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.
Here is Stanley's reading on PRX
