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A question about Altamont Festival


edna

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Hello, my friends... :)

I am looking for that part in the "Gimme Shelter" movie where Keith suddenly stops playing and shouts "Hey, that guy, there... if he doesn't stop it, I'm not playing" or something like that...

I believe it must be before the stabbing... or maybe not? :P

If you remember the song they were playing, please, let me know... Thank you in advance :bow:

Oh, found it... :grin: it was at the end of "Sympathy..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-MMlL8YAfw&feature=related

Thank you very much... :)

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Most of the most interesting footage is evidence by witnesses watching a p-cat band known as Hell's Angels.

This is my greatest example of how soft people are.

Let's think about the odds for a minute.

400 Hell's Angels verses 100,000 fans.

C'mon!

Yet Hell's Angels took that stadium! If me and sammy were there it wouldn't have happened...lol

All they did was cover a small portion of the perimeter and randomly punched people to make them scared.

I'm sure there were those fans that fought but sadly, the sheep beside them looked the other way.

What a great chance it would've been to rub the Angels faces against elbows!

And the mutton blew it...

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[smaller]I swiped this from my post to another thread a couple years back. [/smaller]

The then 20 year old bazooka was an actual attendee at the Altamont concert.

I’ve resisted doing this in the past , but here’s a few of my recollections of the day (admittedly flavored by half-hits of two different kinds of acid and countless doob):

We parked just off the freeway maybe a quarter mile down dirt roadway into the valley behind the Speedway. There was a hot air balloon being fired up and some spaced out nude people walking the opposite direction, I think looking for a better vantage point.

We ventured about halfway into multitude and sat on the dry grass. Probably our good fortune, that we eventually rejected the idea of trying to move up closer. Throughout the day, throngs of people would pour through our area, hoping to be nearer the front, although there were repeated announcements advising against that.

I’m not sure of the exact sequence of events, but I know the sound system went to hell for Santana’s performance. I think it was restored shortly thereafter. You could feel the tension building and the atmosphere was vaguely scary (by the way, kids, acid messes with your brain chemistry, but it in no way expands your mind).

In our general vicinity, there were some amusing goings-on. What must have been the world’s first Yuppies laid out a nice blanket with Cornish game hens on the hibachi and uncorked some white wine. I swear one of the guys had a sweater draped and tied over his shoulders, and the women were tweedy and aristocratic. Nearby, there was a fellow in a pig mask that blended quite naturally into his face (maybe blame that on the damned acid, too) and another Neanderthal-looking guy prowling around and pacing back and forth with a huge open end wrench sticking out of his back pocket.

There must already have been some rough stuff going on, because at one point Grace Slick was chanting from the stage, “You can fxxck ‘em. Don’t fxxck ‘em around.â€

The wait for the Stones seemed interminable. People still just keep pushing through, moving forward. As it turned to early evening, large bonfires were creating kind of a hellish scene. When Jagger hit the stage in a orange and black bat-winged harlequin suit, the crowd went medieval. I think the Stones tried to lead off with Street Fighting Man (or was it Jumping Jack Flash ?), and everybody just ran forward. We could see stuff being thrown and people being smashed. Jagger pleaded dozens of times, “Cool out, peopleâ€, and each time they started to play, insanity flared up again.

To be honest, I don’t really remember how things finally did “cool out†enough (I ought to watch the movie), for the Stones to deliver a fairly satisfying set and escape.

On the way back home, we picked up hitch-hikers and swapped stories. Like probably more than 80% of the 300,000 people assembled, we didn’t know anything about guns or stabbings until the next day. So, in a way, Ignorance is Bliss, and a splendid time was enjoyed by many.

-----

MuzikTyme, your comments are erroneous on several counts (That's intended as a kind way of saying you don't know what you are talking about).

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:bow: :bow: :bow: Thanks so much for sharing this, Bazooka... :)

by the way, kids, acid messes with your brain chemistry, but it in no way expands your mind

...oh, yes... :P they don't even make any LSD no more, it's speed mixed some trippy stuff...

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There's actually pretty good info in the wikipedia article.

. . . . [smaller]for instance:[/smaller]

I think the Stones tried to lead off with Street Fighting Man (or was it Jumping Jack Flash ?)

. . . . It was Jumpin' Jack Flash according to the set list. They closed with Street Fighting Man.

------

MuzikTyme, There was no "stadium" as such. This was an open valley well away from and below the actual Speedway. This was a time when substances less benign than a little pot were coming into vogue, and there was no shortage of drugged-up a-holes (not lambs) relentlessly pushing forward, determined to be up close and personal with the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band on a three-foot high stage. It before the release of the Let It Bleed album, so the Stones' best-known song at the time was Sympathy For The Devil. It seems to me that kind of vaguely Satanic taste flavored the whole scene. The way the event was hastily slapdashed together almost guaranteed bad news.

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I’ve resisted doing this in the past ,

MuzikTyme, your comments are erroneous on several counts (That's intended as a kind way of saying you don't know what you are talking about).

Pinpoint my error/s and please, don't say "stadium"

That's my general word used to describe concerts and also a way to say hi!

Just answer the former, my good-natured friend.

Altamont was the end of the long Summmer of Love that lasted a couple or three years...

If only the summer of love (1967) would've never ended?

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and please, don't say "stadium"

That's my general word used to describe concerts and also a way to say hi!

Well, of course, and a big 'Stadium' to you as well, Muzik.

Pinpoint my error/s

I'm not interested in a pissing contest. I just don't know what you've based your "observations" on.

If me and sammy were there it wouldn't have happened...lol

I admittedly wasn't at the head of the crowd (being the kind of concert-goer that likes to keep some distance between my eardrums and the Marshall stacks), but I do know there were repeated advisories from the stage asking people to stop pushing forward because of the pressure down front. And not to dismiss your delusions of Billy Jack, but I doubt you two grade schoolers would have turned the tide (Yes, I see the 'lol').

All they did was cover a small portion of the perimeter and randomly punched people to make them scared. I'm sure there were those fans that fought but sadly, the sheep beside them looked the other way. What a great chance it would've been to rub the Angels faces against elbows!

As far I know the Hell's Angels were concentrated in front of the stage. And yes, they were surly and intimidating (I think I remember seeing full beers being thrown at people, and not in a pleasant way). Through whatever ignorance or indifference, the coordinators of this event had chosen to have a drunk and stoned outlaw gang keep 'order'. If, at any point, the kind of combat you suggest had come down, the melee would have ended with more people injured and dead, and the Stones just wouldn't have shown at all. By the time the Stones finally did get there, the crowd was simultaneously frustated and adrenalinized, and things turned to predictable sh*t.

Would anybody pass up a free Rolling Stones concert (along with World Class opening acts)? I thought the Rolling Stones, for whatever motives, wanted a personal Woodstock, although "peace and love" was never really their main appeal. The Stones were probably just too 'big' at the time (bigger than Jesus and Lucifer) for this short-notice spectacular to work out righteously.

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bazooka said:

"And not to dismiss your delusions of Billy Jack, but I doubt you two grade schoolers . . ."

It's comments like that make me wonder why I ever tried being nice to you.

Grade schooler and delusions of Billy Jack LMAO

I didn't study martial arts (Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Aikido) for thirty years to hear the likes of you mention your sad attempt at whatever you think you are fooling.

You act like you're jealous.

And all the times in the past when I thought you were laughing with me. You were laughing at me!

Hopefully you'll find some kind of reward thinking that you hurt my feelings.

Goodbye, bazooka.

PS

I'd have snapped Billy Jack in half before he had a chance to lift his leg.

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Goodness Gracious Muzik, did you not recognize a tongue-in-cheek comment ?

I don't know your exact age (or sammy's). I only surmised that in December 1969, you fellows were probably not prepared to exact vengeance on badass weapon-wielding bikers.

When I first said your comments were "erroneous", I was indeed including the word "stadium", because how could I know you have your own personal definition that is different from the one everybody else uses ?

I'm never inclined to forgive the actions of the Hells Angels, but I still believe that larger skirmishes wouldn't have transformed the Altamont concert into something better. That is my opinion, and I was on the scene (OK, I wasn't a key figure in the event, but I must have a feel for it which is, at the very least, as valid as your own).

And I don't understand what I would possibly be jealous of. :stars:

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Bazooka,

I did recognize your tongue-n-cheek method.

But I feel that you didn't recognize mine.

In the realm of internet, many things can give reason for misunderstanding.

We're both old enough to realize the difference.

I'm glad that I feel, in the long run:

We DO understand. And it's for this reason that your posts are amongst the best, my friend.

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I'm happy now to take Jagger's advice to "cool out" 41 years after the fact.

There never was a good reason to re-run my age-addled reminiscing or to get caught in an "alternate reality" fracas, since edna nullified her own question in the very first post.

But I've learned that I wouldn't want to jump you in a dark alley (or a bright alley, bowling alley, etc.). :angel:

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