Altamont Raceway Park
From Free net encyclopedia
- For the locations called Altamont in New York State, see Altamont, New York
Altamont Raceway Park is a speedway in Northern California, between Tracy and Livermore. It is best known for hosting a rock music festival in December 1969 which was marred by violence, including one killing and three accidental deaths (two of the deaths were caused by a hit-and-run car accident, another death was the result of a person drowning in a drainage ditch).
The festival included the Rolling Stones and other bands (including the Grateful Dead, Santana, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Jefferson Airplane). About 300,000 people attended the festival, and some speculated it would be "Woodstock West." Filmmakers Albert and David Maysles shot footage of the concert, including the murder, and incorporated it into a subsequent documentary film entitled Gimme Shelter.
The festival was originally supposed to be at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. However, the permits were never issued for the concert, or were revoked after the fact. This was a result of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones announcing in a press conference that they would be performing at the event; they were to be a surprise appearance. With the announcement that the Stones would be performing, the city of San Francisco feared a repeat of the crowd control problems that occurred at Woodstock. Accusations have arisen that Jagger made this announcement to ensure a large crowd for a planned concert movie. The venue was then changed to the Sears Point Raceway, but after a dispute with the owner of Sears Point, Filmways, Inc., over film distribution rights, the festival was moved to the Altamont Raceway. This was finalized less than 24 hours before the event was to take place, resulting in many problems. Most importantly, facilities such as portable toilets and medical tents were lacking in number. The stage, which was only one foot high, was surrounded by Hells Angels, led by founder Sonny Barger who acted as bouncers. The sound system was hardly sufficient for such a large audience.
By some accounts the Angels were hired by the Rolling Stones' road manager, Sam Cutler, for $500 in free beer, other accounts claim that the initial arrangement was for the Angels to watch over the equipment, but that Cutler later moved the Angels and their beer near the stage in order to settle them down or to protect the stage. Hell's Angels had provided security at Grateful Dead shows in the past without reported violence, and some have speculated that the Rolling Stones thought that their experience with the Angels would be a peaceful affair, much in the way The Dead had experienced their presence. Unfortunately, The Dead did not set up the security, and the atmosphere at Altamont Raceway Park had none of the Dead's "take care of your fans" mindset.
The crowd management proved to be a disaster and many people were hurt and four were killed. Over the course of the day, the Hells Angels became increasingly violent due to a combination of alcohol and drugs, and due to a panic of not being able to control such an enormous crowd. The Angels' used sawed-off pool cues to control the crowd, and after one of the Angel's motor bikes got knocked over, nobody was safe anymore, including band members. After Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane was knocked unconscious, The Grateful Dead refused to play and left the scene. The organization hoped to cool down the situation by having the Stones play, but it took hours before the Stones could take the stage. Accusations that Mick Jagger did not want to take the stage during daylight hours due to the filming of the concert have been voiced in the past, but in commentary on the official Gimme Shelter DVD, it is reported that Stones bassist Bill Wyman was having difficulties reaching the scene of the concert.
The most famous death was that of Meredith Hunter. Hunter, an 18-year-old African American was assaulted by Hell's Angels and drew a long-barreled revolver to protect himself. He was then stabbed eighteen times and kicked to death during the Rolling Stones concert just in front of the stage, and in front of the running cameras. The killer, Alan Passaro, was tried in the summer of 1972, but acquitted after a jury concluded he acted in self-defence because Hunter was carrying a gun, drew it, and pointed it at the stage.
There had been rumours over the years that a second unidentified assailant had inflicted the fatal wounds, and as a result, the police had considered the case to still be open. On 25 May, 2005, the Alameda county sheriff's department announced that it was closing the stabbing case. Investigators, concluding a renewed two year investigation, have now dismissed a theory that a second Hells Angel took part in the stabbing. [1]
News agencies reported the event as a "drug induced riot." The Rolling Stones, who reacted rather helplessly in the face of the brutality within the crowd, had to interrupt their performance. Unaware that Hunter's stabbing was fatal, they decided to go on in order to prevent a riot. The Altamont concert is often contrasted to the Woodstock festival that took place earlier in 1969, and is sometimes said to mark the end of the innocence embodied by Woodstock or the de facto end of the 1960s.
In popular culture, the events at Altamont have been characterized as Hell's Angels attacking innocent hippies. Various drugs were present at the event, some of which were of poor quality. These drugs were distributed to unknowing victims during the concert, with a resulting increase in "bad trips." Hell's Angels acting as security guards were not only using some of these drugs, but were probably not the best people to handle these cases. Unlike Altamont, Woodstock's security had been provided by members of the hippie commune, the Hog Farm, led by Wavy Gravy. Obviously, fellow hippies would understand what those on LSD were going through.
Some commentators saw coincidences with the astrological situation, while others connected it with the Stones dealing with the Voodoo fashion. The album and song titles Let It Bleed, Sympathy for the Devil, and Gimme Shelter, seemed appropriate terms for the riotous atmosphere at Altamont. Contrary to a popular urban legend, Sympathy for the Devil was not playing while Hunter was being stabbed, rather, the song was Under My Thumb.
Several Grateful Dead songs were written about - or in response to - what lyricist Robert Hunter called "the Altamont affair," including "New Speedway Boogie," featuring the line, "One way or another, this darkness got to give," and the unrecorded "Mason's Children." Both of these songs were intended to be part of the early 1970 album Workingman's Dead, but "Mason's Children" was viewed as too "popular" stylistically.
Melbourne, Australia band Black Cab released a CD called 'Altamont Diary' [Interstate 40 Music INTER05]in 2004 which is dedicated to 'Jerry Garcia and all those who were there'. It includes original music relating to Altamont and the death of the 60s ideal plus one Grateful Dead song "New Speedway Boogie".de:Altamont (Kalifornien) fr:Altamont it:Altamont nl:Altamont