Altamont Concert 69

If you were there share your thoughts and stories, good or bad

 

The night before the concert was one of the best parties I have ever attended. An ocean of small groups of people camped out in really cold weather. Next to us, the actual Altamont Raceway was an oval track surrounded by a chain link fence with thousands of 1.5 inch wooden slats fitted in from top to bottom and stapled. To keep warm, people started prying out the staples and sliding the slats out to make little fires. So my friends and I wandered from small campfire to small campfire for hours meeting others and sharing whatever we all had, be it wine or something stronger. In the morning, I was amazed to see that there was not a single slat left in that fence.

By contrast, the next day was one of the most intense musical shows I have ever attended. It wasn't too bad until the Angels got out of control during the Airplane's set. From there it escalated, obviously, from bad to worse, leaving you with a knot in your stomach and looking forward to the show's ending. Two other things worthy of mentioning. First, when you had to piss (or worse) you were in trouble, because you had to make your way through an ocean of seated humanity, about a half mile to either the outhouses or somewhere where you wouldn't soil another person. And secondly, I remember a huge delay... probably an hour or more... between the last non-Stones act and the Stones. Because the day was changing from dusk to dark, it became obvious the reason for the delay was so Mick and crew could make a grand, theatrical entrance with strobe lights, flames, etc.

All in all, the film Gimme Shelter does an exceptional job capturing what it was actually like to be at the concert. However, I have yet to see any film capturing how exceptionally wonderful the night before the show was.

 

Great thread idea and thanks for sharing your story twodawgzz!

Anybody else here at Altamont?

 

Another reason for the delay between CSNY and the Stones was Bill Wyman was shopping in San Francisco and was running late and had to take a later helicopter to the site.

 

Yes, Stanley Booth is a source for this.

 

I was young,14 and didn't love the experience although I liked the Airplane and the Stones. Didn't know there was violence till the next day.

Don't recall the sound being great. I wasn't a pot smoker yet so that may have been part of the problem

 

Where were you sitting in relation to the stage.

 

It was a cold damp gray December day and I don't recall the sun ever breaking throught the overcast. Sound system problems and a neat moment early in the day when they asked for more space in from on the stage, and the entire crowd stood and moved back a step or two, including those of us sitting FAR away on the side of a hill. We left mid-Stones. Attended a fair number of pavement sprint car, super modified and stock car races at the nearby speedway in the 70s.





Went to school at the then-new McCollam Elementary in Eastside San Jose with one or both of the already then sharp-dressedPassaro brothers. Recall accidentally getting one of their girlfriends out during a playground game of four-square; thought that moment in the 4th or 5th grade would be the immediate or after school end of me. Switched to playing marbles and never was much of a tetherball player.

 

I love the film so props to those that were there. My favorite version of under my thumb
from this lineup of the band.

 

Instead of starting a new thread: so, has anyone picked up this volume by Joel Selvin yet? I didn't even know it was coming, and will probably pull the trigger on it with only minor due diligence. Seems like it'll be pretty comprehensive, and a good read for the waning days of summer.

 

Reading through this and heard Selvin's interviews, the Stones do not come out well.

 

That's the only negative I've noted so far; based on some of the reviews I've checked out, Selvin really seems to have it in for the Stones and even dismisses everything they did after Altamont - which is a bit much. Still, that doesn't seem to be a fatal flaw.

 

I'm about a third of the way through it - so far, it's outstanding. I haven't read any of the reviews yet, but so far he seems very complimentary to the Stones (this is as of 36 hours before the show) though he paints Mick as pretty detached and naive.

 

Selvin argues that The Stones were a different band after this event (part way through recording Sticky Fingers) and there is certainly something to that. The question is whether that is necessarily a bad thing. Anyway he lavishes praise on the performance itself but he's a big Brian Jones fan. Selvin has been talking to folks involved with Altamont for decades so there's no doubt this book has the scoop.

 

Received this book in yesterday's mail. Couldn't stop reading it last night, and got too little sleep as a result. Engrossing. A lot to take in at once.

It made me go back and listen to my audience tape of the show, and I was surprised that my copy of the tape has a gap and fades out abruptly after the end of "Under My Thumb." The recording resumes (with an obvious gap) just before the debut performance of "Brown Sugar." According to Selvin's book, some pretty shocking things happened during that (brief?) window of time, events which contradict some of the narrative in the Maysles film. Some statements from the Stones' camp afterwards seem a bit disingenuous at best, if the description of events between those two songs, as laid out in Selvin's book, is 100% accurate.

Do all copies of the audience tape have a break there?

 

Next on my list, as soon as I can finish the new book about the Patricia Hearst kidnapping. Good times all around.

 

I'll check my recording when I get home. can you elaborate on the description of events vis a vis the statements from the Stones camp vs the Selvin book? (Going to buy right now)

 

And people wonder why we're such an effed up generation.

 

"Brothers and sisters! Brothers and sisters! Why are we fighting?"

It's rather sad hearing a completely ineffective Jagger trying to quiet and reason with the crowd. Keith just threatens to not play if "those cats don't stop fighting!"

Gimme Shelter is a brilliant document of the whole ugly incident.

 

Trying to avoid becoming lurid here, but essentially Selvin claims that Hunter's body is passed right in front of the stage, in full view of the band. Keith and Mick both claimed afterwards that they were unaware of the full extant of the violence during their set, or downplayed it. This account runs pretty much counter to their versions. While it's totally understandable (for many reasons, some obvious, some less so) that this was omitted from the film, IF it happened and IF it was filmed, it does change my understanding of the day a bit.

It's safe to say that before 12/6/69, Jagger relished and toyed with chaotic evil + occult imagery, but backed away from that after looking true evil in the face.

The gap in that audience recording is seemingly the moment where he met real evil face-on.

 

WOW.

 

Last year there was a great thread here on Altamont with well over 1000 replies that got locked after a two part meander. Might be worth checking out. Just about everything one needs to know on the subject can be found there.

Rolling Stones At Altamont Thoughts Part I
Rolling Stones At Altamont Thoughts Part II

 

Will have to check that out. Thanks! I have no desire to get this thread locked, and was reluctant to describe what I'd read because of that.

 

Actually, friends of mine who saw the Stones on numerous occasions during that time period always said that the Stones were ALWAYS late taking the stage. More than an hour after the previous band finished was the norm. I think Mick felt that it ratcheted up the anticipation level in the crowd.

 

It is worth the read, because the gorts - to their credit - allowed a little extra leeway in it due to the subject nature. I thought it amounted to one of the best and most in-depth reads I've ever seen at SHF (still do). [Wish they'd unlock it TBK.]