maitra on tabla tarang, duggi tarang, and madal tarang; Harihar Rao on kartal, manjira, dholak, gubgubbi, and vocals; and Viji Shankar on tambura and vocals.
In Vancouver most of the audience were polite for Ravi Shankar and his 15-member troupe. A little itchy, maybe, and possibly thinking they’d rather be scoring a hot dog or hearing more Harrison, but – polite. It was in Seattle that Shankar and his orchestra finally broke through. The song was ‘Dispute And Violence’, introduced by Harrison with the note, ‘otherwise known as jazz.’Like many of Shankar’s pieces, ‘Dispute And Violence’ was a sometimes loose, sometimes tight fusion of various forms of Eastern and Western music — folk, classical and spiritual Indian; rock, jazz and even big-band swing. There was Indian scat-shouting, trilling and jabbering, representing dispute; squeaking reeds and flutes and a Don Ellis brass for measures of violence; and Andy Newmark’s drums, Emil Richards’s kitchenware percussion and Alla Rakha’s tabla setting a steady battle tempo. Shankar at the podium, arms flailing, index fingers dipping and pointing, took it all to a victorious, symphonic, last-stomp halt.
Rolling Stone, 19 December 1974
Concert setlist
- ‘Hari’s On Tour (Express)’
- ‘Something’
- ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
- ‘Will It Go Round In Circles’ (Billy Preston)
- ‘Sue Me, Sue You Blues’
- ‘Zoom Zoom Zoom’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘Jai Sri Kalij’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘Na Na Dahni’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘Cheparte’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘Anurag’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘Dispute And Violence’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘I Am Missing You’ (Ravi Shankar)
- ‘For You Blue’
- ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)’
- ‘Sound Stage Of Mind’
- ‘In My Life’
- ‘Tom Cat’ (Tom Scott and LA Express)
- ‘Māya Love’
- ‘Nothing From Nothing’ (Billy Preston)
- ‘Dark Horse’
- ‘Outa-Space’ (Billy Preston)
- ‘What Is Life’
- ‘My Sweet Lord’
Dark Horse Tour dates
- 2 November 1974: Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada
- 4 November 1974: Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle
- 6 November 1974: Cow Palace, Daly City
- 7 November 1974: Cow Palace, Daly City
- 8 November 1974: County Coliseum Arena, Oakland
- 10 November 1974: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach
- 11 November 1974: The Forum, Inglewood
- 12 November 1974: The Forum, Inglewood
- 14 November 1974: Tucson Community Center, Tucson
- 16 November 1974: Salt Palace, Salt Lake City
- 18 November 1974: Denver Coliseum, Denver
- 20 November 1974: St Louis Arena, St Louis
- 21 November 1974: Tulsa Assembly Center, Tulsa
- 22 November 1974: Convention Center, Fort Worth
- 24 November 1974: Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston
- 26 November 1974: LSU Assembly Center, Baton Rouge
- 27 November 1974: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis
- 28 November 1974: Omni Coliseum, Atlanta
- 30 November 1974: Chicago Stadium, Chicago
- 4 December 1974: Olympia Stadium, Detroit
- 6 December 1974: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto
- 8 December 1974: Forum, Montreal
- 10 December 1974: Boston Garden, Boston
- 11 December 1974: Providence Civic Center, Providence
- 13 December 1974: Capital Centre, Landover
- 15 December 1974: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale
- 16 December 1974: Spectrum, Philadelphia
- 17 December 1974: Spectrum, Philadelphia
- 19 December 1974: Madison Square Garden, New York City
- 20 December 1974: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Also on this day...
- 2023: Paul McCartney live: Heritage Bank Stadium, Gold Coast
- 2017: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: WinStar World Casino, Thackerville
- 2013: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Teatro Opera, Buenos Aires
- 2011: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Movistar Arena, Santiago
- 2009: Apple Corps announces USB drive containing The Beatles’ music
- 2009: EMI sues BlueBeat.com for selling Beatles downloads
- 2005: Paul McCartney live: Rose Garden, Portland
- 1975: Wings live: Apollo Stadium, Adelaide
- 1974: US single release: Junior’s Farm by Paul McCartney and Wings
- 1968: Yoko Ono is admitted to hospital
- 1966: NEMS leaves 13 Monmouth Street, London
- 1965: Recording: What Goes On, 12-Bar Original
- 1964: The Beatles live: Ritz Cinema, Luton
- 1964: Mixing: I’ll Follow The Sun, Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby, Rock And Roll Music, Words Of Love, Mr Moonlight, I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party, I’m A Loser, Baby’s In Black, No Reply, I Feel Fine
- 1964: UK EP release: Extracts From The Film A Hard Day’s Night
- 1963: The Beatles live: Royal Command Performance
- 1962: The Beatles live: Star-Club, Hamburg
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1960: The Beatles live: Kaiserkeller, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
I was a jr in high school. My 2 friends and I drove there in my dads vw bug. We ate our brownies when we arrived. Our spot for the concert was on the main floor, left of center. No seats- just sitting on the floor. I enjoyed the Indian music segment – at one point I could swear I levitated briefly. I recall George changing the lyrics to While My Guitar Gently Smiles. I was thrilled to finally see him in concert. He has always been my favorite. I cried for weeks when he died.
I passed up seeing Paul at the Kingdome years later. It would’ve been like watching ants. Oddly somehow I did end up seeing the Rolling Stones there – and I don’t even care for them.