George Harrison – Thirty Three & 1/3

George's funkiest record. Perhaps not quite as strong as its follow-up, his 1979 self-titled album, but full of whimsy and conviction. This Song and What You Value rock with heart. Dear One is a beautiful, sadly overlooked hymn and meditation that captures the euphoria of spiritual connection. Look for the hilarious video clips accompanying This Song and Crackerbox Palace, the successful singles. From start to finish, there are other Harrison albums more consistent and sublime, but perhaps no other recording so neatly encapsulates both George's wit and his earnest spiritual yearning.

The album was highly anticipated, featuring the song Crackerbox Palace, a vailed reference to the sprawling estate on which George lived.  The estate had once been a nunnery, and was now the home to one of the notorious Beatles, and a student of eastern theology ... with all of the comings and goings at the estate, known as ‘Crackerbox Palace,’ it was highly regarded.

Up to this point, there were many who felt Harrison’s work lacked production quality, musicianship, and a central spark, despite having his precedent albums laced with a couple of catchy tunes. Fortunately, there would be a brief reprieve with the 1976 release of Thirty Three and 1/3, the first on Harrison’s new Dark Horse label. Unlike the scattered Extra Texture, this LP featured vastly improved audio fidelity and better songs, despite an eclectic assemblage of material. It also continued Harrison’s penchant for hiring top flight US sidemen to play on his solo records, such as saxman Tom Scott, bassist Willie Weeks, and keyboardists Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Richard Tee, and a young David Foster (yes, that David Foster, of multiple-Grammy Award fame). It was also recorded at George’s estate, Friar Park, and perhaps as a result, most of Thirty Three and 1/3 reflects a positive state of mind, finding Harrison hanging about in his home studio with great musicians coming and going and having a good time.

Although George had been experimenting with funkier American grooves for several years, the album kicks off with Willie Weeks’ hammering slap bass on "Woman Don’t You Cry for Me", a song that had been kicking around since Harrison’s 1969 tour with Delaney and Bonnie. What is immediately evident in this arrangement is how much George is channeling Eric Clapton’s famed “Tulsa Band” of the mid 1970’s and their unique sound, fusing blues, R&B, Bakersfield country, and New Orleans textures into one greasy gumbo. Harrison adds lazy but zesty blues slide licks on top of the beat, adding more to the overt Clapton connection. Indeed, it would be easy to imagine this same track on the 461 Ocean Boulevard or There’s One in Every Crowd albums.

This is where George throws in one of his typical curveballs, a spiritual ballad entitled "Dear One" with soaring church organ mixed with more of a carnival organ sound á la "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite". It’s a likable song, but oddly placed in the album sequence. "Beautiful Girl" is another keeper, a gentle pop song with heavenly overdubbed slide guitar solos … and while it’s not A-list Harrison material, it’s very good all the same.

This leads us to "This Song", one of the very best George Harrison singles of the era. A brisk pop rocker, its lyrics wryly alluded to his recent "My Sweet Lord" court case without being mean or preachy. Tom Scott lends a certain amount of barrelhouse, Saturday Night Lively-ness in his sax solo, while Monty Python’s Eric Idle jumps in with a humorous voiceover. Today, “This Song” sits nicely alongside of "Taxman" and "Piggies" as an example of Harrison’s best satire, and better still, it’s fitted over a catchy pop tune with a crackerjack arrangement. The song was a modest hit in the US and perhaps deserved better.

After a strong start, Harrison begins adding filler to bulk out Thirty Three and 1/3. An older track from the Beatles era, "See Yourself" finds George’s pointed cynicism misses the mark a decade later, while "It’s What You Value" offers more pop moralizing. His tribute to Smokey Robinson with "Pure Smokey" is a sincere nod to the West Coast soul & pop sound popularized at the time by the likes of Boz Scaggs. Alas, Harrison would revisit this blue-eyed soul sound down the road, much to his detriment.

One of the best songs on Thirty Three and 1/3 is buried towards the back of Side two, "Crackerbox Palace" an ode to the American comedian Lord Buckley. Much like "This Song," it’s sharp, crisply arranged pop of the sort Harrison could occasionally nail with far greater precision than McCartney and Lennon. Sadly, the rest of the album slips back into filler with the R&B dreck of "Learning How to Love You," more of George’s unfortunate experiments with soul, bringing Thirty Three and 1/3 to a vaguely unsatisfying close … and we all know that a song which ends an album badly, will reflect on the entire release.

Even on the strength of "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace" the album basically went nowhere on the charts.  While there were a few good numbers on the album, even with old time comrades like Billy Preston on Piano and Organ, Gary Wright on Keyboards, Tom Scott on Saxophone, the great Alvin Taylor on Drums, and the legendary Willie Weeds on Fender P Bass, it was not enough to save this album from being any more then mediocre at best ... and that’s a real shame because the work George had done on All Things Must was probably hands down the best work by any of the former Beatles on their own.  It’s not a necessary album to have in your collection, the best songs can easily be found on most compilations ... though George’s voice is fine, and the talents of the musician’s renditions is nothing short of first rate.  Personally I never got his whole spiritual thing, especially when it couldn’t even help him quit smoking cigarettes, not even to save his life ... so I guess the holy thing is just what you make of it.  It’s too bad the lads couldn’t ever get back together, though George’s work with Ringo certainly comes across as a lot of fun.  

And then there was the bit on Saturday Night Live, where George wanted his part of the check offered for showing up, but Loren Michaels actually wanted John and Paul ... who just happened to be watching the show at John's place, and actually debated going down.

Review by Jenell Kesler