Oil Can Boyd Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 The Washington Post has a very detailed, interesting, and well done (multi-media) look at the 50th anniversary of Altamont. I appreciate that they provide a lot of background on who Meredith Hunter was. In many tellings he just the guy who was killed. To me the Dead's role in the whole thing has always seemed confused but in this story they are much more in the middle of things than I had understood. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/lifestyle/altamont-rolling-stones-50th-anniversary/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mountain bed Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 Thanks for that, Oil Can. There's been so much written about this but it's always interesting no matter the viewpoint. The most recent thing I've read that dealt with "What happened at Altamont?" was Sam Cutler's book. You really get an insider's insider's account from that one, and it goes on for chapter after chapter. Fascinating stuff on what was essentially a fucking horror show almost from its conception. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jff Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 Are the Hell's Angels the Scientology of '6os/'70s rock stars? I don't know why else there would still so much "God Bless the Hell's Angels" coming from that generation of music stars when the Hell's Angels is demonstrably infested with rabid scumbags. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 I just finished reading Rich Cohen's The Sun and The Moon and The Rolling Stones. Came out in 2016. Very entertaining read - it contained one of the best Altamont passages I've read. There's gotta be more footage from the Maysles brothers - if so, I wish they'd release it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 I always assumed it was because the Hell Angels had access to good drugs ---- the Dead has always seemed to have a good relationship with them, I guess they shared their 'outlaw' spirit. I know I checked Cohen's book out from the library, but I can't remember if I read it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 Sam Cutler's book. Just started reading that one over the weekend. Poor guy was stranded in SF immediately after Altamont, and the Stones completely stiffed him! Left him to deal with all the shit, and didn't reimburse nor pay him a cent. That's some cold shit. The crazy "fact" I read in the Cohen book was that the Stones were back in their hotel by 9pm that night. Cutler's the best thing about that Amazon Prime Grateful dead doc series. I'm hoping his book comes off the same way. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Just started reading that one over the weekend. Poor guy was stranded in SF immediately after Altamont, and the Stones completely stiffed him! Left him to deal with all the shit, and didn't reimburse nor pay him a cent. That's some cold shit. The crazy "fact" I read in the Cohen book was that the Stones were back in their hotel by 9pm that night. Cutler's the best thing about that Amazon Prime Grateful dead doc series. I'm hoping his book comes off the same way. My library is bringing in Cohen's book in for me today - which should be a nice easy read while visiting the in-laws over the Thanksgiving weekend. I guess it's entirely possible that the band were in their hotels by 9 pm -- I know the wanted to wait for the sun to go down before they played and since the show was in December I guessing the sun set by 5 pm or so. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 At the end of the film (Gimme Shelter) you can see them getting in the helicopter. (At least I think that is right. It has been a long time since I have seen that movie.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jff Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 My library is bringing in Cohen's book in for me today - which should be a nice easy read while visiting the in-laws over the Thanksgiving weekend. I guess it's entirely possible that the band were in their hotels by 9 pm -- I know the wanted to wait for the sun to go down before they played and since the show was in December I guessing the sun set by 5 pm or so. The WP article said they were on stage at 6:30. (Not necessarily that that's when they went on stage.) So, even if that's when they started, they played 15 songs, plus several breaks for outbursts of violence. So if they were on stage for 90 minutes, that still leaves them an hour to get from the stage to the hotel. I guess I had never given it much thought, but I would have assumed the concert was much later at night than that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 At the end of the film (Gimme Shelter) you can see them getting in the helicopter. (At least I think that is right. It has been a long time since I have seen that movie.)That helicopter was so overloaded. You can see people sitting on others' laps before it takes off. It had a capacity for 10 but they crammed 17 into it, as if they were fleeing a zombie apocalypse... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 The WP article said they were on stage at 6:30. (Not necessarily that that's when they went on stage.) So, even if that's when they started, they played 15 songs, plus several breaks for outbursts of violence. So if they were on stage for 90 minutes, that still leaves them an hour to get from the stage to the hotel. I guess I had never given it much thought, but I would have assumed the concert was much later at night than that. Yeah, it just seems as if it was happening in the middle of the night. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 My library is bringing in Cohen's book in for me today - which should be a nice easy read while visiting the in-laws over the Thanksgiving weekend. My only complaint is that, in the same way that the Scorsese doc (Crossfire Hurricane) does - it just kind of ends after Nellcote and Exile. I think the book is around 300 pages, and the Nellcote chapter ended around page 260. Barely anything about Ron Wood. I mean, I get it - not much interesting happens after Some Girls and Tattoo You, but throw me a bone and give me a paragraph on shooting the video for Undercover of the Night, or give me something about how the Stones approached the MTV era, or the 80s in general. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 There is a much better documentary called 25 x 5: The Continuing Adventures of The Rolling Stones. It came out in 1989. I think it is still only available on VHS. But I am sure there must a digitized version out there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 Yeah 25x5 is good one. I still have Rewind on VHS -- that was a fun one -- the setting was a museum with Jagger and Wyman. Speaking of Wyman, I did watch Wyman latest doc - The Quite One a couple of nights ago -- well worth the time, some pretty cool footage. I watched it via Hulu - not sure if it streaming elsewhere. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 FYI - Gimme Shelter is available for streaming on the Criterion Collection App. It's $11/month, and it's excellent if you like art house and foreign flicks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mountain bed Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 That helicopter was so overloaded. You can see people sitting on others' laps before it takes off. It had a capacity for 10 but they crammed 17 into it, as if they were fleeing a zombie apocalypse... Yeah, it's one of the most edgy things I've ever seen in a Rock doc. The whole thing is an almost non-stop nightmare, but when they're trying to GTFO of there... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 Finished reading Sam Cutler's book yesterday. I enjoyed his appearance in the Amazon Dead doc, so I was hoping for "more." Not bad, not great. Apparently his career after getting fired by the Dead (in 74?) wasn't terribly interesting, because that's where the book ends. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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