GEORGE HARRISON – THIRTY THREE & 1/3 LP – Nr MINT UK 1976 BEATLES

George Harrison – Thirty Three & 1/3
(Dark Horse Records  1976  K56319)
Matrix No’s: A12/B13 – UK Pressing

Gatefold Sleeve in Excellent/Very Good+ condition
– some rubbing and ringwear front & back and small tear in bottom left corner on front
Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

George Harrison, MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the band’s primary songwriters, but most of their albums included at least one Harrison composition, including “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something”, the Beatles’ second most-covered song.

Harrison’s earliest musical influences included Big Bill Broonzy, George Formby and Django Reinhardt; Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry and Ry Cooder were significant later influences. By 1965 he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”. He developed an interest in the Hare Krishna movement and became an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, introducing them to the other members of the Beatles and their Western audience by incorporating Indian instrumentation in their music. After the band’s break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, from which two hit singles originated. He also organized the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Ravi Shankar, a precursor for later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Harrison was a music and film producer as well as a musician; he founded Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founded HandMade Films in 1978.

Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer, and in 1988 co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Tom Petty, among others. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

Harrison’s first marriage, to Pattie Boyd, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Trinidad Arias, with whom he had one son, Dhani. Harrison died in 2001, aged 58, from lung cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India, in a private ceremony according to Hindu tradition. He left almost £100 million in his will.

Thirty Three & 1/3 (stylised as Thirty Three & 1/3 on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in November 1976. It was Harrison’s first album release on his Dark Horse record label, the worldwide distribution for which changed from A&M Records to Warner Bros. as a result of his late delivery of the album’s master tapes. Among other misfortunes affecting its creation, Harrison was waylaid with hepatitis midway through recording, and the copyright infringement suit regarding his 1970–71 hit song “My Sweet Lord” was decided in favour of the plaintiff, Bright Tunes Music. The album contains the hit singles “This Song” – Harrison’s satire on that court case and the notion of plagiarism in pop music – and “Crackerbox Palace”. Despite the problems associated with the album, many music critics recognised Thirty Three & 1/3 as a return to form for Harrison after his poorly received work during 1974–75, and considered it his strongest collection of songs since 1970’s acclaimed All Things Must Pass.

Harrison recorded Thirty Three & 1/3 at his Friar Park home studio, with production assistance from Tom Scott. Other musicians on the recording include Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Willie Weeks and David Foster. Harrison undertook extensive promotion for the album, which included producing video clips for three of the songs and making a number of radio and television appearances, including a celebrated live performance with singer-songwriter Paul Simon on NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Live. The album was remastered in 2004 as part of the Dark Horse Years 1976–1992 reissues following Harrison’s death in 2001.

Track listing

All songs written by George Harrison, except where noted.

Side one

1. “Woman Don’t You Cry for Me” – 3:18
2. “Dear One” – 5:08
3. “Beautiful Girl” – 3:39
4. “This Song” – 4:13
5. “See Yourself” – 2:51

Side two

6. “It’s What You Value” – 5:07
7. “True Love” (Cole Porter) – 2:45
8. “Pure Smokey” – 3:56
9. “Crackerbox Palace” – 3:57
10. “Learning How to Love You” – 4:13

Personnel

The following personnel are credited in the liner notes.

• George Harrison – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals
• Tom Scott – saxophones, flute, lyricon
• Richard Tee – piano, organ, Fender Rhodes
• Willie Weeks – bass
• Alvin Taylor – drums
• Billy Preston – piano, organ, synthesizer
• David Foster – Fender Rhodes, clavinet
• Gary Wright – keyboards
• Emil Richards – marimba