Copy 'n' paste ahoy:
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This is one of the most riveting documents of 60s rock that exists. It's the nexus where the positive and negative aspects of the Peace & Love generation collided, exploded and ended the era. The definitive answer to the question asked by the Manson murders "Is the dream dead? Yes."
The entire endeavor, as detailed in the film Gimme Shelter, was an ill-advised disaster from the get-go. The "venue", Dick Carter's Altamont Speedway ("make sure you say DICK CARTER'S Altamont Speedway!") wasn't the first, second or third choice and was, obviously, a terrible decision.
Time has also clarified some facts that were buried due to no one wanting to have their name saddled with this disaster: the gig wasn't originally a Stones gig, but a Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead free concert (along with CSN&Y, Santana and The Flying Burrito Bros). Both bands, while very popular, were nowhere near the draw of the Rolling Stones, who piggy-backed on last minute (also after not touring for two years). Consequently, the whole event was not taken nearly as seriously as it should have. To make matters worse, the Grateful Dead - yes, The Dead - put forward the idea of hiring the San Francisco chapter of the Hell's Angels to run security. Probably not a big deal for a crowd of 1000 hippies, but Altamont had an attendance estimated to have been 300k. When the Dead arrive to learn that the Angel's are already wilding out, beating people and knocked out Airplane's Marty Balin who commendably, but foolishly, tried to intervene - they split (Garcia: "Bummer"). No louder a canary in the coalmine than that!
But what could be done? There were three hundred thousand people from all over the country there to party - and shit wasn't going well. The bands, fearing for their own safety should they cancel, play on (barring the Dead, who had a solid idea that things were only going to get worse).
The Stones at this juncture are well into their "We're the Bad Guys" status, with songs explicitly dealing with sex, drugs and violence. Of course, it's a pose, a role and one they're exploiting fantastically. The UK get it, it's theater. In America, however, and especially in the sixties, we value authenticity - or at least the illusion of it.
So the Stones get up there with a new lead guitarist in Mick Taylor and a new sound as demonstrated on the upcoming Let It Bleed. It's harder, it's heavier, it's louder, it's looser and it's violent.
This gears the crowd - the Angels, their victims and the freaks losing their minds on acid (some of whom are both Angels and their victims) - into a stressed out frenzy. The beatings intensify. There's retaliation. Some people try to get the Stones to address it. They do. More than once.
Soon, Meredith Hunter, a teenager there with his girlfriend, has had enough of an unnamed Angel pulling his ear and hair. A fight breaks out. As is Angel style, he's ganged up on and one Angel, Alan Passaro, pulls a knife and stabs the fleeing Hunter in the back. Hunter, given little choice, draws his weapon, a pistol, and raises it over his head. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop Passaro who lunges at Hunter and stabs him three more times. Other Angels join in stomping him until he's broken and dying - and then keeping people away until it looks like the deed is done. Finally, his friends try to get his limp body onto the stage for help, only to be kicked off by the Angels.
Afterward, Passaro was cleared of any wrongdoing. Of course, one can't help but wonder if the outcome would have been the same were Hunter not black.
Hunter wasn't the only death: two more were killed in a hit and run (I can't find anymore information other than it happened) and one poor soul lost their minds on acid and drowned in an irrigation ditch (how much acid? I mean, WTF).
This horror and tension is well represented on this boot. The version that I have combines a number of sources to recreate the entire gig, some very poor and muddy, others raw, but clear. Throughout you can hear the screams of frustration, fear and anger - and occasionally adulation - that circulated the front area of the show.
It's a rough listen and, as a fan, you may find yourself conflicted; four people died - three of whom were murdered - but the Stones sound absolutely feral here. Sure, after the first scuffle they try to slow things down for a few tunes ("Everybody just COOL OUT!") but, by the time they hit "Brown Sugar", it's just one hard, heavy rocker after another. The murder happens, the band slow down for a moment but then kick right back in.
The band are, by their own account, terrified; the crowd is out of control and had been all day (within minutes of arriving by helicopter earlier in the day, a fan punches Jagger in the face) they can't just leave - there's no backstage, no way to bail. So they just plow through the rest of the set. And while they do so, they're watching the mayhem unfold around them; Angels bugging out on dosed wine (taken by force from the Stones tour manager), young girls crying at the front - not in ecstasy, but fear - the fights, the murder. At one point a dog ambles across the stage. It's ####ing chaos.
That comes across in the performance with upped tempos, blown notes (it's hard to concentrate when someone gets killed in front of you) and tuning issues. Add to that the crap live recording equipment used for film, coupled with murky reel to reel boot tapes from the audience (you can see the "bootlegger" in one image) and there's distortion and "wow and flutter" (variable pitch) issues adding to the brutal nature of the recordings. "Gimme Shelter", one of the band's darker songs to begin with, is transformed into a nightmare clearly marking the death of the 60s; Keith's intro warbles and rolls in and out of key. When Wyman's bass comes in, it's a burning ball of wooly fuzz - and also hitting the wrong note. But it's the perfect wrong note that just sounds like doom.
You won't be listening to this one often, it's a lot to take. But it should be heard as it's a fascinating document of the end of an era, the dawning of a dark, cynical, new one and the birth of the "hounded" outlaw Stones.
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