December 1969: The fall – in Altamont the rock’n’roll loses innocence
“It was the end of innocence,” says Grateful Dead drummer Mickey hard about the free-and-outer festival on the Altamont Raceway near San Francisco, with which the US tour of the Rolling Stones ended in 1969. “Everything that could go wrong went wrong. It was hell on earth, really. ” “There was a bad mood from the start,” said Carlos Santana. “Bad Vibes. All the people just shot off and wanted to put everyone else on it. ” You can say that. When Mick Jagger got out of the helicopter in Altamont, a teenager hit him in the face and shouted: “I hate you, I hate you!” And when the 300,000 visitors stumbled from the festival site in the end, four fans were dead and hundreds were injured. The sixties had unveiled their ugly side.
The idea was a free concert, organized by the Stones and the Grateful Dead, plus crosby, stills, Nash & Young, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Santana and Jefferson Airplane. At the recommendation of the Dead, the Stones members of the Hell ‘s Angels hired as folders. Over 300 bikers were paid with alcohol worth $ 500. Soon they crouched on stage, swallowed acid in rough quantities and aimed at the heads of the fans with beer cans.
Some of the Angels kicked a man in the face who tried to push himself in front of the stage
Santana played first, and after her first song it got brutal. Some of the Angels kicked a man in the face who tried to push himself along the stage. During the appearance of Jefferson Airplane, singer Marty Balin instructed a fishing rod to disappear, whereupon the bikers made him passed out. The Rolling Stones waited with their appearance until dark.
During the two -hour break, fire was lit out of garbage in the audience against the cool temperatures, so that it literally stank to the sky when Jagger & Co finally came on stage and started with “Jumpin ‘Jack Flash”.
This was followed by “Carol”, then “Sympathy for the Devil”, which they had to cancel when a fight broke out. The Hell’s Angels started to an 18-year-old black man named Meredith Hunter, who allegedly handled with a pistol. Large parts of the tumult were filmed for the Tourdoku “Gimme Shelter”. While the Stones played “Under My Thumb”, the Angels entered Hunter until he was dead.
The wound that this day tore never healed
Sonny Barger, President of the Oakland department of Hell’s Angels, later claimed that the bikers had only protected the Stones and only became palpable when individual fans had thrown the Harleys in front of the stage. A jury in San Francisco later free to the murder Angel Alan Passaro. But the wound that this day tore never healed.