#the flatlanders

[mywifeleftme]

169: The Flatlanders // The Odessa Tapes

The Odessa Tapes The Flatlanders 2012, New West

A Cliff’s/Cole’s/Spark’s Notes on the Flatlanders: Texan trio of songwriter’s songwriters (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and a nascent Joe Ely) form combo, head to Nashville to record impossibly sublime album (All American Music) in November 1972 that is (barely) released on 8-track cassette after would-be single “Dallas” flops. The album is forgotten, the band splits, its three core members build respectable careers. As the Americana scene they’d somewhat presaged takes shape, the Nashville recordings are sporadically re-released (most notably on Rounder’s More a Legend Than a Band) and the Flatlanders retrospectively find themselves one of the most critically celebrated country acts of their era.

The Odessa Tapes are an even more forgotten batch of recordings than those Nashville sessions, cut in January of the same year as a demo for Plantation Records. The tapes were rediscovered in the 2000s and released by New West in 2012 and, despite the years of neglect, they sound astonishing—to the point you could make a case that they represent the band’s definitive statement. The material is largely the same as that found on the later sessions, though four songs appear here for the first time (“Number Sixteen,” “Shadow of the Moon,” “I Think Too Much of You,” “Story of You,” all superb). These renditions have a honeyed warmth unto themselves, like the feeling in your muscles when you sink into a good chair. All American Music was marketed as Jimmy Dale Gilmore & The Flatlanders, and to my ear at least it’s mixed and arranged to subtly emphasize him as ‘the star.’ Here, their trademark harmonies sound closer and more balanced, the pace a tad mellower, the guitars absent the Nashville sessions’ very slight commercial sheen. Reasonable people can differ as to whether All American Music’s accoutrements (e.g. Steve Wesson’s musical saw) add welcome variety to these simple, elegant songs, which admittedly are all pretty similar in structure, but you can’t go wrong with either set.

Speaking of structure, it occurs to me I’ve structured this review badly, gotten a little deep into the minutiae of comparing versions of songs there’s a good chance you’ve never heard before. So, let’s say this of the Flatlanders: they harkened back to pre-1950s country and bluegrass, had those singers been raised Buddhist rather than Baptist. In place of Christian melodrama (sin, shame, redemption), their songs have a wry philosophical resignation, gazing through the big Texas Panhandle sky over the fence line at the turning wheel of dharma. With the exception of the full-on spiritualism of “Bhagavan Decreed” (an extraordinarily poetic set of lyrics by Austin musician Ed Vizard), they don’t front with the cosmic stuff: it’s on your tenth or hundredth listen to these sentimental, homespun songs of steadfastness and fidelity that lines like “the universal law needs no revision” and “this world’s just not real to me” and “I guess I should be flyin’ ‘cause it’s killin’ me to run” start clicking together.

I’m sure I have a hundred top ten albums at this point. But if one of those sickos with a desert island / turntable situation put a cruise missile to my head, it’d be hard to imagine going a lifetime without hearing the Flatlanders again. And if I had to pick just one of theirs, it’d be The Odessa Tapes.

169/365

[rolloroberson]

The Flatlanders

[upperswampmonkey]

Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Flatlanders - Bhagavan Decreed

[julio-viernes]

Siempre es un placer volver a escuchar a Joe Ely, y más aún si es en compañía de Bruce Springsteen. Dos viejos amigos que se han unido en "Odds of the Blues", primer sencillo del LP de Ely "Driven to Drive" (2 de agosto). Joe Ely - como Joe Grushecky, Butch Hancock, Willie Nile, Steve Forbert o Elliott Murphy- es un clásico del rock norteamericano, y aparte de sus 18 álbumes en solitario fue miembro de la banda de culto The Flatlanders y del supergrupo Los Super Seven junto a Flaco Jiménez, Freddy Fender, David Hidalgo y César Rosas de Los Lobos. "Odds of the Blues" suena fantástica, con ese arranque en onda "Fire" del propio Boss, o de Robert Gordon y las Pointer Sisters. Buen rock americano del de siempre.

[torchtour]

can you tell i watched Ladd Ehlinger's Flatland (2007)

(i have yet to see this intepretation specifically on my dash but if you beat me to it im so sorry pls dont hurt me)

edit: ladd ehlinger is highkey not a cool dude if you want to watch the movie for whatever reason maybe find. alternative viewing platforms wink wink

[lilybug-02]

Flatland(1884) Fanart in the year of our Lord 2024.

[sandybrett]

I saw a post about villanelles, and thought of this song

which isn't a villanelle, but it could be, if you know what I mean.

[arrimorr]

Watched Flatland yesterday 😭 what an insanely silly movie

[dyspri]

[uay778]

I WAS FUCKING RIGHT

HES FROM FUCKING FLATLAND

THANK YOU MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH CLASS FOR MAKING ME WATCH THAT MOVIE!

[therealcallmekd]

Now THAT'S Thinkin' In 3D!

HHEHEHEE HAH FLATLAND FANART BE UPON YE

[ckret2]

I just had an idea. If humans pray to angels, do shapes pray to angles?

you know what, why the fuck not. guess we're doing Flatland religion now

[flosarbor]

Guess what I watched...

These two definitely have something in common, you can see it, right?

And this two too...

In conclusion, all of them need to go to therapy

And this is live footage of how I make my art-

[this-too-shall-bleed]

fuck sorry I had to do a billford version of this

[julio-viernes]

"Honky Tonk Masquerade" (MCA, 1978), segundo álbum en solitario del tejano Joe Ely es un estupendo disco de country rock, pero este "Boxcars" en concreto me ha dejado tieso por el arreglo tan inusual, en un contexto Campo & Oeste, de esas guitarras eléctricas tratadas. Un potente arreglo muy original y bastante loco, que lejos de atenuarse va en aumento, crece y crece hasta el mismo final. Otro country, el resto del disco es más "normal".

Ely fue la parte rock de los míticos Flatlanders, Butch Hancock la parte folk, y Jimmie Dale Gilmore la puramente country. En 1977 Ely viajó a Inglaterra y conoció a los Clash, que le homenajearon años después en su triple "Sandinista!" en el tema "If Music Could Talk" ("Well there ain't no better blend than Joe Ely and his Texas Men"). En 1981 Joe Ely hizo coros para la famosa "Should I Stay Or Should I Go".

[bornwholocker]

Reading flatland and obviously Bill’s home dimension and flatland aren’t exactly the same, but like. Since we don’t know which parts are different I’m just thinking. This is really unorganized and all over the place and probably doesn’t make any sense but

In flatland, it takes a LOT of planning for an equilateral triangle to be born. I’m talking like generations of interbreeding and methods for the fathering isosceles to get as close to equilateral as possible. It’s a huge deal. When an equilateral is created, it’s celebrated by pretty much everyone (for a miriad of different reasons but I won’t get into that). And being “irregular” in any respect is one of the worst things you can be. If you don’t “fix” your irregularity enough, you’re executed.

So imagine Bill’s family working their triangular asses off to have an equilateral kid, to give him a better life, and when they finally do it, he’s got that eye. From what we’ve seen of his parents, they seem to have taken care of him as best they could, but again, it’s been a whole ordeal just to have him, involving the whole community and family, and he came out wrong.

I imagine that’s probably why his parents took him to see the doctor and drink the “juice” that messed with his vision. They thought they were doing what was best for him. They didn’t blame him for his eye, didn’t hate him for it, but they felt the need to fix him, either to please their families or even just bring him to their own standards. The idea of irregularity being wrong is seen as natural and obvious, so they wouldn’t find an issue with trying to change him.

Another thing about flatland is that the mention of any third dimension or any idea close to that is pretty much criminal. (Spoilers i guess) The narrator of the story, a square who saw the third dimension for himself, is eventually locked away for talking about it.

So Bill was supposed to be a sort of miracle baby, I guess is the best way to put it. And when he came out just slightly but irreparably wrong, it was devastating. And then he starts spouting about 3D and the stars and he just wants people to understand, to see that it’s not dangerous, that it’s beautiful. But his parents don’t want him to get imprisoned or worse, so they try to keep him quiet. They give him his juice and his silly straws and wave away any ideas about the third dimension.

Bill was born a disappointment, one of the lowest life forms imaginable, and the only way he was gonna get anywhere in life was by losing his stars forever. He was told that the thing right in front of him wasn’t real, that he should stop talking about it, that he could get in trouble. So he had to show everyone that he was right. He would be a hero! He would be the kid who finally discovered where the light came from, something no scientist had ever gotten close to figuring out!

But in the end his parents were right. It was too dangerous. God bill tragic backstory is so ougrhhhhj grabs alex hirsch by the shoulders and shakes him