Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day

Altamont: The Rolling Stones, The Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day – by Joel Selvin

The word ‘Altamont’ is probably the most infamous word in the history of rock and roll.  Odds are if you’re reading this review, you’re familiar with the basics: Woodstock West, The Rolling Stones, Hell’s Angels, bad acid, and a tragic stabbing that killed a young man that was caught on camera. All of that is here, but author Joel Selvin does a much deeper dive.  He goes into great lengths to explain how and why such an event came together and the multitude of misdeeds that caused it to go down in history as one of the worst episodes of rock music and managed to end the ‘glorious’ decade of the 1960s in a rather ugly, putrid fashion.

Selvin starts his story several months before the actual performance. He examines the radical scene of the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco where hippies would frolic, open ‘free stores’, and drop lots of acid.  A ‘free concert’ featuring some of the biggest names in the San Francisco scene is just the event to highlight the era of wild free love and limitless inhibition.  We meet lots of ‘managerial’ types that begin to put the wheels in motion. Problem is, none of these ‘managerial’ types are very managerial, and it seems like all of these folks would rather get stoned all day long than really give such an endeavor any serious planning.

Then we go across the ocean and get a close look at The Rolling Stones.  Hindsight shows us that in 1968-1969, the Rolling Stones weren’t quite cemented in history yet as ‘the greatest rock and roll band on earth’. In fact, they were actually trying to rebrand themselves during this time.  There really didn’t seem to be a lot of similarities between the Rolling Stones and the San Francisco music scene except, of course, the loads of drugs.  So in a perpetual state of inebriation, the Stones find themselves basically broke, and hazily try to prepare an American Tour.  This isn’t as ho-hum as it might seem today.  During this particular time, it was only a few years removed from when ‘touring’ meant playing a 30-minute gig with girls screaming so loud that audience members literally couldn’t hear anything.  By the time 1969 arrives, audiences had metamorphized. They would actually listen to a band play their songs. So the Stones have a bit of an unproven challenge if they embark on such an adventure.

So with a bunch of randomly placed dots managing to somehow get connected, a free concert is arranged in San Francisco with the Rolling Stones headlining.  Nothing goes right.  The venue has to be changed at the last minute (with hundreds of thousands of kids already arriving from all over the country) and the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club is hastily arranged as concert security since Mick Jagger supposedly ‘doesn’t like cops’.  Add the facts that the new venue is less than ideal, there are sparse facilities for food and hygiene, and a lot of bad acid, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something tragic was bound to happen.

Author Selvin, again, does a lot of meticulous research.  This is the first instance where I actually learned about the history of the kid who was killed (Meredith Hunter) as well as the Hell’s Angel that threw the first stab.  This is about as detailed as you can get when describing this infamous event, and Selvin never bores his readers.

In sorting out the mess after the concert, I found it a bit unfair that the author essentially blames the Rolling Stones for the tragedy.  They may have been the biggest name on the bill and had the most pull, but this story is simply one of when too much poor planning and bad ideas get thrown together.  In fact, I’ve often wondered if this event would have been as heavily scrutinized if the fatal stabbing hadn’t been captured on film.  Actually seeing such a tragedy unfold in such a violent way definitely has a way of sensualizing the event.  Even Woodstock had some bad elements, but you would never have known that watching the lovefest of a movie.

Still, though, this book is a great reminder that even though most human beings are decent, there is an element of unpleasantness that will probably always be with us that, sadly, only gets exaggerated by abuse of mood-altering chemicals. I was too young to remember the actual event but have since witnessed such brutality when the same elements are left unchecked.  One only needs to go to YouTube to witness similar events that have occurred since.

Other than the author’s conclusion of where to lay the blame, I thought this was a very thorough and enjoyable read.  I, for one, have never dropped acid nor done any illegal drugs. After reading this story, I’m pretty sure I won’t start anytime soon.