Altamont-a stock car racing track in California.Over 40 years ago this place has been the event of what would be the epitome of a rock n' roll nightmare.Back in December 1969,a young man was killed on a free festival the Rolling Stones had organized during the last leg of their American tour.
The Woodstock festival proved to be nonetheless successful and other copycat festivals who tried to emulate it came out to be disastrous and trouble plagued.The Rolling Stones were considered to be second to the Beatles in the manner that they named themselves to be the total opposite of the band-which John Lennon dismissed later on that the Stones stole the Beatles' identity and thus started some sort of a press war between him and Mick Jagger.But in spite of all of the press releases and rumours,both the Beatles and the Stones were very good friends and were respectable of each other's musical styles.
After being lambasted by the music press for their exhorbitant high ticket prices,the Rolling Stones decided to give a free festival-- a way of saying thank you for supporting their previous tours and a way of saying sorry.The Grateful Dead helped organized the Altamont free festival which was dubbed by many as 'Woodstock West'.The Hells Angels were hired to police the event in exchange of a $500 worth of beer to watch over the equipment and defend the stage from drugged out fans.
The main reason the Hell's Angels had been hired is that the Stones hated having the cops securing their concerts and both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards admired the image of the Angels.And the London chapter of the famous motorcycle gang had successfully and peacefully policed the preceedings on their Hyde Park gig the previous July.The Hyde Park gig-a tribute to their leader and founder Brian Jones who drowned on his swimming pool on July 3 of the same year.
The festival was proved to be disastrous at the very start as Mick Jagger was attacked by a hippie and was punched in the mouth.This was well documented by the Maysles Brothers who made the film of the event called Gimme Shelter.The Maysles Brothers were known for their reality tv style of documentary films,having filmed the Beatles' first US visit five years earlier,they shot the Altamont scene under extremely dangerous conditions including the murder of Meredith Hunter in which we will discuss later on.
During which the Stones arrived at the festivity,a fence was said to have been torn by angry drugged out fans in which Keith Richards mumbled as 'the first act of violence.' Openers like the Grateful Dead and Santana backed off when they saw that the place was in total chaos as violence rummaged between the Hell's Angels and the young freaks who we believe should be the future leaders of this country.Further violence flared during sets by Jefferson Airplane and The Flying Burrito Brothers as members of the former were beaten by these aggressive,drug laden spectators.
THE MURDER OF MEREDITH HUNTERIt was often believed that it was during the set of "Sympathy For The Devil" when the bloody encounter happened.But actually it was during the set of "Under My Thumb" when the controversial killing took place.Though the Stones had said that something funny always happens whenever they play the song "Sympathy.." it was actually after the band has just finished "Under My Thumb" when a young man called Meredith Hunter was killed by an Angel.The killing was captured on video when Meredith brandished a gun in the air and was stabbed several times by a member of the notorious motorcycle gang.Being the prey of the Angels,it was said that he has caught the Angels' attention for being black and grinning a lot,and for being in the company of a white woman as a girlfriend.
The Stones' came out eight hours later than scheduled and their set kept on going down as the Hell's Angels lose their tempers over the freaks who want to get onstage.Mick Jagger kept on pleading helplessly to the crowd to "keep cool" and telling them that theres no reason to hassle anyone.Hunter was stabbed to death not far from the stage and the show went on in which Jagger was badly criticized by the music press for being irresponsible and for not checking out what really happened.
It was said that an equal number of births took place during the festival but later on it was discovered that nobody had been born at Altamont,it was a night of violence and fear though many praise it as it was one of the finest gigs ever performed by the Stones.The Hell's Angel who stabbed Hunter later revealed to be Alan Passaro was acquitted on grounds of self defense.Though he was later found dead almost twenty years later in a ditch.
When I first saw the film Gimme Shelter I thought it was some kind of joke but I was really appalled over the fact that the murder was actually captured and shown live.But all in all it has some good songs though but I do feel that the Stones' songs were actually evoking some violence in a way, like the song "Midnight Rambler" for instance,which the song goes "I'll stick my knife down your throat baby and it hurts".I dont know if it just a coincidence or not but some of their songs I believe is somewhat inviting some piece of action in it,though the riffs and the sound was great.The Rolling Stones were one of my favorite bands besides the Beatles and I can say they were indeed very good.Im more of a sound guy rather than the lyrics dude so Im gonna cut 'em some slack.
I do not blame Mick Jagger,he was a victim too..
Heres more of the photos of the violence at Altamont...All I can say is...it was all out of his[Jagger] hands...
Long live the Rolling Stones!
Long live Rock N' Roll!
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