it’s just a shot away

Sympathy for my hat.

“Brothers and sisters, c’mon now. That means everybody just cool out.”

You’ve seen the movie and you’ve heard those words. But not quite like this. This is all 79 minutes of the Rolling Stones set at the Altamont Speedway show Dec. 6, 1969. “Gimme Shelter” makes it seem like the Stones played 8 minutes and were off the stage. But here is an audience recording of the concert in all its storied, sordid glory. Yup, you hear that jamoke singing along to “Gimme Shelter,” you hear fans wrastling early on (be cool!) during “Sympathy for the Devil,” you hear Jagger introduce the live debut of “Brown Sugar” and you hear the melee (”The Melee”) that breaks out during the famed rendition of “Under My Thumb” — the crunching, the commotion, the call for an ambulance, all of it — during the stabbing of Meredith Hunter.

A full shakeup of the day’s fallout is recounted here by Salon.com and, of course, here is the obligatory YouTube clip. And a (ermm) slideshow of photos by Bill Owens.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

This bootleg is commonly (if distastefully) referred to as “Killer Festival” or “There’s No Angel Born In Hell.” It is only a fair audience recording — basically it sounds like they used the tape to build the Panama Canal one cassette scoop at a time — but it’s irrelevant considering you are placed square inside the mayhem. Just add headphones and amphetamines.

01-jumping-jack-flash

02-carol

03-sympathy-for-the-devil-i

04-sympathy-for-the-devil-ii

05-the-sun-is-shining

06-stray-cat-blues

07-love-in-vain

08-under-my-thumb-i

09-under-my-thumb-ii

10-brown-sugar

11-midnight-rambler

12-live-with-me

13-gimme-shelter

14-little-queenie

15-satisfaction

16-honky-tonk-women

17-street-fighting-man

The whole zipchilada

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6 Responses to “it’s just a shot away”


  1. 1 Gram parsons or Bust!!!

    the only worth a dime at the festival was the Burrito Brothers with Gram. anyone here know where i can get their set? preferably Soundboard. Captain? can u help me here?

  2. 2 smangs

    dont know that that is an existence. i do have another fine gram boot that i can post sometime soon. keep checking back, or bust boy.

  3. 3 Gram parsons or Bust!!!

    i dont think its in existence either. but i keep hopin it will pop up.

  4. 4 Bandy Lou

    I added headphones, but not amphetamines. Great stuff, as a historical document if not a high-quality audio record. The salon.com article is cool. The Rolling Stone article is online as well at http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5934386/rock__rolls_worst_day .

  5. 5 DEMIAN

    ROCK AND ROLL

  6. 6 Heather Anne Peel

    The most intense show in Rock history, thanks for posting!!!

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