Rock Concerts The Greatest Of All Time

The history of rock concerts abounds with great and hyperbolic performances – performances that remain etched in the collective memory of society, even generations after they have taken place. Long after these rock concerts were staged, the musicians and their contributions have become part of musical and indeed, social folklore.

The Great Rock Concerts

One of these great rock concerts is the performance of The Beatles at Shea Stadium. This performance took place in Shea Stadium in New York City in 1965. The performance followed the release of Help! and was preceded by a frenzied welcome for the Fab Four at JFK Airport. The concert itself was a huge success, with the audience so excited that The Beatles could barely hear themselves. The high point of the rock concert was The Beatles’ entrance in an armored van and John Lennon’s performance of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Another of the very famous rock concerts was Woodstock. But Woodstock itself was too large and momentous an event to be discussed at once. One performance of note in this rock concert was that of Jimi Hendrix. One of the finest moments of the rock concert that was Woodstock was Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “Star Spangled Banner”.  The song went on to become the anthem of an entire generation of youth, protesting against war and crusading for civil rights.

No discussion of rock concerts is complete without the mention of The Wall shows staged by the inimitable Pink Floyd. Staged in 2005, the rock concerts took performances to a new level, with a new technical expertise and cooperation between concert crew, engineers, lighting technicians, computer experts and of course, the musicians themselves. The rock concert involved a great many special visual effects, such as a huge teacher puppet and the most impressive of all, the explosion of a giant wall between the audience and the performers that happened in every show.

Famous Rock Concerts

One completely iconic rock concert that in fact, has its name etched permanently in the history of rock concerts is George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. The concert had initially been planned as a small scale fundraiser, drawing attention to the political situation in the country. Soon, the Concert for Bangladesh blew up into a rock concert of huge dimensions and became one of the largest fundraisers of all time. The musicians who performed on the show included Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton and of course, George Harrison himself. The finest moment in the rock concert was the rendition of “While my Guitar Gently Weeps”. Other memorable moments in the concert were a sitar recital by Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” and Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”.

While the list of famous rock concerts is indeed very long, some other powerful rock concerts need to be mentioned here. They are the performance of the Rolling Stones in Wembley Arena in England, Simon and Garfunkel’s epic rock concert in Central Park, New York and Led Zeppelin’s Madison Square Trilogy.