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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-23 20:43 by LongBeachArena72.

wow, interesting thing about 'period pieces' is that you feel really what the vibe was like at the time. Lots of negative press, and I guess deservedly so.

David Crosby's words on the subject are interesting, coming from him..

David Crosby:

"The Rolling Stones are still a little bit in 1965."



And David Crosby is still a little bit in 1969.

....wonder what happened to the Hells Angels' dog that was on stage



ROCKMAN

I still have the original book from 1970: Let it Bleed/Hansa Vlg.- where this all is from.
The first edition had a lot of "bonus" stuff.
It was a nice and interesting read. But very much in the Zeitgeist of those years . .

Rockee, if only dogs could talk, THAT dog would have quite a story to tell.

I remember seeing the Maysles' GIMME SHELTER for the first time in '72 and being absolutely transfixed by the Altamont footage.

On the one hand, you had the greatest rock'n'roll band on earth, playing at their absolute peak, with the most hypnotic front-man ever ... and yet they (and Jagger in particular) looked so helpless, so frail, so powerless to do anything about the chaos swirling around them. I wonder if many other bands have had to stare their own mortality that directly in the face on stage ...

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Rockman
....wonder what happened to the Hells Angels' dog that was on stage

What gets me is not that there is a dog strolling across the stage, it is that no one seemed to notice. Dog? That's the least of our worries!

Crosby's right. It was the band's self aggrandizing Woodstock done on the cheap to promote the new record while the band gets its promotion on the backside with the movie. It just got more than it bargained for. It is hard not to view the concert through Jagger's mis-characterization of events and the murky Dirty Harry aspect of the killing.

Ralph Gleason:


"Now it has ended in murder. And that was a murder, not just a 'death' like the drowning or the hit-run victims. Somebody stabbed that man five times in the back.

at the time of that writing, didn't Gleason know about the gun ..?

The Airplane

Great read LBA!

Here is another good article on Altamont where Charlotte Zwerin states she saw the complete video performance of the concert uncut.

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Charlotte Zwerin: “The performance of ‘Gimme Shelter’ was one of the most powerful things I’d ever heard. At one point the Maysles sent me tapes of the entire Stones performance uncut; it’s out of a horror movie.

[www.salon.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-04-03 22:00 by oldschool.

That Salon piece is really interesting, esp the angle about the initial critical reception the film got, and how influential that initial RS article was in forming public opinion about the concert.

I'd forgotten about the scenes after-the-fact where Mick and Charlie are filmed watching the Altamont footage. Those are definitely NOT moments that glorify The Stones. In retrospect, it's kind of remarkable that they even agreed to let the movie come out. I'm sure that wouldn't happen today!

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oldschool
Great read LBA!

Here is another good article on Altamont where Charlotte Zwerin states she saw the complete video performance of the concert uncut.

Quote

Charlotte Zwerin: “The performance of ‘Gimme Shelter’ was one of the most powerful things I’d ever heard. At one point the Maysles sent me tapes of the entire Stones performance uncut; it’s out of a horror movie.

[www.salon.com]

I have Ethan Russell's book. Coffee table size with lots of large photos.

That book looks sweet!

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tatters
David Crosby:

"The Rolling Stones are still a little bit in 1965."



And David Crosby is still a little bit in 1969.

and the Angels in the US were always neanderthal

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MingSubu
That book looks sweet!

I recommend it highly. It's coffee table size, and some of the photos are full page or full double page, plus there's plenty of text with stories and insights. A great book to browse through and lose yourself for a while on a Sunday afternoon when it's raining outside.

....okay then good advice ... I won't buy it till winter sets in ....



ROCKMAN

But doesn't it rain in summer in Oz? I watch an Australian TV show where it's frequently cloudy outside. I suppose it depends on where you are. That show is set in Melbourne, and they're always referring to "sunny Queensland". So, yeah, if you're in a sunny climate, you might want to wait until winter to read it. Rain does enhance the effect of reading it, y'know, Gimme Shelter and the "Oh, a storm is threat'ning"--plus, who likes going out in the rain? Not me, anyway. Not unless I really have to get something done.

...awww yeah we have our summer and we have our winter ...
Qld well yeah HOT but they cop storms floods etc ... I'm stayin'
here plus who'd wanna live under the rule of Campbell Newman ...



ROCKMAN

Seems like Queensland has a line written for them as well....

"The floods is threat'ning
My very life today"

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stonehearted
I have Ethan Russell's book. Coffee table size with lots of large photos.

Beautiful book. Highly recommended.

Altamont continues to fascinate. I have bootleg recording of the concert and - even in their muddy, sludgy sound - prove that it was one of the Stones' greatest shows. Perhaps the greatest, if one fully comprehends the context.

I've got a french edition given by a friend, beautiful pictures that captures the Stones US 69 Tour and some Brian Jones pix at Cotchford Farm.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-04-08 09:58 by runaway.

Published January 21, 1970 in Rolling Stone Magazine .

[www.rollingstone.com]

Great article...thanks.

I love Altamont

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Eleanor Rigby
Great article...thanks.

I love Altamont

?

Wow... still reading. This is dense....... brutal intensity in the descriptions and matches everything we have seen.

Excerpt of interview with Grace Slick from the May 23, 2014, issue of Rolling Stone.

Full article here:

And then came Altamont.
Paul [Kantner] and I went to England to talk to Mick Jagger about Altamont. I was scared because I'd never met Mick before. I thought, "Oh, God, there's going to be some kind of orgy there and I don't do orgies and they're going to think I'm a big prude and it's going to be a party with heroin and all this weird shit I don't do." I walked into Mick's flat and it looked like my parents' home: Oriental rugs, Edwardian furniture, well kept. I was perfectly at home — it really was like visiting my parents. He was in a three-piece suit and served us tea, and we talked about how to put this thing on. When he does business, he does business. He doesn't screw around. He knows how to separate having orgies from doing business.

In theory, given the lineup (Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Santana, the Flying Burrito Brothers), Altamont should have been fantastic.
It could have been all right. But the area was not that pretty. California can be ugly and brown and this area was just ugly and brown. And the problem is: it was partially our fault. Paul and I were talking to Jagger about how we'd done a bunch of stuff free in Golden Gate Park and the Hells Angels had been our security. And they never hurt anybody. And they were good at it because people were afraid of them. So we said, "We'll get the Hells Angels to do security," and Jagger didn't know and said OK. But it turned out to not be right. There was speed and alcohol and those two things are God-awful. I would do coke to keep the alcohol going — but not during the day. But I guess it wasn't too early for the Angels.

The whole day was ugly. I didn't have my contact lenses on. Or maybe I didn't have them at the time. I couldn't see anything. I saw bodies moving vaguely over on my left, which is where Marty [Balin] was, and I went back to the drums and said to Spencer [Dryden], "What the hell is going on?" And he said, "The Angels are kind of beating up Marty." What happened is they were messing with one of our crew. Marty objected and one of the Angels said something back to Marty, and Marty said, "@#$%& you," and the guy knocked Marty down while we were singing and said, "You never say @#$%& you to an Angel" — and Marty said it again! Our crew had to pull Angels off Marty. And I thought, "Well, this is not a very good start to the day." It turned out a guy died. We were leaving in a helicopter when the Stones were playing and Paul was looking out the window and said, "Geez, it looks like somebody got shoved or stabbed down there." And he was right. The guy died. It was not good all the way around.

Did you and the Airplane finish your set?
I think we did, but there's a lot of stuff I don't remember. They said Altamont was the end of an era, which more or less is true. It coincided with the way things rise and fall. Everything does that. Look at the Roman Empire. Sometimes it takes two years, sometimes it takes 500. Everything is born, rises and then dies.

Hmm, I smell poo poo... when exactly are Grace and Paul supposed to have flown to UK to discuss Altamont or some kind of free concert in USA? I thought it was added on whilst they were already touring in USA?

Keep in mind also that Mick was away filming in Australia and then holidaying in Indonesia from 6/7th July - October 15/16th 1969, was in UK for only one day and then travelled with the other stones to USA on 17th October.

There's the part in the movie where the guys in the Grateful Dead say "something's wrong" when they hear about what is going on. Did they even withdraw from playing there? Yes, per [en.wikipedia.org]

The Angels may have been neanderthals but I thought the Angels had done work for the Grateful Dead without anything like this ever happening.