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.
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.
The whole zipchilada
Tags: altamont, bootleg, gimmee shelter, maysles, meredith hunter, rolling stones
