Altamont

The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day

By: Joel Selvin

Narrated by: John Pruden

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In this breathtaking cultural history filled with exclusive, never-before-revealed details, celebrated rock journalist Joel Selvin tells the definitive story of the Rolling Stones' infamous Altamont concert in San Francisco, the disastrous historic event that marked the end of the idealistic 1960s.

In the annals of rock history, the Altamont Speedway Free Festival on December 6, 1969, has long been seen as the distorted twin of Woodstock - the day that shattered the '60s' promise of peace and love when a concertgoer was killed by a member of the Hells Angels, the notorious biker club acting as security. While most people know of the events from the film Gimme Shelter, the whole story has remained buried in varied accounts, rumor, and myth - until now.

Altamont explores rock's darkest day, a fiasco that began well before the climactic death of Meredith Hunter and continued beyond that infamous December night. Joel Selvin probes every aspect of the show - from the Stones' hastily planned tour preceding the concert to the bad acid that swept through the audience to other deaths that also occurred that evening - to capture the full scope of the tragedy and its aftermath. He also provides an in-depth look at the Grateful Dead's role in the events leading to Altamont, examining the band's behind-the-scenes presence in both arranging the show and hiring the Hells Angels as security.

The product of 20 years of exhaustive research and dozens of interviews with many key players, including medical staff, Hells Angels members, the stage crew, and the musicians who were there, Altamont is the ultimate account of the final event in rock's formative and most turbulent decade.

©2016 Joel Selvin (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Very good and very detailed

This is easily the most comprehensive and detailed exploration I have seen on the Altamont Free Concert of 1969, pooling information, viewpoints and interviews from musicians, journalists, people involved in the setup of the show, hells angels and attendees. I am deducting one star because I found a couple of instances of falsehoods that have been repeated from previous books, which have subsequently been debunked. These do not impact the overall story or book as a whole but bothered me enough to knock it slightly for poor fact-checking. For example, it repeats an often-claimed story that Mick Jagger propositioned infamous groupie Pamela Des Barres for a threesome with Michelle Phillips at the Stones hotel post-Altamont on the night of the show. Des Barres and Phillips have stated in interviews that this didn't happen but it has been a gossip rumor item in circulation for over 20 years. There is also a questionable item in the book pertaining to one of the Maysles Brothers being assaulted by a hell's angel in a dispute over the film Gimme Shelter. The book takes the hells angels version of events as gospel, omitting a very different version of what happened as told by the Maysles Brothers in the commentary track of the DVD. I personally find the Maysles version far more believable and question why both sides were not presented. Overall though, a very good although ugly depiction of what happened that tragic day and a good history lesson in what not to do when it comes to crowd control.

amazing!!

very hard time in Rock and Roll history but on the other hand it was very exciting. I absolutely love this book. Put together so well. it's very unfortunate what happened at this concert but there was so much good music. More than I could say for now days.

interesting and sad

The narrator is a little stiff, but still does a good job. it was hard to keep all the names straight at first but then I got it. this is an interesting bit of history that I didn't know about. glad I listened.

Great journalim

Fascinating reporting. His conclusion of responsibility I disagree with. Great stuff, of a now very different era, by someone who lived through it

Hell's Angels off the hook.

Great historical account. It was nice to hear about HAMC not being vilified for once. Just regular guys put in an impossible situation.

Excellent book

Great from start to finish. There is so much more to the story than I realized. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent Book

This was an excellent book, I was too young for Altamont, I heard about all problems at concert. The stones represent capitalist, hells angels were unfortunate foot soldiers and the fans were divided between young future intellectuals and capitalist that build silicon Valley and lost men and woman that will be trapped in economic poverty and working class lifestyle. Great book, that should be a movie.

Detangling a Rock N Roll Disaster

The massive shift from good times hippie values and positive altruistic vibes of Woodstock to the gnarled darkness of Altamont ‘s rock n roll disaster in only two years is a rolling dumpster fire of which it’s hard not to be curious. Why wasn’t Altamont gonna just be a cool love in on the west coast in parity with east coast Woodstock or even Monterey Jazz festival? There was a massive convergence of events, explosive music, business decisions, role players and bad drugs etc which led to this memorable legendary day of music. This book deserves its place in Rock history as it looks deep into the details, timelines and mind-set of the players. Totally loved this inside look.

I was there...

I was 22 years old when I went to the Altamont event. This book reminded me of things I had long forgotten - the nude fat guy, Marty Balin getting punched by a Hells Angel, the Hells Angels forcing their way through us on their bikes, etc. I still remember the young African-American guy who had multi-color striped hair and balloons attached to his hair. I never thought much of the Stones after that. This book provides very interesting insight into why it was such a miserable experience.

Dark day

Overall a really enjoyable listen. Narration was great and the story, while tragic at times, was presented well. My only complaint is that it was difficult to follow the vast cast of characters.