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ThePaleRider
Nothing much about the music but an excellent, lengthy article with sound clips, interviews, video and some great photos!
Altamont Ended the '60s With Chaos and Death
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ThePaleRiderQuote
ThePaleRider
Nothing much about the music but an excellent, lengthy article with sound clips, interviews, video and some great photos!
Altamont Ended the '60s With Chaos and Death
Whew! It's taken me all morning to go through all the material in the article. What a treasure trove. Absolutely brilliant journalism. Read the comments section at the end...lots of people who were at the concert giving their eyewitness accounts.
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bmuseed
The best part for me came at the 1:49 mark in the 6 minute video..David Crosby says it was a mistake for the Grateful Dead organization to hire the Hell's Angels...Finally the truth that it wasn't the Rolling Stones..they didn't arrive until the day before but the press over these 50 years kept blaming the Stones.
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That was one of many bad decisions by concert organizers: hiring the notorious motorcycle gang to run security.
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But the lingering questions aren’t easily dismissed. Why did the Stones let the show go on? Could Hunter’s violent death have been avoided? Should blame be shouldered by the outlaw motorcycle gang enlisted to keep order or by the Grateful Dead, who recruited them?
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The motorcycle gang members were considered the counterculture’s outlaw brothers. They would go to Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests” and chill with the hippies when the Grateful Dead played their free gigs at Golden Gate Park. That’s exactly what Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane’s singer, told Jagger when she visited him in London in the fall of 1969.
“They were always okay, and when somebody would get on the stage and was not supposed to be there, they’d just go over and tell them not to,” says Slick. “They didn’t punch them or anything. So, we said, ‘We can get the Hells Angels to be the security [for Altamont].’ ”
The police were not an option. The Stones had dealt with a series of drug busts in England. They weren’t the only ones.
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Whatever was arranged with the Angels remains murky. But somewhere along the line, Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully talked to the motorcycle gang about keeping order. They would be paid $500 in beer. “They said, ‘All you gotta do is just keep people off the stage,’ ” says “Flash” Gordon Grow, a member of the San Francisco chapter of the Angels who worked that stage. “We said, ‘Yeah, no problem. We can do that.’ They asked us, ‘What do you want for that?’ We said, ‘We’re not cops. We’re not security guards. Just give us some beer.’ They said, ‘Okay.’ ”
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The SicilianQuote
bmuseed
The best part for me came at the 1:49 mark in the 6 minute video..David Crosby says it was a mistake for the Grateful Dead organization to hire the Hell's Angels...Finally the truth that it wasn't the Rolling Stones..they didn't arrive until the day before but the press over these 50 years kept blaming the Stones.
Maybe the Dead recruited them but the Stones hired them.Quote
"That was one of many bad decisions by concert organizers: hiring the notorious motorcycle gang to run security."Quote
"The motorcycle gang members were considered the counterculture’s outlaw brothers. They would go to Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests” and chill with the hippies when the Grateful Dead played their free gigs at Golden Gate Park. That’s exactly what Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane’s singer, told Jagger when she visited him in London in the fall of 1969.
“They were always okay, and when somebody would get on the stage and was not supposed to be there, they’d just go over and tell them not to,” says Slick. “They didn’t punch them or anything. So, we said, ‘We can get the Hells Angels to be the security [for Altamont].’"Quote
"Whatever was arranged with the Angels remains murky. But somewhere along the line, Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully talked to the motorcycle gang about keeping order. They would be paid $500 in beer. “They said, ‘All you gotta do is just keep people off the stage,’ ” says “Flash” Gordon Grow, a member of the San Francisco chapter of the Angels who worked that stage. “We said, ‘Yeah, no problem. We can do that.’ They asked us, ‘What do you want for that?’ We said, ‘We’re not cops. We’re not security guards. Just give us some beer.’ They said, ‘Okay.’ ”
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bmuseed
Finally the truth that it wasn't the Rolling Stones..they didn't arrive until the day before but the press over these 50 years kept blaming the Stones.
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bmuseed
The Rolling Stones arrived two days before the event...I represented The Stones and never hired anyone for security.. I doubt that anyone 'hired' the Hell's Angels..Based on their use at the Grateful Dead events, it was probably more like... come hang out around the stage and watch the generators..like you usually do at Grateful Dead events.
Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully talked to the motorcycle gang about keeping order.
Pay attention to David Crosby when he says it was the Grateful Dead organization..
I had hoped the WaPo article would help stop this false narrative that the Rolling Stones hired the Hells Angels...
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ThePaleRider
Well...50 years ago today...I guess everyone wants to forget it.
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sanQ
Release the tapes please.
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bleedingman
Wish there was a boot of Blackpool1964.
Supposedly the Maysles estate has a full MSG and Altamont filmed. Hopefully our great-grandchildren will get to see them.
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ChrisM42
There are complete soundboard reels of the MSG '69 shows and Altamont.
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oldschool
According to Matthews, who recorded the performance and still holds the tapes, the band delivered an inspired second set that closed with "Street Fighting Man," a song that might have rung the closing bell on the Woodstock era.[/i][/b]