In 1969, the counterculture of the West was taking over America. The success of the Woodstock festival that summer was one of the biggest pop culture moments ever. Half a million audience members were in New York for three days of peace and love. By most accounts, the festival was a success and became the pinnacle of the hippie movement.
By the end of that year, the hippie dream was in tatters when a free concert at a racetrack became a disaster. This week the Beat Marches On to 6th December 1969 when the Rolling Stones put on the ill-fated concert at Altamont Speedway.
The idea of a free concert wasn’t initially the Rolling Stones nor the Altamont venue, it was proposed by the Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully and was going to be in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The Dead held free concerts around the city regularly and because the Stones missed Woodstock in the summer due to singer Mick Jagger filming Ned Kelly and the high-ticket prices on their tours, they jumped at the chance of performing a new free concert.
At this time The Rolling Stones were the biggest touring band in the world. When the free concert was suggested, they were mid-way through their first American tour in three years. The band sold out multiple arenas on the tour including Madison Square Garden. They thought the free concert would be a great way to end the tour. The officials of San Francisco started to worry when they realised the Stones were getting involved.
Once the Rolling Stones sent their representatives and started to talk to Scully, the San Francisco council pulled the permits that were already given. One of the stipulations that the band requested was no police presence at the concert because of prior incidents between the two parties. This put the last nail in the coffin for the concert to be held in the city.
Looking for a new location the next venue suggested was Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma around 40 miles away from San Francisco. The owners of the track agreed to hold the concert and the road crew went to start to assemble the stage.
Just two days before the concert took place, the owner of Sears Point wanted $100,000 paid upfront to repair any damages that would occur during the concert. There have been rumours that the fee was available for negotiation, but the Rolling Stones didn’t want to talk to them.
The Stones were hosting a press conference promoting the concert at the same time and Mick Jagger announced the free concert to the world and said it would be on the 6th of December but unsure where. Then, their knight in shining armour came forward with a venue.
In 1969 the Altamont Speedway had only been open for three years and was struggling to get attention in the motor racing world. The owner called the Rolling Stones lawyer in San Francisco offering use of the speedway. He didn’t want any money, just the free publicity. Little did he know that he was getting more than what he bargained for.
The Stones, who had now completely taken control of the organisation at this point from the Grateful Dead’s manager, flew over the venue in a helicopter to check it out and approve it. Now the race was on to get the equipment from Sonoma to Altamont 103 miles away including going back past San Francisco. It was now only 36 hours until the concert would take place. The race was on.
Once fans got wind of where the new location would be they descended onto the racetrack. There were an estimated 50,000 people already camping there before the road crew arrived. They got the stage built just in time but there was a problem with it at the new venue. The issue was the height of the stage. At only four feet tall, it would have been fine at Sears Point because it has a hill, and the plan was for the Stones to perform at the top of it. Altamont is flat and the stage built for the previous venue wasn’t really acceptable, but it was too late to make any changes.
With the fans drawing in on the new location quickly the Stones had to think about security for the event. As mentioned earlier they didn’t want any police there but they needed a presence to stop fans just rushing the stage. On the advice of the other San Francisco bands, they talked about the motorcycle gang, the Hell’s Angels. The security was cheap too it only cost the band $500 in beer. The problem, however, was that it was a different chapter of the motorcycle gang. The recommendation of the San Francisco bands was to use the local San Francisco chapter as they became friendly with them. The Hell’s Angels that were hired was a new chapter based in San Jose, comprised mostly of prospects (not fully fledged members) looking to make their mark.
Throughout the day’s performances, tension was rising between security and performers. Jefferson Airplane who was one of the warm-up acts had one of their singers, Marty Balin knocked unconscious by the motorcycle gang. They replaced the Grateful Dead who pulled out due to bad vibes. Other acts that played were The Flying Burrito Brothers, Santana, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.
Balin wasn’t the only lead singer to get attacked on that day as when Mick Jagger arrived at the venue a wacky fan walked up to him and punched him in the face. Stephen Stills was stabbed multiple times in the leg. Maybe the Grateful Dead vibes were right?
There was wine laced with LSD being passed around the crowd. It was a bad batch of the drug which was closer to Crystal Methamphetamine than the hallucinogen. The more the crowd drunk, the more chaotic they became and the Hell Angels who were getting drunk themselves and the calmest of people to begin with, you knew more trouble was brewing.
It was night by the time the Rolling Stones got onto the stage. The now incredibly stoned crowd surged forward to see the main attraction. The now incredibly drunk Hells Angels were on edge and started to fight off the surging crowd with broken pool cues and metal baseball bats. The band had to stop several times in the first few songs to make sure the crowd was safe. In the film ‘Gimme Shelter’ a documentary of the event, you can see the look of horror on Jagger’s face at the brutality of the security they had hired. Then the man in the green suit appeared.
The man, Meredith Hunter who was only 18, had tried to rush the stage twice, only to be subdued by the Hells Angels, but when he was stopped the third time, he pulled a gun out and then the bikers pounced.
Multiple members of the gang used their weapons to beat Hunter and one of them, Alan Passaro pulled out his knife and stabbed the young man multiple times. The Stones kept playing ‘Under My Thumb’ (not ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ as previously reported) unaware of what had just occurred. Meredith Hunter had just been killed. The whole event was captured by the documentary crew.
He was taken backstage to try and get some medical treatment, but it was too late for Hunter. His girlfriend was in hysterics hoping there was something someone could do. The Stones helicopter pilot refused to airlift him to the hospital, so the helpers had to phone for an Ambulance. The wait felt like forever, but it was too late. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
In the meantime, The Stones carried on playing their set then when finished the band and their entourage piled into their helicopter and were told the news of the fatal stabbing. The silence in the chopper was deafening.
It took a long time for the authorities to investigate the killing. The local police didn’t come along to the scene until two days later. They didn’t arrest anyone until mid-1970, even though there were 100s of witnesses. Eventually, they did arrest Pasarro but he was found acting in self-defence.
The reports from the media were slow to react to the concert too. Only the local press was there. Rolling Stone didn’t report anything for two weeks after the concert. Esquire didn’t report until August 1970.
Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger phoned into a local radio station reporting on the carnage the day after the concert. Sounding riled up (he might have been under the influence of something but not confirmed) his account was that one of the bikes, which they parked next to the stage to help stop the crowd from getting too close, had caught fire. Then violence ensued because the crowd didn’t get out of the way to put out the fire. He said “Now I ain’t saying no Angel hit anybody. I know some of them hit somebody. But they moved them people back out of the way of the bike. And we got the fire out. In the process, you know what, some people got hit”
Sonny claimed that some of the crowd started to knock over the bikes too, which is a big no-no in any motorcycle gang. He didn’t like the fact that Jagger blamed the Angels for starting the violence and was only reacting in self-defence. This is the only account we have heard from a Hells Angel since the incident.
If you were a few rows back from the front of the stage, you probably would have a different perspective of the show. Other than the early stoppages, the accounts from fans further back were a great set from the Stones. The sound wasn’t the best, but the P.A. System was designed for arenas rather than open-air concerts.
There was an estimated 300,000 people who attended the Altamont music festival. It was supposed to be Woodstock of the West and the perfect way to lead the peace and love generation into the new decade. It became the opposite, ending the hippy movement that looked so promising. It proved that you can’t just perform a concert on a whim and self-police the event. Yes, we can blame the Hells Angels for the violence that occurred, but equal blame can be put on The Rolling Stones for their naivety.
The Beat Matches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Altamont at 45: The most dangerous rock concert – BBC Culture
Altamont concert 1969 50th anniversary: Murder and mayhem (nypost.com)
Altamont 1969 Story – Aquarius Wept – Meredith Hunter Altamont Death (esquire.com)
The Gimme Shelter documentary is available on YouTube as well as the phone-in interview radio show with Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger.
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