Customer Reviews

33 1/3

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I LOVE "33 1/3"-it's easily one of my two very favorite
George Harrison solo albums and I'm GLAD I've come across a
used CD copy.Why do I love it so much?It has fantastic songs,
great lyrics and some exciting soul and funk influences.The
opening "Woman Don't Cry For Me" is a bass and clavinet-led
funk number with a blues arrangment featuring the wonderful
Billy Preston's keyboard work.Two fantastic,Beatle-like pop
numbers like the joke-of-court-proceeding "This Song" and
the instant classic "Crackerbox Palace".Most stunning though
are the contemporary soft soul tributes first to Smokey Robinson
called "Pure Smokey" (perhapes Harrison wrote it for Smokey-it
does sound like him) and the tranquil and beautiful soul ballad
"Learning how To Love You",a great way to chose any album.In
between these tunes like "It's What You Value",Dear One" and
"Beautful Girl" are just the kind of clever toss-off's that
Harrison was knocking out at this point.Anyone who hears this
today will be very saddned he is no longer with us.

I bought 331/3 on vinyl when it came out. This was one of my favorite albums, but now it's discontinued on CD. What gives? Really would like it on CD but don't feel like breaking my piggy bank. Anyone know the story behind this one?
Anyways, if one could find this recording, I highly recommend it. Very enjoyable. "Crackerbox Palace" and "This Song" were the popular tracks but my favorite track is "It's What You Value". Kind of funky.

As with a lot of his catalogue, it's hard to fathom why this great album from 1976 is out of print. (you can even tell it's the bicentennial by looking closely at the goofy glasses he wears on the album's cover) One of George's best and most underrated albums, it features several solid songs and is great disc to just chill out and listen to.

The biggest hit off the disc is probably "Crackerbox Palace", but even that didn't get the airplay it deserved. Other very strong offerings are the opening track "Woman Don't Yu Cry For Me", the touching "Dear One", "Pure Smokey", and "Beautiful One". "33&1/3" is another fine example of George's magnificent guitarwork coupled to lyrics that are both witty and meaningful (and yes, sometimes even funny). I can't stress enough the quality of all the songs here, and many of them don't appear on any of the Harrison collections that are floating around.

All I can say is that I really hope that this album is rereleased in the near future, as well as a lot of his other back catalogue. It's a shame for fans everywhere that such great music is unavailable from a master tunesmith. Definitely one to pick up used if you can 1. find it, and 2. afford it. Highly reccomended to fans of the late great George Harrison.

It's a shame this record isn't available anymore. George Harrison had just few memorable discs and 33 1/3 was one of them, I'd say the other discs were: All Things Must Pass and Living in a Material World. Anyway, it's possible to get it used so if you can afford to pay the money they're asking for it, it would really worth. The songs featured in this disc are not available in any Harrison's collection. This disc is a must to any keen on Beatles' music.

I continue to be astonished as to why this album has never been released on CD. I have the vinyl edition from when it first came out (and even wrote a review for my high school newspaper back in the '70s). While Harrioson wrote greater songs on many of his albums, only two really rank above it as complete packages: "All Things Must Pass" and "Cloud Nine."
What stands out are the lyrics, especially the self depreciating and ironic "This Song." I could go on and on. I suggest fans be patient. Eventually the record company will see sense and reissue it. I hope. Eventually. Maybe one day ...

For some reason, I had it in my mind that this was not that good of a cd, so I recently listened to it again just to make sure I wasn't doing it an injustice. This cd is much better than I remember. I'm not a huge fan of Harrison's solo work, outside of the commercial successful pieces such as All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World, and Cloud Nine. In this regard, I guess you can call me a follower, but none of his other stuff really impressed me that much. In fact, most of his other things, in my opinion, are kind of bland. This one, for some reason, really stuck out the last time I put it in. It's not nearly as bad as I remember, and in fact, I'll even call it good. I kept waiting for a bad song, but never found one. Some of the songs get a little redundant soundwise, but it's still an impressive little collection of songs. I might just have to pull out his other cds I have and give them a listen. If you are expecting the depth of All Things Must Pass, look elsewhere; if you are looking for a slight collection of pretty catchy pop tunes, this is it.

Here's the deal--Harrison's contract for distribution with Warner Brothers had expired. He chose not to reup. Reportedly, 33 1/3 will eventually be re-released with bonus tracks some time in the near future (George was looking to revamp his entire solo back catalog with bonus tracks a la All Things Must Pass and distribute, perhaps, through EMI). It's a pity it isn't available now (and wasn't at the time of George's death).

Crackerbox Palace demonstrated that Harrison hadn't lost his knack for writing a hook filled hit single. It's a great song that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the White Album or even Abbey Road. This Song satirizes his plight with Bright Tunes and the lawsuit accusing him of "borrowing" the melody for He's So Fine. It's full of witty references to the lawsuit and the video was truly hilarious. There's a number of other great songs including Harrison's Beautiful Girl (written during his burst of activity for All Things Must Pass),

Hopefully we'll see this reissued soon with bonus tracks (there were at least 7 or 8 tracks that were never offically issued for All Things Must Pass that are still out in bootleg land). Hopefully we'll see a long overdue boxed set. It would work quite a bit better than a full reissue campagin as some of George's solo albums were a bit spotty. A boxed set could focus on key album tracks, singles, b-sides (like the MIA Miss O'Dell) and unissued tracks. Ahh we Beatles fans can dream.

It's kind of unbelievable that this came out less than a year & a half after the previous album "Extra Texture (Read All About It)", because it sounds a heck of a lot different than its predecessor. Whereas "Extra Texture" has a very muddy, hazy, grey feel & feels largely like a toss-off, this album sounds bright & carefully recorded. The production is remarkably slick--remember, this came out originally in 1976. I'm just guessing that George, being as rich as he was, had access to the some ultra-state-of-the-art recording gear which he used, contributing to the slick, almost "early-'80s sound" of the album--a huge turnaround from the previous album. It's fitting then that this was his first album released on his own Dark Horse label (distributed by A&M Records at the time the album was first released). Despite the changes, & the general "goes down easy" quality of this material, there's the feeling of George just contently doing his own thing on this album, which was released in the wake of his notorious "My Sweet Lord" case--one gets the feeling that, unlike Paul, George didn't really give a damn about commercial success. Look at how he slips in a Harrison-ized take on Cole Porter's "True Love". It seems he was clearly enjoying himself while making this album, & that he was mostly in an upbeat mood, opposed to the somber tone that dominated "Extra Texture". Now, this album is certainly pleasant, & there aren't any really bad songs on here, but there aren't any truly great ones either. It's excellent background music, which I don't really mean to sound like an insult, but that's what it is. Track after track is nicely tuneful with lots of enjoyable slide guitar from Harrison, but the album is super laid-back in such a way that it`s sorely lacking in emotional impact. That laid-back-ness goes even the uptempo slap-bass laden opening track "Woman Don't You Cry For Me" (which isn't rousing--it's like all the rough edges have been sandpapered away), & the lyrically bitter, yet thoroughly easy-riding, mid-tempo "See Yourself" (written about the media in the light of their response to when Paul McCartney admitted to having taken LSD). Still, that's not to say album isn't enjoyable--certainly it IS enjoyable, with upbeat pop-rock tracks like the lyrically witty "Crackerbox Palace" (with prominent use of phasing), & "Beautiful Girl" (which dates back to the "All Things Must Pass" era, though I'm not sure when he completed writing the tune). "Pure Smokey" is part 2 of the previous album's "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)"--the 2 tracks are remarkably similar musically (partly identical even--unsurprisingly, George admitted he wrote both tunes at the same time), yet they do manage to have a different feel. Unlike the previous tune which he merely dedicated to Smokey Robinson, here he mentions him by name ("Pure Smokey" was a title of one of Smokey's albums). The previous tune had a very hazy, sad feel, while this one is enjoyably laidback like so much of the rest. The one other track that strongly recalls the previous album is the soothing ballad "Learning How To Love You". Despite the good-but-not-great evenness of the album, that's not to say all the songs are of equal quality, or that there aren't any annoyances. The uptempo, jokey "This Song" is a hugely sarcastic response to the plagiarism-themed "My Sweet Lord" case--musically, it starts off sounding like a merger of "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" & "Bang A Gong (Get It On)". The "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" nod was obviously intentional, because there's a mid-song spoken aside (spoken by Eric Idle) saying the song "could be 'Sugar Pie Honey Bunch'". I know it's supposed to be a humorous song, but musically it goes overboard with its good-timey, party atmosphere, & it ends up being annoyingly in-your-face. "It's What You Value" has a sound that strongly recalls Steely Dan, but the song, with its "cautionary" lyrics, features both an annoying, listless verse melody AND a pretty annoying (though not entirely hookless) chorus. The acoustic guitar + organ ballad "Dear One" is okay, but a little ponderous (featuring some synthesizer that bizarrely (for lack of a better term) foreshadows the Pointer Sisters 1983 hit "Jump"). There are also some unattractive synthesizer overdubs on "Beautiful Girl" & "See Yourself". Still, on the whole, the album is engagingly pleasant, but unless you're in love with the casual, laid-back, easy-to-tune-out style, don't expect a masterpiece, because you'll be setting yourself up for a big disappointment. To put it simply, it's an album that really doesn't rub you very much one way or the other.

Although Capitol has put out a remastered version of this album at this point (which contains the song "Tears of the World" as a bonus track), the sound quality is very strong on this older version of the CD as well.

This is the first album of the third ex-beatle.
Become the smash hits Crackerbox Palace and This Song and more.
I hope this item will bring you years of satisfaction.