Жордж Харрисонның «Thirty Three & 1/3» альбомының тарихы

Thirty Three & (stylised as Thirty Three & 1/ॐ on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by the 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 suffered 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 US top 30 singles "This Song" – Harrison's satire on that lawsuit and the notion of plagiarism in pop music – and "Crackerbox Palace". Despite the problems associated with the album, many music critics recognised Thirty Three & 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 & at his Friar Park home studio, with production assistance from Tom Scott. Other musicians on the recording include Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Willie Weeks, David Foster and Alvin Taylor. Harrison undertook extensive promotion for the album, which included producing comedy themed video clips for three of the songs, two of which were directed by Monty Python member Eric Idle, and making a number of radio and television appearances. Among the latter was a live performance with singer songwriter Paul Simon on NBC'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.

In January 1976, four months after the release of his final album under the Beatles' recording contract with EMI, Extra Texture (Read All About It), George Harrison announced his intention to record for his own record label, Dark Horse Records. Harrison had formed the label in May 1974, when he signed a five year distribution agreement with A&M Records. In addition to other Dark Horse artists, the contract called for four solo albums from Harrison, the first of which was due by 26 July 1976. After making the announcement at the annual Midem music fair in Cannes, Harrison spent the early part of 1976 involved in activities other than music making. Foremost among these was the court case, in New York, for a long running plagiarism suit launched against him by music publisher Bright Tunes, who contended that Harrison had infringed on their copyright of the Chiffons' song "He's So Fine" in his 1970–71 hit single "My Sweet Lord". While in Los Angeles in February and March, Harrison worked on a proposed documentary film of his 1974 North American tour with Ravi Shankar. On 20 April, he made a guest appearance on stage in New York with the Monty Python comedy troupe, dressed as a Canadian Mountie, as part of the chorus on "The Lumberjack Song". Michael Palin of the Pythons later recalled that Harrison looked "tired and ill"; author Peter Doggett attributes Harrison's poor health to a lifestyle increasingly reliant on alcohol and cocaine, following the failure of his marriage to Pattie Boyd in 1974. After beginning sessions for the album in late May, Harrison was struck down with hepatitis and unable to work for much of the summer. Arias then researched natural remedies such as acupuncture. Harrison's health was soon restored through a series of treatments in California with acupuncturist Zion Yu. The title for the new album, Thirty Three & , reflected his age at the time of recording, as well as the speed at which a vinyl LP plays on a turntable.

Harrison prepared the material he would record for Thirty Three & while holidaying in the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Arias recalled that they were joined in the Virgin Islands by Eric Idle of Monty Python, and that the noise they created attracted complaints from television producer Norman Lear and his wife, activist and journalist Frances Lear, who were staying in the neighbouring house. In their respective studies of the spiritual aspects of Harrison's career, Dale Allison and Gary Tillery view the album as the artist reaffirming his Hindu aligned spirituality after the despondency evident on Extra Texture. In author Ian Inglis' description, Thirty Three & suggests "a man reborn", as confidence, optimism and success have superseded the previous album's themes of pessimism, suspicion and failure. "Crackerbox Palace" was inspired by Harrison meeting the former manager of comedian Lord Buckley at Midem in January 1976. Written in March, and reflected his experience in the courtroom as musicologists for both sides argued their respective cases. Harrison said he wrote it to "exorcise the paranoia about songwriting" that the episode had fostered in him. "Pure Smokey" was his musical tribute to soul singer Smokey Robinson. "It's What You Value" came about after drummer Jim Keltner had declined payment for appearing in Harrison's 1974 tour band, instead requesting a new Mercedes sportscar. The lyrics reflect the singer's interest in Formula 1, As a rare cover version, Harrison reworked the Cole Porter standard "True Love" in the pop style. He later joked that Bing Crosby's well known version from 1956 "got the chords wrong" "Woman Don't You Cry for Me" and "Beautiful Girl" were other compositions dating from the late 1960s that Harrison revisited for Thirty Three & The first of these was a tune he wrote while on tour with Delaney & Bonnie in December 1969, to showcase his then recent adoption of slide guitar. In completing the lyrics to "Beautiful Girl", it became a love song to Arias, whom he credits with providing the love he "needed for this soul to survive". Like "See Yourself", "Dear One" was inspired by Swami Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi and a profound influence on Harrison since his visit to India in September 1966. The ballad "Learning How to Love You" was another song inspired by his relationship with Arias. When commenting on how the album's love songs appear to be directed to both a deity and a woman, Harrison said he was conscious of this trait, and "all love is part of a universal love. When you love a woman, it's the God in her that you see." Harrison enlisted jazz saxophonist and arranger Tom Scott. Scott's schedule as musical director of the Starsky & Hutch TV series restricted his role to production assistance on the Harrison album. As part of an all North American line up of musicians at the sessions, other participants included bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Alvin Taylor, keyboard players Richard Tee and David Foster, and jazz percussionist Emil Richards. Harrison's regular associates Gary Wright and Billy Preston also contributed, on keyboards, Together with the Taylor–Weeks rhythm section, Author Michael Frontani describes Taylor and Weeks as one of Harrison's most effective rhythm sections.

Harrison selected ten of the original twelve tracks for overdubbing. He later said that "See Yourself" was a song that he came to like more and more as further instruments were added onto the initial recording. Harrison recorded "Dear One" after most of the musicians had departed. After the keyboard heavy arrangements on Extra Texture, Harrison's lead guitar playing returned to a prominent role in his sound. His signature slide guitar dominates the album opener, "Woman Don't You Cry for Me", and "Crackerbox Place". Harrison biographer Simon Leng also highlights his Beatlesque arpeggios in the arrangement of "Beautiful Girl" and the comparatively rare non slide electric solos he plays on "Pure Smokey". After the enforced lay off until late in the summer, Harrison completed work on the album on 13 September 1976. Hank Cicalo was the recording engineer for the sessions, assisted by Kumar Shankar, It was the first Harrison album to be recorded entirely at FPSHOT.

By mid 1976, A&M Records were concerned that Dark Horse's roster of artists – which included Shankar, the Stairsteps, Splinter, Jiva, and Keltner and Foster's band Attitudes – had failed to provide a return on the company's investment from the past two years. That same month, New York judge Richard Owen ruled on the copyright infringement suit, stating that Harrison had "subconsciously plagiarised" part of the melody to the Chiffons song in his 1970 composition. Having settled with A&M by returning his personal advance, where his friend Derek Taylor held an executive position. Warner's announced the worldwide distribution deal with an event held at Chasen's in West Hollywood on 17 November, which Harrison attended. Thirty Three & was released on the Dark Horse imprint on 19 November in the UK and 24 November in the US. The album's lead single, "This Song" backed by "Learning How to Love You", was issued on 15 November in the US and four days later in the UK. who also took the photographs for the package. Thirty Three & outsold Dark Horse and Extra Texture in America, The album's sales were nevertheless hindered by EMI/Capitol releasing the Best of George Harrison compilation in November 1976. In Britain, the album reached number 35. Music journalist Paul Du Noyer later wrote of the contrasting reception: "Punk rock rendered Harrison obsolete in his homeland but US radio warmed to the expertise and tunefulness of it all." with the addition of a bonus track, "Tears of the World". The latter was an outtake from the 1980 sessions for Harrison's album Somewhere in England.

Harrison undertook extensive promotion for Thirty Three & , the first time he had done so for one of his albums. Saturday Night Live was Harrison's only musical performance while promoting Thirty Three & , apart from a mimed performance of "This Song" for German TV, Early in the campaign, he discussed the possibility of a world concert tour, to begin in the summer of 1977. By the time of his European promotional engagements, he had gone off the idea. during which he and Arias travelled with the 1977 Formula 1 World Championship.

After the disappointments of Dark Horse and Extra Texture over 1974–75, Thirty Three & was widely viewed as a return to form for Harrison. It earned the artist his strongest reviews since All Things Must Pass and many critics compared it favourably with that 1970 triple album. Billboard magazine described the LP as "a sunny, upbeat album of love songs and cheerful jokes that is his happiest and most commercial package, with least high flown postures, for perhaps his entire solo career". The reviewer rated the production "top notch" before concluding: "And Harrison's often spectacular melody writing gift gets brilliant display here." In Melody Maker, Ray Coleman remarked on Warner Bros.' need to re establish Harrison, adding: "The question is merely whether the music [on Thirty Three & ] merits it. Unequivocally, the answer is yes." Coleman praised Harrison's vocals on this "fine album" and likened the quality of his melodies to that on the Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. Michael Gross wrote in Swank magazine that Harrison "seems with 33⅓ to have come unstuck", adding: "If the new record company, new girlfriend  Olivia Arias, and new disc have put him in a more secure place in the material world, he could well recapture his spot as the Beatle to watch." In a review that Michael Frontani terms "particularly laudatory", Richard Meltzer of The Village Voice described Harrison's new work as "his best LP since All Things Must Pass and on par with, say, [Bob Dylan's] Blood on the Tracks". Fellow Village Voice critic Robert Christgau gave the record a B minus and said, "This isn't as worldly as George wants you to think – or as he thinks himself, for all I know – but it ain't fulla shit either." He highlighted "This Song" and the album's second side, particularly "Crackerbox Palace", which he regarded among Harrison's best songs since his Beatles days. Less impressed, Rolling Stone continued to regard Harrison in an unfavourable light after what Elliot Huntley terms its "volte face" in 1974. The magazine's reviewer, Ken Tucker, noted the accessibility of "fast, cheerful numbers" such as "Woman Don't You Cry for Me" and "This Song" but lamented both "George's persistent preaching" elsewhere and that Scott's presence rendered the album as "music with the feeling and sincerity of cellophane". In the NME, Bob Woffinden admired Harrison's guitar playing but dismissed him as a lyric writer, before concluding: "Harrison's general demeanour is more encouraging  While it is an album of no particular merit in itself, it is one which leads me to believe that his best work may not necessarily be behind him." Writing in 1977, Nicholas Schaffner found that, in comparison with All Things Must Pass, the songs on Thirty Three & "rely on pure melody and George's own musicianship instead of dazzling orchestrations and production". Schaffner added: "The tastefulness of his performance on his two pet instruments, slide guitar and synthesizer, is unmatched in rock, and Thirty three and a Third boasts the most varied and tuneful collection of Harrison melodies to date." In the 1978 edition of The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, NME critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler described Thirty Three & as Harrison's "best effort – by far" since All Things Must Pass. Carr and Tyler concluded: "It must be the production. For no individual track really presents itself as typifying a New Harrison Approach – and yet the impression left by the album as a whole is definitely of a more balanced, poised and devil may care Hari  "

In a review for Rolling Stone following Harrison's death in November 2001, Greg Kot said of Thirty Three & : "'Crackerbox Palace' has a twinkle in its eye, the kind of song that had previously eluded the increasingly self serious Harrison  The tune's melodic sweep is nearly matched by 'This Song'  The two tracks form the center of the guitarist's strongest collection since his solo debut." Having interviewed Harrison for Guitar World magazine in 1987, Rip Rense praised the solos on tracks such as "Learning How to Love You" and "Beautiful Girl", while opining of Harrison's "underrated solo [career]": "his work is my choice for best among the ex Fabs for being the most substantial in melody, structure, and content. Thirty Three and a Third, for instance, might yet be hailed as a minor masterpiece  "

In the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Mac Randall named "Beautiful Girl" as "one of the many highlights of his upbeat return to pop form, Thirty Three & ". Writing for The Word that year, Paul Du Noyer referred to the album as "the lost treasure" among Harrison's Dark Horse Years reissues, and in a concurrent review for Blender, he highlighted "Crackerbox Palace" and "Learning How to Love You" as the standout tracks.|source= – Bud Scoppa, Uncut, 2018|width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;
In another 2004 appraisal, for PopMatters, Jason Korenkiewicz wrote that the remaster "allows the guitars to ring, and the percussion has a crispness that was hidden in past releases". Korenkiewicz included "the magnificent 'Dear One'" among the album's "countless classic tracks" and considered that Thirty Three & "features more consistent high points than any Harrison album since All Things Must Pass". Conversely, Kit Aiken of Uncut described it as an "oddly ordinary album" that reflected the "blow to his confidence and inspiration" as a result of the court's ruling on "My Sweet Lord". Writing for the same magazine in July 2012, David Quantick included Thirty Three & among Harrison's best solo releases, along with All Things Must Pass and Cloud Nine. Rodriguez adds: "If ever an album cried out for a tour, it was this lively, energetic, and colorfully upbeat collection." Former Mojo editor Mat Snow views it as a "confident, if not quite classic" album on which Harrison "had his groove back", while New Zealand Herald critic Graham Reid writes that Harrison got off to "a flying start" on his new label and he notes the consistent quality across the album, which includes "a more than decent treatment of Cole Porter's True Love".