I pirated most of the following compilation of Christmas tunes from suggestion of some of the best posters contributing to a discussion on iorr (the ultimate Rolling Stones fan discussion board). I cherrypicked a bunch I like best -- herewith, in no particular order...
Keith Richards - Run Rudolph Run
LOWELL FULSON - I Want To Spend Christmas With You
Charles Brown - Please Come Home For Christmas
Sandy Center - Come On Baby It's Christmas
Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz, It's Christmas
Kate Bush - December Will Be Magic Again
(thanks, Buddy Zech!)
CHRISTMAS WRAPPING - THE WAITRESSES
Bob Dylan - Must Be Santa
Jona Lewie- Stop the Cavalry
CHRISTMAS IN JAIL - THE YOUNGSTERS
Santa Claus - Sonny Boy Williamson
Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)
I Saw Mommie Kissing Santa Claus - Amy Winehouse
Leadbelly - On A Christmas Day
THE RONETTES - SLEIGH RIDE
Frosty The Snowman-Leon Redbone And Dr John
SLADE - Merry Xmas Everybody
George Jones & Tammy Wynette - Mr & Mrs Santa Claus
Dead by Christmas - Hanoi Rocks
Pogues - Fairytale New York
Iggy Pop - White Christmas
Bowie & Bing - White Christmas
CANNED HEAT - CHRISTMAS BLUES
(thanks, Howie!)
The Christmas Dance - Ringo Starr
Santa Claus is Back in Town & Blue Christmas - Elvis
Not a gargantuan flood of news media content on Altamont on its 45th anniversary, this weekend. The news media pieces below range from moderately thoughtful to containing all-new outright falsehoods.
I've come to expect dashed-off articles for various rock
'n' roll web sites - but the ones matching that description are not bad.
The most surprisingly, in not a good way, are 2 pieces from the BBC and from NPR.
It just shows top-notch media outlets need better content pertaining to Altamont. And also provides motivation for me to jam on my 2 forthcomings documentaries: "The Night Before Altamont" radio documentary, and Altamont 360° film documentary.
.......................................
A couple of weeks ago, I pitched a 2-minute story on the night before Altamont to NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered." The structure and some of the language
in the piece that aired today, produced by Arun Rath, is the same as what I pitched to them. However, although the NPR piece is diametric to my proposal and approach---a cartoon of rock/cultural
history---inaccurate, uninspired, reductive, stale, and cynical. I was
told if NPR did go with a piece from me it would need to be "perfect." I suppose theirs could be technically perfect, but....the title is misspelled. And one of the
quotes attributed to Mick Jagger is...Keith Richards. In addition to producing my own work, I do hope in the future to be able to provide media outlets like NPR with better Altamont content.
....................................... Altamont at 45: The most dangerous rock concert This piece is just not up to the Beeb's usual standards. It contains falsehoods, and reflects sloppy research. Hells Angels with lead hammers on the ends of pool cues? There are so many flaws in this article if it were on paper I'd use it and some ammonia to clean my cat box.
BONUS TRACK -- "The Night Before Altamont" radio documentary will be released in 2015 -- but here is a BONUS recording of True Adventures of the Rolling Stones author Stanley Booth -- on night before Altamont adventures and hi-jinx with the Rolling Stones and Maysles Brothers.
My aim was to broadcast "The Night Before Altamont" for the 45th Anniversary, but it will be released instead in 2015.
Description of The Night Before Altamont (radio documentary)
The
Altamont Free Concert of 1969 has a place in late 20th century American
cultural and musical history as an event envisioned as the "West Coast
Woodstock," aiming to blend the best of Bay Area counterculture bands
with the world-famous Rolling Stones. In fact, Altamont manifested as a
tragic compendium of human errors that lead into the heart of
darkness--marked most dramatically by the death of a young black man
from Berkeley at the hands of a member of the Hells Angels.
While some may be aware of the Altamont concert itself, the story of the night before Altamont has not been told until now.
The dominant narrative about Altamont claims the event signaled the
last gasps of 1960s idealism and the death knell of the American
counterculture. One of the days "the music died," as referenced in Don McLean's song, "American Pie."
The thing is: cultural
movements don't turn on a dime like that. Just 12 hours before the
concert--on the night before Altamont--the counterculture was alive and
well, marked by positive cooperative energy anticipating the next day's
event, hundreds of volunteers pulling together the concert site, and
thousands of kids camping out, gathered around bonfires, playing music,
sharing jugs of wine and "good vibes."
The mood the night before
night was so beautiful, in fact, that after members of the Rolling
Stones visited the Altamont site Keith Richards spent the entire night
there--remembered as strolling around the scene, cheering on the set-up
crew. Keith remarked later: “It was fascinating. You could feel it in
the air, that anything could happen."
Although some felt a sense
of foreboding the night before Altamont, for many others, the night
before Altamont was the yin to the yang of the Altamont Free Concert.
Completed interviews with the following--who were at Altamont the night before:
- Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter/Gray Gardens director)
- Ronnie Schneider (Rolling Stones manager)
- Tony Funches (Rolling Stones bodyguard)
- Rock Scully (Grateful Dead manager)
- Stanley Booth (True Adventures of the Rolling Stones author)
- Sam Cutler (Rolling Stones road manager)
- Michael Lang (Woodstock organizer)
- Rhoney Stanley (wife of infamous acid king, Owsley Stanley)
- Grateful Dead and Bill Graham Presents tech, sound, and lighting crew volunteers
- Photographers and members of the Bay Area news media
- “Irish,” ever-popular recreational substances entrepreneur
-
"Frank" with his bread truck stuffed with food and jugs of wine--around
whose campfire Keith spent time the night before Altamont
- Various kids/Stones fans who camped at Altamont the night before
Am
setting up final interviews with Michael Lydon ("The Rolling Stones
Discover America" ), Chip Monk (Woodstock and Altamont stage and
lighting designer), one of the Gimme Shelter cameramen, and would give my left wisdom tooth for a
short interview with Keith.
Today is Mick Jagger's 71st birthday -- hope he is having a happy one.
I met Mick Jagger at writer George Plimpton's Bastille Day party in East Quogue---2 weeks before Mick's 36th birthday---July 14, 1979. Here he is the day after his birthday that year, at Studio 54 with new paramour, Jerry Hall. He looked decidedly scruffier at Plimpton's party than he does here.
Context/The Times
"The Hamptons" were very different in the '50s, '60s, 70s, from what they are today. Today, the Hamptons showcase supermodels, glitzy loud pop stars,
their entourages, papparazi, and people crying out for attention for
whatever reason...but back then it was far simpler. This summer spot was not closely monitored by the media--more a getaway where artists, writers, creatives, well-known and wealthy people could let their hair down around each other (more or less), without drawing too much attention.
Plimpton's party was covered in the NY Times Sunday "Styles," and maybe a squib in Time magazine, but not written up in a covetous or mean-spirited, voyeuristic/celebrity way -- just that it was a fabulous party!
How all that informs Plimpton's party...
George Plimpton loved to throw parties. He'd gather together the most eclectic collections of humans and toss them together--and fun would ensue. He made everyone (including young teenaged me) feel not only comfortable but as if your presence was indispensable to the evening's delights. His Bastille Day Party was an annual fete, looked forward to by many. Among other high points was the fireworks display (he adored fireworks to the point of being a bit of a pyro).
In contrast to today, the Hamptons then (until maybe the late '80s?) were inhabited and visited by many of the same people who were in attendance at George Plimpton bash, namely: New York old-monied aristo patrons of the arts, the abstract expressionist painters whose work they bought and who lived out there--fashion designers like Halston and Dianne von Furstenberg, writers like Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, and Truman Capote, poets, photographers like Dick Avedon, personalities like Dick Cavett, politicians who enjoyed socializing, like Teddy Kennedy, Broadway and film actors and actresses (Joel Gray, Roddy McDowell, Lauren Bacall, Lauren Hutton, Candice Bergman, Margaux Hemingway), Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, classical musicians and conductors.
It was just beginning to be a place where younger people---making their fortunes thru pop culture--were buying houses where their kids could play out in front, on the beach, unwatched by media or gawkers. So people like Paul Simon and Chevy Chase were at the party, and I think may even have come together. Also, invited to Plimpton's party were members of George's beach club---and their houseguests .I was one such houseguest, landing at Plimpton's party for 3 summers, with my friend Laura. This is us a few years later, graduating from high school.
And to Mick
Over the years I've read Mick isn't much of a drinker, and not as much into drugs as other members of the Rolling Stones. At Plimpton's party there was much in the way of distinguished joint passing, and undoubtedly coke, and serious boozing going on (Mick did seem to stand out somewhat, in that regard, that night, tho who's to say). But more, Mick seemed out of sorts...surly and cranky, agitated and unfocused. I wish I knew more about that night for him. What was going on with him. etc.
At the party I was having a blast, talking to all sorts of fascinating people. As a young person, I intended to be a stage [possibly also movie] actress, and felt completely at ease with My People, whose company I was absolutely certain I'd be among for the rest of my life--and whose apparent acceptance at Plimpton's seemed to confirm that.
At this exceedingly merry soiree, where no one stuck out particularly, Mick was sort of pouting off to the side, or strutting around by himself, wearing a jacket made from an American flag (has anyone ever seen a picture of that jacket? I haven't, but it was semi-scandalous, even as late as 1979 to be wearing an item of clothing made of a real American flag -- I don't think it was modeled after Brian Jones' American flag jacket -- but can't recall).
At one point my friend and I were talking to Buck Henry, a writer at the time for Saturday Night Live, and my friend remarked matter-of-factly: "Mick Jagger's right behind you." I turned around as he was passing by. I stepped toward him, and took his jacket in my hand and gave it a tug. He turned around and said something like "YESSS???" making a wide-open-eyes face, and I gaped and smiled, and he made a noise like blaaaaaaaaagghhhk, stuck out his tongue, and made a face and strode away. (a la Dan Ackroyd in Trading Places dressed as Santa after the Duke's Christmas party).
My friend and I howled with laughter. Not giggling, but laughing, because it was just CRAZY!
It wasn't cool to gawk at or follow anybody around--and Mick was comically unpleasant--plus there were so many other people who did want to talk to a blond teenaged girl twirling around in a strapless aqua/white polka dotted dress, so I didn't cross Mick's path again.
What was it like being face-to-face with Mick Jagger? He was slight, probably 4 inches taller than me, but did carry himself with a sense of the internally-formidable. He did seem like someone who would and could do absolutely anything, and have the capacity not to care. Mick was not "on" at this party. Not performing at all - no Mick Jagger "persona," but definitely a force majeure. A member of Roman aristocracy having a sulky bad night, and not bothering to hide it. Not so far flung that he seemed a dramatic prima donna. Just restless, and out of sorts. This was at a time he is said to have been on the rocks with Bianca. Maybe that had something to do with his seeming grumpy. As said, most of the people present were light-hearted and high-spirited---and Mick was not the most famous person there, and no one was bugging him.
The party went on until at least 4, a cavalcade of well-known people stayed late (and little me and my friend Laura, who was having an engrossing tete-a-tete with Lauren Hutton, who took out her front-teeth gap-filler for Laura). We headed inside, around the piano, and Joel Gray led us in singing rollicking show tunes...Sadly, Mick wasn't among the gathered.
Was Frank Sinatra? I can't remember...he and I had a fine conversation in George's kitchen. He were entering the kitchen at the same time--just him and me. I wanted some water. He was pretty bombed, and asked me to join him in a glass of scotch. We rummaged through George's cabinets until we found tumblers that suited Frank. They were lovely, heavy-leaded glasses. Frank Sinatra showed me how to pour "three fingers." It was the first whiskey I'd ever drunk....and I liked it.
So, this is how these things happen. It started with Steve Brown...lovely man...GratefulDead Records production coordinator, promotion director, film/video production associate [Grateful Dead Movie, more], general aide-de-camp, and friend to Jerry Garcia.
Jerry Garcia, Ken Howard, Steve Brown (R-L)
Last summer Steve shot my interview with Sam Cutler for the upcoming full-length documentary film, Altamont 360°. Then----on
April 20, 2014---Steve had a screening of one of his films. I
attended that. At that time, Steve introduced me to a guy who knew another guy,
named "Irish," who was infamous in the Bay Area music
in the 1960s-80s, and was also at Altamont the night before.
Steve's friend [Nick] was kind enough to connect me with Irish. Irish is what's commonly known as a "colorful character." He lives in Silver City, Nevada.
As it happens, Silver City and Virginia City NV is where some seriously seminal stuff went down pertaining to the very early beginnings of the psychedelic music scene--in some ways even before it got together in San Francisco---starting in June 1965, and focusing on one place: The Red Dog Saloon.
Irish agreed to be interviewed for "The Night Before Altamont." We volleyed back and forth regrading time and place for the interview.
Meanwhile, Irish dropped the name of Rock Scully, who he'd known back in the day, traveling in intersecting circles, and had been trying to re-find. I'm very fond of Rock Scully---Rock being the 3rd person I hastened to interview for "The Night Before Altamont" (Grateful Dead manager 1965-1985), and told Irish I would reach out to Rock and let him know Irish wanted to be in touch.
clockwise from Pigpen...Bill Kreutzmann, Rosie McGee, Phil Lesh, Bobby Weir, Jerry Garcia, Danny Rifkin, Rock Scully [in red]
Rock called me days later. And, sure enough, Rock remembered Irish, phone numbers were exchanged, and the 2 of them had whatever conversations they had. In gratitude, Irish underwrote my "The Night Before Altamont" interview trip to Silver City/Virginia City -- getting me comped at the Gold Hill Hotel -- and coordinated meet-ups for me with original denizens of the Red Dog music/cultural scene.
This weekend "The Night Before Altamont" interview jaunt happened -- this is how it went....
First day of summer. Weather could not have been more ideal.
Many people out, enjoying the open roads.
Silver City is 250+ miles from San Francisco.
Giant room with fireplace, private veranda, one of the most comfortable beds ever
Prostitution is legal in Nevada...but instead of, like, making a Old West theme brothel in downtown Virginia City--which is all about historic buildings and kitch--with women in corsets and
garter belts, dude playing piano, a Miss Kitty Madame, hoop skirts,
and all that, these establishments are shunted to the outskirts of town with car repair, paint shops, auto salvage, etc. As a friend said, "Making money however you can is ok in Nevada--but darlin' don't let anybody fool you---this is
still a nation of Puritans and prudes."
Irish Tom Cutts' awesome corrugated metal house - that is Bob the Dog.
Irish Cutts and Giant Dog #2 - named Duke. Irish was a self-described "backstage entrepreneur" attending all music
events of the day. He was at Altamont the night before plying his trade,
namely selling weed ["Got nothing to lose--statute of limitations ran out long
ago" he laughs].
Irish has a fantastic collection of vintage concert, festival, and posters and flyers
photo of Irish from back in the day (far R) - I held the pistol he's got in this photo - first gun I'd ever held, believe it or nor.
Irish from back in the day (middle)
Irish from back in the day.
Irish from back in the day.
Irish's place at nightfall.
Morning at the Gold Hill Hotel - already 90°s at 11am - tho so dry when I spilled a glass of water most of it evaporated before it hit the ground
Me with Irish Tom Cutts at his chez
All sorts of mining artifacts scattered around
Irish and Lonesome Wayne at the Red Dog Saloon
Guy walking into the Red Dog Saloon is not in a costume nor dressing ironically.
Frank Garcia tells how Keith Richards stopped by his campfire and casually hung out in the spirit of the communal night before Altamont. Frank had driven out to the Altamont Speedway in his bread truck the afternoon of December 5, 1969. He brought jugs of wine and loaves of bread to share, and parked near the stage---lending a hand and enjoying the scene.
Frank Garcia with his beautiful custom chopped Harley.
Frank Garcia and me
Frank Garcia and his awesome guitar virtuoso neighbor, Darren.
Toward the end of the Frank Garcia's interview neighbor Darren started to play. Hear 30 seconds in the clip below.
