 George Harrison What would All Things Must Pass sound like had it been recorded in 1976? Here's your chance to find out. Most of the tracks on Thirty Three & 1/3 sound like vocal versions of the "Saturday Night Live" theme – groovin' basslines, heavily compressed saxophones, tambourines, Philly Soul-guitars, Hammond organ … all good ingredients, and surely tasty together, but it's undeniably as dated as quiche. Can food be dated? Yes. The opening track, "Woman Don't You Cry For Me," is instantly startling, with funky drums and rubbery bass introducing a clavinet line straight out of Fulfillingness' First Finale – it's the sound of George Harrison gettin' down, as scary as that sounds. Like those late-period Cat Stevens records where he started playing around with "funk," it's an unexpected direction, but if you open up your ears, you'll find it not unwelcome. That song is actually one that almost ended up on All Things Must Pass, and in spite of all the "funk," still comes through as an obvious fruit of the whole Derek & the Dominoes/Delaney & Bonnie collective (of which George was an uncredited member). "Dear One" is catchy as hell, with a thick, droney, almost Celtic-sounding verse leading into a weird, bouncy, synth-driven chorus – it's robot gospel, the sort of thing you'd imagine Bruce Haack playing on Sunday mornings in some kookily-wired Electric Church in his basement. "Beautiful Girl" is a simply gorgeous and pure love song, certainly one of the hidden gems among George's Dark Horse catalog. Listening to it, you wonder why Eric Clapton didn't steal it for a hit single … perhaps he was content having stolen George's wife. "This Song" isn't much musically (it's the most "SNL"-sounding track on here), but it's got a witty lyric referring to George's being sued for ripping off "He's So Fine." "This song ain't black or white/And as far as I know/Don't infringe on anyone's copyright." That's damn funny. He even manages to intentionally rip off the bassline for "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" and have Eric Idle specifically mention that fact in the song, in a classic croaky Monty Python-esque faux-grannie voice! "See Yourself" is another devotional song, this one most in the vein of All Things Must Pass, but with more Moog. Side Two kicks off with "It's What You Value," more "SNL," with a commentary on materialism and more "SNL" saxes. The sort of thing '76 Paul Simon might have written while pretty drunk. A cover of "True Love" by Cole Porter sounds much like everything else on the record. Likeable, friendly, sunny, but none too sticky. "Pure Smokey" is a devotional song of thanks … to Smokey Robinson! The sort of thing '78 Daryl Hall might have written while pretty drunk. "Crackerbox Palace" was a single, though it's not nearly the best song on the album. In fact, it's a totally odd choice given some of the strong stuff on Side One … an ode to hipster, flipster, and finger-poppin'-daddy Lord Buckley, with more of that fake funk and so much slide guitar you may actually slip and fall while listening to it. "Learning How to Love You" is your garden variety 70s Harrison album closer … Rhodes, claves, acoustic guitar, slow-jam drumming, seductive bass … the sort of thing Stevie Wonder might have written while recovering from a massive stroke. The remastered edition adds "Tears of the World," originally slated for release on Somewhere in England in '81, though it sounds very 1976 to me. No recording date is provided, but it fits in well here … curious that five years later, he'd consider it for another album and still not deem it worthy for release. It's kind of sad that George was rarely able to come up with a full album's worth of great songs after spewing his big load on ATMP. 33 1/3 similarly comes too quickly, after a fast-fuck Side One, leaving a lazy and semi-hard Side Two to poke you perfunctorily until you just get tired, turn over, and go to sleep.
Review by La Fée |