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The Rolling Stones at Altamont: Bikers, Blood, and the End of the '60s · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones Free Concert at Altamont are insane. The
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Hell's Angels, one of the most lawless and violent organizations
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in America at the time, were hired to run security.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: The free concert, which was expected to draw a crowd
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of upwards of one hundred thousand or more people, was
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: arranged in only thirty six hours. Minutes after arriving at
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the concert site, Mick Jagger was cold cocked punched in
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the face by an angry fan who, like many in attendance,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: was likely tripping his brains out on the bad acid
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: that was going around. Altamont was intended to be the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: West Coast answer to Woodstock, all peace, love and good vibes,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: proof that the Baby Boomers could organize themselves, free of authority,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and shine as an example of a kinder generation and
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a better way of life. In reality, Altamont was the opposite.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: It exposed the lie of the sixties, punctuated the end
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of an era, and shone a light on who the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones really were. Not idealistic piece nakes, but rather
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the most dangerous band on the planet, a band that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: made great music. Some of the greatest music ever made.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that music you heard at
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the top of the show that wasn't great music. That
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my melotron called Mellowstone Samba
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: BK one. I played you that loop because I can't
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: afford the rights to Nana Hey Hey, kiss him Goodbye
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: by Steam. And why would I play that specific slice
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of fake motown exit Cheese? Could I afford it? Because
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that was the number one song in America on December sixth,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, And that was the day that the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stone showed up at Dick Carter's Altamont Speedway to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: headline a supposed festival of peace and love. Instead ended
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: up driving the final nail into the coffin of the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: hippie movement. On this episode the Mellow Samba, Exit Cheese,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Hell's Angels and the Rolling Stones. I'm Jake Brennan, and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: this is disgrace that Johnny. Do I look like your
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: old lady? No, look at me? Do I look like
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: your old lady? And why you fucking me like this?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Why you bending me over in the middle of FBI
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: headquarters at twenty six Federal Plaza in front of all
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: my coworkers who I vouched for you with and fucking me?
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Why Johnny, you punk? Or what? John Joseph Miller, accused
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: killer and former Hell's Angels motorcycle club member turned FBI informant,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: looked up at his FBI handler, special Agent Mark Young,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and in a low, near growling, unfiltered two pack of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Dave voice, said, I ain't no punk, then give me
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: something I can use. For fuck's sake, These were the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: words Agent Young spat back into Johnny's face. Young tapped
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: his foot without rhythm or reason. His coffee and camel
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: filtered breath was merciless, and the interrogation had been going
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on for days. Johnny was giving up everything he had
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: on his Hell's Angels as part of his immunity deal,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: so every day for the past week he sat in
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: his tiny, sweaty, coffee and cigarette stinking office getting grilled
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: by agents. Some were cool and most were not. Agent
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Young was pretty fucking far from cool. As a matter
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of fact, He kept tapping his foot rapidly and his
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: breath kept on stinking up the giant. All right, all right,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Johnny said, fucking Jagger Mick Sonny tried rubbing him out.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Agent Young stopped tapping his foot and stared straight at Johnny.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I'm listening. It was Altamont, man fucking Altamont, and Jagger
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: blamed the Angels Meridith Hunter. Plus the Stones never paid
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Sonny and they never paid Al's legal fees either. Sonny
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: couldn't let that slide. Mike sure have kept his big
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: lip shut. Sonny wanted him dead and bad. Agent Young
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: did his best to suppress his enthusiasm. He wanted to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: hear more, but he also wanted Johnny to feel like
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: he had to earn it. He looked at Johnny. Yeah.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: So the Hell's Angels had decided they were going to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: murder Mick Jagger, but it wasn't going to be easy.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Mick was renting Andy Warhol's place out in the Hampton's
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: out on Montalk. The plan was to make it look
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: like an accident, sort of a home invasion gone wrong,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: but Warhol had his compound security wired tight. So the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Angels came up with what they thought was an ingenious plan.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: They'd avoid any gated or flat footed security out in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: front of Andy's ocean front property by entering from the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: back from where his back abutted the ocean. They're going
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to get to Mick by boat, sneak up onto the grounds,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: break into the house Charles Manson creepy Crawley style, find
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Mick passed out and slit his throat. The local Hell's
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Angels tasked to carry out the hit, loaded up a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: small boat with assordid weaponry pistols, automatic weapons, knives, explosives.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: They even had hand grenades, and on the right night
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: they set off in their tiny little boat from the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: East River of all places. The plan was to slip
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: out north pasted Rikers Island, into the Long Island Sound
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and out to Montauk. They barely made it past Rikers
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: without getting made From there, the water got very choppy,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and by the time they made it into the sound
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a full on storm and hit Nick got bad fast.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: The boat was a nineteen foot whaler with a weight
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: capacity of twenty five hundred pounds that was currently carrying
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a small arsenal of weapons, five burly angels, and their
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: weight in beer. The vessel was in dubious shape in
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the best of conditions, never in a full on storm
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: with a drunk landsman captaining it. Nothing on the boat
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: had been fastened down none of the angels had any
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: boating experience. The storm picked up with intense speed. The
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: conflicting currents swirled the chop into full on waves. The
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: angels held on tight with one hand, each gripping their
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: cans of Schlitz with their others. Instead of navigating through
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the chop at a cautious speed, the angel at the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: helm gunned it tried powering through the storm in the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: driving rain seventy mile per hour winds. He eventually ate
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: ten twelve foot waves. The tiny boat and inexperienced angels
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: were no match. They capsized. Somehow, They made it back
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to land safely, and Jagger lived on. Of course, after that,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what happened, Miller continued. I heard Mick
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: freaked out when he heard about the attempt on his life,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and that he sent some heavies of his own down
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to the Third Street clubhouse to try and intimidate the angels.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: But that didn't work out too good for me. Mix guys.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Then I heard something about Mick and fifty thousand of
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: his dollars eventually making its way into club coffers, though
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: that I cannot verify. One of course, you can't what
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the fuck is this story time with Johnny? That's it,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: That's all you got. The angels tried to kill Mick Jagger,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: but what got the leathers? Wet Lauropunk nineteen sixty nine,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Summer August fifteenth through eighteenth, Upstate, New York, Woodstock Music
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and Art Fair, three days of peace, love and Sixties idealism. Bethel,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: New York. To be exact, Old Man Yascar's farm to
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: be precise Woodstock. If you could get past the money,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: mass of hippie humanity was in its way, beautiful, beautiful, verdant,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Northeast farmland, lush, green and inviting. Fast forward four months
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: to December nineteen sixty nine in northern California, The Rolling
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Stones Free Concert at Altamont. One day of music, six bands,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Unlimited Ballin Acid, speed and jug Red Wine. The Stones
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Gift to the People. Livermore, California. Altamont Speedway compared to Woodstock,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: was grim and gross, a stark landscape of hulking, rusted
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: cars from a generation ago, rotting on the hillside, overlooking
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the youthful attendees with the judgmental eyes of scornful elders.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: The crumbling racetrack in The bowl shaped valley was surrounded
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: by hills and stained with motor oil. The dry, crabby
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: grass was littered with trash, broken glass car parts, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: crashed a breed. Somehow this had become the location of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the ill conceived and poorly planned festival that was supposed
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to mark the Stones triumph of America and close out
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the Piece and Loved Sixties with the Stones front and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: center in a cinematically glorious grand finale, but ended up
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: being one of the darkest, most violent mega concerts in
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: the history of rock and roll. The limo bumped along
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the dusky road sixty miles outside of the San Francisco
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: city limits. Keith Richards was growing impatient. Man, how far
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: away is this place? Nick Jagger seated across from his
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: glitter twin and slulched down into the velvet upholstery. Exhausted,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: closed his eyes to signal his annoyance, and answered Keith,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he can't hear you. Keith tapped on the glass partition
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that divided the limo driver from the two of them. Hello,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: are we lost? The driver either ignored Keith or was death.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Keith sat back, tugged at his sharp toothed earring, shook
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: his head, and they'd been in the car for more
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: than two hours, and before that it had been on
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: a plane. At least tomorrow there'd be a helicopter to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: take them to the show and back again to San Francisco,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: where they were staying around up the final leg of
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: their sixty nine tour. The free concert at Altamont would
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: be the grand finale, the icing on the cake of
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: their long state side tour, during which they had finished
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a new record, somehow avoided venereal disease, alienated critics, further
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: developed their drug habits, and generally out rock starred even themselves,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: cutting a zigzag swath of Genghis Kang style destruction through
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: the heart of America. Keith arched his head to peer
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: out the window into the blackness of early morning. No sun,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: just dust and darkness, and they were ascended, climbing the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: dusty northern California hills. Once peaked, they began their descent.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: It was a steep decline, and Keith could feel his
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: stomach drop out. Here on this morning, they were completely alone.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: The nineteen sixty nine Stones Tour, like all of their tours,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: was a kind of high flying by the seat of
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: their pants situation. Some things like the major arena concerts
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: they've been giving in the Ed Sullivan show, were planned.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Other things like which hotels, which cars, and where a giant,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: last minute free concert could be held were not. While
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: on the road, Mixed personal assistant Joe Bergman said of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the free concert, it's going to happen. Don't worry. We've
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: always done everything at the last minute, and it works. Sure,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: it works till it doesn't. The Cadillac Fleetwood, certainly designed
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: for more elegant journeys than this, climbed the final hill
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and then coasted down the other side into the dark,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: dusty valley, and there, from behind tinted windows, Mick and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Keith got their first look at the scene, and there
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: was little to no organization. Fifty thousand fans, a fraction
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: of the amount that would arrive by showtime, filled with
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: pre show excitement, mostly teenagers, set up in makeshift campsites
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in the dark, huddled around smoky fires to keep warm.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: All there almost a full day early for the concert.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Dogs roamed freely, scrounding for food, barking indiscriminately. Hungry cold
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: babies trembled and cried. Cars and vans were parked everywhere,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: in every which way. Along the edges of the hills
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: lay those rusted up bodies of junk cars, silhouetted in
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the hellish glare of the bonfire that had sprung up
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: dangerously close to the production scaffolding, a menacing skeleton that
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: reached up into the filthy, charcoal smudged early morning sky.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: It was clear from the jump Altamont was no woodstock.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Keith looked on in astonishment. What were they about to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: embark upon? Just what in the fuck was life in
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine? And who in the hell were the
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: rolling stones. Keith mumbled something about entering the mouth of hell.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Mick banged on the partition, signaling the driver to stop.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: He looked to Keith and said it's time. Keith grabbed
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: his coat, a well worn leather greatcoat that in another
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: life had been the property of one of Hitler's Nazi officers.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Keith slipped it on, exited the limbo behind his front man,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and the two of them strolled out into the coming
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: day's battlefield. We'll be right back after this word word word.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Mick and Keith began slowly making their way through the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: grounds in search of whatever the Speedway clubhouse might be.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: They stepped carefully over sleeping bodies, blankets, shards of metal,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and couples who'd had too much weed or wine or
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: acid or all of the above. It was surprisingly cold,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and the early festival goers, weary of venturing too far
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: off of the grounds and into the domain of the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: mountain lions and coyotes, began tearing apart the little available
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: festival fencing. They was for firewood. The light from the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: flames guided micking Keith. Murmurs from the weary and stone
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: fans started burbling up. Soon a small crowd had filled
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: in behind them. As they made their way toward the
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: belly of the speedway, a boy couldn't have been older
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: than fourteen hurried himself from the back and the line,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: find himself to Keith's right. Keith now had a walking
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: stick in his left hand. The boy had a lit joint,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: a pinner. He said nothing to Keith, just pulled on
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the grass and passed it to his hero at his left.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: The two of them in steady motion. Keith grabbed the joint,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: puffed and passed it to Mick to his left. The
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: boy said nothing, just kept walking. Keith did the same.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: The three of them, the boy included, cool as fuck.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: The darkness was a mood unto itself. The sinister glow
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of the campfires, the acid induced tracers from their sparks,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the bitter red jug wine, the smell of grass, and
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the murmuring makeshift entourage made the moment all the more intense.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: It was as if all of them, Mick, Keith, the fans,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: as if they'd all gathered there for the same reason,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: but deep down felt that something else was going to happen.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Mick soldiered on through the gnawing feeling in his gut.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: A stone sweet little sixteen looked up from the blanket
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: she was sitting on as Mick past held her arm
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: up in a faye attempt to touch him, and said,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: are you real? Mick tried ignoring her, but she had
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a point. Was he real? Was any of this real?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: What if anything was going to happen? Would it all
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: work out as planned or as it was unplanned? And
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: who needed plans anyways? Woodstock went off largely without a
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: hitch and sew it out tomat It was a new day.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: The band and the festival organizers could organize themselves. Kids
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: could police themselves. Just lay it on nice and mellow
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and don't drop some heavy authority trip onto everyone and
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: crush the vibe. That was the beauty of the sixties,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't it. Just let it happen. But this lack of planning,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: everyone would soon discover, much to their dismay, meant a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: lack of toilets, a lack of running water, a lack
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: of food, a lack of medical care, and most importantly
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: a lack of real security. But it would all just
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: work out so long as everyone cooled out and work together, right,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: which was sort of how this festival came to be.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: For every problem, there was a solution. Things were just
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: working out. Stone's ticket prices are too expensive. Ralph J.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Gleeson slagging off the band too harshly in the press,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: No problem. Throw a free concert as a give back
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: for the fans. Do it in San Francisco, opposite side
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of the country of Woodstock, your own Woodstock. Fuck you
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: very much, mister Gleeson. Call up the Grateful Dead for advice.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: They've been throwing free shows in Golden Gate Park for years.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Do it there. Oh, you're in the Rolling Stones, which
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine is like saying you're in Satan's army,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: and unlike the dead, you've got no yank with the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: parks department in San France. So a permit for a
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: party at Golden Gate Park, it ain't happening, no sweat.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Move the show to Sears Point Raceway, but the owner
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: of that location wants in on the rights to the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: movie you've hired the Masals to produce, So fuck that guy.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: What about Altamont the speedway up in Livermore. That guy,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: the owner of Altamont's Speedway, Dick Carter. He doesn't even
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: want a fee, He just wants his name attached to
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the festival branding, so everyone remember him as in the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Rolling Stones at Dick Carter's Altamont Speedway, which of course
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: no one does because of course you have no intention
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of following through on the promise, because you're the rolling
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: fucking Stones and you can kind of do whatever the
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: hell you want. But really, because in the high flying,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: move fast and break everything world you inhabit in nineteen
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: sixty nine, there just isn't the headspace to keep track
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: of details like this. But it's cool because hey, man,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: just like I can tin to say it's gonna work out. Fine. Look,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: you could already see it coming together in the early
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: morning darkness, sort of dirty, disheveled, peasant looking hippie children
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: falled making Keith a pair of debauched kings across an
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: apocalyptic wasteland toward a high metal gate that Mick thought
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: looked rather promising, And it was locked, and they called
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: out for someone to let them in, and they waited,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: they shared. Finally somebody pushed the chain link metal outward
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and they were allowed to pass into the inner sanctum
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: of the Speedway, Altamont, December sixth, nineteen sixty nine. The
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: location had been chosen just thirty six hours earlier, six hours.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Who changes plans this big so close to start time?
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: In today's day and age and the read and react
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Twitter lamb, That might make sense, but this was fifty
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: years ago. The band changed the location after the Stones
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: decided that the Sear's Point location wasn't going to work,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: mainly because of the movie rights beef. However, in reality,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: that location had everything. Dick Carter's Altamont Speedway did not
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: such basic necessities as the capacity to hold a massive
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: crowd with its available working staff, running water, toilets, etc.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: But alas it was not to be here and the now.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Mick looked on as the crew at Altamont assembled the stage.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: It was a mere four feet tall, its security barrier
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a thin piece of twine for an expected audience of
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand. Hippie planning at its best that would
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: prove to be the centerpiece for the coming disaster. Keith
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and Mick found the band's trailer behind the stage, and
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Keith chilled, thought about sleeping, did some cocaine instead, then
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: thought about the day. He was excited to see the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: set of his friend and cosmic soul brother in arms,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons. Later that afternoon, Graham's band, the Flying Burrito
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Brothers was opening up the show, along with Crosby, Stills,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Nash and Young, The Jefferson Airplane, Santana and the Dead,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and Keith was dug in ready for the day to
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: present itself. Mick was not. He was anxious, all nervous energy.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: It was now daylight and the morning sun was up.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: The Northern California condors were circling and Mick could hear
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the press and some fans gathered outside the trailer. He
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: peeked his head out of the door and stood in
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the doorway, surveying the backstage scene, the small scrum of
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: journalists and hangers on. How is he feeling about the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Altamont show, someone shouted, Mick was feeling downright, chatty. I
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: think the concert's just an excuse. The scrum pulled in
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: tighter around Mick in the doorway of the trailer, boxing
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: him in, hanging on his every word. He had their
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: full attention, and went on, it's just an excuse for
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: everyone to come and have a time. It's just an
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: excuse to get together and talk to each other, and
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: sleep with each other, and ball each other and get
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: really stoned and have a nice night out and a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: good day. It's not like just getting up there and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: seeing the Grateful airplane and the Rolling Dead. Back at
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the stage away from the trailer where Mick was preaching
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to the press, day was breaking, The setup was just
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: about finished, and Joe Bergman and Sam Cutler were feeling
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: pretty pleased with themselves. But Rock Scully, the twenty four
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: year old manager of the Grateful Dead, a hippie mover
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and shaker who'd done so much LSD that his pupils
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: were permanently dilated. Took in the scene and thought to himself,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: you know, this could be a real shit show. He
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: was looking forward to the arrival of the Hell's Angels.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: At least then Scully thought there'd be some sense of
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: order to what was quickly turning out could be madness.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Graham Parsons hopped on the back of the chopper and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: wrapped his arms around the torso of a burly Hell's
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Angel named Tiny. Tiny quickly, too quickly yanked the throw,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and when he did, Harley Davidson shot forward with a
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: short blast, and Graham's head shot back and banged with
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: great force into the bike steel sissy bar behind him.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: The skull hurt whoa oh man. For a second, Graham
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: saw stars. He told himself to stay cool as he
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: felt the egg start to swell. As Tiny peeled out
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: onto Interstate five eighty, Graham blinked his eyes open and
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: squinted through the dust being spit up by the chopper.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: He held on for his life, gripping Tiny's chest, which
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: was clad in his leather biker vest, the one with
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the red Hell's Angels top rocker emblazoned across the back
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and the bottom rocker letters C A, L I, F
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: O R N I A, bending below the immediately recognizable
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Deathhead logo and small square MC patch. He knew he
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: should have worn a helmet, but Tiny didn't have an
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: extra brain bucket. His old lady had split and pick
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: it with her, So Graham took his chances as he
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: hopped on the back of Tiny's chopper out on Interstate
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: five to eighty and spun off in the morning sunshine
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: for Aultamont Speedway. With his dome exposed and his shiny
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: shoulder length of caramel hair flowing in the northern California wind,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Graham looked good today. He knew it, and he had to.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: It was a big day. It's not every day that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: you and your band get to open for the Rolling Stones,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the biggest, baddest rock and roll band on the planet.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: But despite his confidence in his attire embroidered haltered top,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the snakeskin vests, silk bell bottoms that fit perfect in
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: a tight puca shell necklace, Graham was rattled his head hurt.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Even with a short notice for the Stones free concert.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Radio stations across the country plugged it relentlessly, and they
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: called to the people, and the people came naturally. There
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: was a massive congestion on the freeway and there were
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: simply too many travelers, too many cars for the road
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to hold, and so the highway became a parking lot.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Graham and his band were set to perform and support
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: of their excellent debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin, which
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: was by definition a country album but had effortlessly crossed
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: over to a mainstream rock and roll audience. They were
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: on their way up, and they could feel it in
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: their bones. But on that particular December morning in the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: hills of Almeida County, they weren't going nowhere. They had
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: literally driven themselves off the road and into a ditch.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Graham was incensed. He wasn't going to miss this. He
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: might have had a bird Chris Hillman and his band,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: but there was a bonafide rolling stone his man crushed
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Keith Richards waiting for him backstage. He could only get
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: himself through the four mile sea of people, so he
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: flagged down the Hell's Angel as soon as he saw him,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: deftly maneuvering through the traffic toward where Graham and company
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: were broke down. Graham had pleaded his case. He was
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a musician, he was with the Rolling Stones. He needed
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: to get to the stage on time. Tiny agreed, But
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: how would the rest of the band get to the stage.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: There were only minutes to spare. Oh, they'll figure it out,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Graham said, and just like that, he left his bandmates
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: on the roadside. He and Tiny were on a mission.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: The Hell's Angels were doing security for the promise of
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: five hundred dollars in beer, so they could come and
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: go as they pleased, and their bikes made it possible
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: to work their way through the mass of hippy humanity
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: with little resistance. They arrived at the edge of the
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: concert grounds, and there were people everywhere. Something had to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: give if Graham was going to make it to the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: stage on time. Tiny moved his chopper from the highway
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: up the hill to the entrance to the speedway. Once
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: atop the rise, a vista unfolded before them, peppered with
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: sunstroked hippies setting up camp on mass. The Altamont Pass
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: was in full display, dusty haste, its grass burnt by
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the sun and patrolled by rattlesnakes, And for a moment
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: it was beautiful, and that only in California kind of
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: way nestled next to the Diablo Mountain Rage. On this day,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Altamont looked as good a place as any for the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Devil to set up shot, so Tiny accelerated down the hill.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Graham held on tight. Tiny maneuvered the chopper around the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: stone hippies frolicking. It was just beginning to feel the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: effects of the powerful speed laced elsli purple LSD that
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: began circulating through the crowd earlier that day. Graham was
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: impressed with the way Tiny handled the powerful machine. Aside
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: from the bumpy start, which was really more Graham's fault.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: The ride into the concert, though filled with fits and starts,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: was wildly efficient and wildly exhilarating. Altamont Speedway was littered
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: with stone hippies lying on blankets, smoking weed, copping feels,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: blitzing out on acid, playing frisbee, talking jive, talking revolution.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Tiny punched it. He drove over blankets, through picnic baskets
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and styrofoam coolers all along the way, kicking dust up
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: into the faces of everyone they passed. As I got
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: closer to the stage, the massive people thickened. The roar
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of the chopper part of the remaining audience members who
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: were crammed at the foot of the stage. Graham's heart
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: with excitement. Keith would be close, he could feel it.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Keith would see Graham's band to be blown away, and
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: then they go cop dope and party into the morning.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: And after that, who knows what. Maybe Keith would produce
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Graham's next record. Maybe Keith would even ask Graham to
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: join the Stones, wile Graham's thought wild. Finally, Tiny pulled
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: his massive motorcycle up to a stop and parked it
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: literally right in front of the stage. Graham hopped off,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: and without so much as to thank you for Tiny,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: he was off. Tiny shook his head and cracked a beer.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Fucking hippies, and just where was Keith? Graham's searched, but
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he was nowhere to be found, which meant neither was
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: any heroin. Graham took some acid and pulled hard on
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a bottle of Jack Daniels, and then showtime somehow fully assembled.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: The Flying Burrito Brothers jumped on stage and under the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: California sunshine, dove into a speed laced LSD inspired version
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: of the iconic truck drot in tune that Dave Dudley
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: had made fam this a few years before, Six Days
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: in the Road, and they sounded great, and the crowd
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: loved it, those of them who could hear and see
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: it anyways, And for a minute there y're in the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Burrito Brothers set. It seemed like Altimov was preceding as planned,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: good music, good vibes. After the set, Graham, leveled by
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the mix of bourbon, LSD, speed and post show adrenaline,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: passed out backstage while digging on the hippie dippy festival vibes.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: He would awaken a couple hours later to an entirely
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: different reality. We'll be right back after this word word word. People.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Who's fighting? And what for? Ugh? People? Why are we fighting?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Mick Jagger spat into the microphone to the crowd at Altamont.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: He stared out into the blackness. It was a soulless,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: evil void. On the other side of the chaotic stage.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Mick Jagger now stood on trying to wrangle three hundred
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: thousand people, a group that included Stone college kids trying
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to maintain their cool on bad acid trips. Festival organizers
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: out of their depth, would Stock alums, most of whom
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: were in it for the moment, the best of them
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: in it for the movement, and all of them, when
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you got right down to it, knew fuck all about
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: organizing anything, never mind three hundred thousand people in the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: sea of blackness that Jagger looked out into. There was
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: also a critical lack of attendant medical personnel to handle
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: those freaking out on the bad acid being passed around,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and perhaps most disturbing the crowd was being policed by
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: drunk menacing pissed off Hell's Angels, many of whom were
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: also freaking out on bad acid and seemingly more concerned
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: with the safety of their bikes than they were the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: safety of festival goers or the band. The Angels, for
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: all their blustering, did not have the situation under control.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: They were blitzed, if not more blitz than the crowd.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Everybody was out of their element, and there was nothing
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that the very few police on the site could do
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: about it. In the darkness, the cops were out numb.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: There was a complete and total lack of authority at Altamont,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: so much so that the man who made his living
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: railing against an avoiding authority at every turn, Jerry Garcia,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the Grateful Dead refused to even play when he and
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: his bandmates landed by Chopper at the festival site earlier
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that day and heard of the chaos, heard that their
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: friend Marty Ballin from Jefferson Airplane was beaten on stage
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: by an angel, apparently because he had called an angel
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: of punk, which was akin to calling him a homosexual,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: which was basically like signing his own death warrant. And
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: when Jerry heard this, he knew better. Fuck Altamont. The
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Dead split one hundred Hells Angels three hundred thousand concert goers.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: The Hell's Angels throughout the day try to maintain control
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: in their way with their pool cues and fists, drunk,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: some of them tripping out and amped on speed laced acid.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: The biker gang, lawless to its core, lashed out at
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: not only the quote unquote troublemakers in the crowd, but
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: also at the de fenceless members of the audience, going
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: so far as to severely beat a man who was
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: naked and out of his mind on LSD. The Angels
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: pummeled him with their pool cues, knocking out every single
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: one of his teeth in the process. It made for
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: an utter drag, to say the least by the time
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the Stones hit the stage, it was only a matter
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: of time. Dune was just shot away. Night had fallen.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: The Stones, per usual, were late in getting up on stage,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: and the crowd was a mess, anxious, blitzed on drugs
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: and alcohol, scared out of their minds, and beyond excited
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: to see the biggest band on the planet. The crowd
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: moved in toward the stage, and doing so some rubbed
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: up against stand or knocked over the Hell's Angels bikes,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: many of whom, like Grand Parsons Buddy Tiny, had parked
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: their bikes right in front of the stage. And why
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: shouldn't they have. It's not like anybody planned for them
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to do otherwise. The stage was where they were needed.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: The stage was where the action was to a serious biker.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: To a Hell's Angel, their motorcycle is often everything he has. Literally,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: we're talking about real outlaws here. Angels didn't have retirement accounts,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: their shit, even regular bank accounts. Most lived hand to
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: mouth and invested everything they made into their bikes. To
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: an Angel, his bike's quite literally his life, or at
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the very least mechanical extension of the man himself. So
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: it didn't matter what the reason was. If somebody was
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: going to fuck with the bikes by accident, on purpose,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: whatever the reason, they were going to be made to stop.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: And the instrument of resistance at Altamont for the Angels
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: was the pool cue. With every bike that got fucked with,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: somebody get clubked. It was brutal and it was all
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: coming to a head as the Stones took the stage.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: It took a couple songs, but by the time the
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: band rolled in the Sympathy for the Devil, they were
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: sounding great. It wasn't hard. The Stones have been bringing
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: it live for the better part of the year to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: stages all across America. Their handle on their live set
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: wired tight, and this set was pretty much the same
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: thing they played just a week before in Boston. The
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: crowd was feeling it, perhaps a little too much, and
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the Angels began mixing it up with the audience right
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: in front of the stage Before the song even got
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to the chorus. The Stones were forced to stop to
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: cool out the crowd. Then they dove back into the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: verse and the stage was utter chaos. The band played on.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: The Stones's crew started pulling random unused amplifiers to build
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: a makeshift barrier at the front of the stage. Hell's
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Angels patrolled the stage like SS officers, pointing out transgressors
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: and the crowd to grabbed, expel, beat on or worse.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: One Angel blitzed on bad acid and satanic feels, filed
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: his face melt off his skull right there on stage
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in front of three hundred thousand. Sunny Barger ahead of
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels Oakland Chapter, an apparent ring leader for
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: this demonic rock and roll circus, saw what was going on,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: grabbed his brother and threw him off stage to avoid
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: any further embarrassment. Sonny, with his leather and denim, his
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: semi high and tight quald with its grease of da
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: rubbing up against his collar, and mean mustache, then looked
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: over at Mick Jagger. Sonny sized up the fay English
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: frontman with utter menace and pure disdain. Jagger in his
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: red and black jumpsuit. Sonny didn't see what all the
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: hype was about a fucking pajama boy. As far as
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: he was concerned, Mick was clueless. A German shepherd, apparently
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: one with serious music industry juice, waltzed across the stage
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: right in front of him. As Mick hit the chorus,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: one chick got naked and started rubbing her body over
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: everyone she could encounter in the first few rows, bombing
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: out everyone in the process. Scuffles in the audience between
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: the angels and the attendees intensified. The whole crowd tussled
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and shook in one giant satanic sway. Mick could tell
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: what was going on. He pushed himself into overdrive, channeling
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Tina Turner's best dance moves in an effort to win
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: over the audience, used his sex appeal to overcome the violence.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: It didn't work. The violence was too deeply rooted into
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the dusty Altamont soil. By that point, Keith hit the
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: solo and Angel grabbed Mick whispered something in his ear.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Mick tried shaking it off, looked out into the darkness.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: What the fuck had they done? This was not what
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: he signed up for. Keith's solo devolved into a weak jam.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: The music stopped. Shit, there was a group of angels
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: huddled around someone on the ground in front of the stage, chaos.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Mick on the mic, who's fighting and for what? For?
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Why are we fighting? Keith then lost it pointed to
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the crowd, signaling out a burly angel about twice the size,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: seizing the mic and yelling into it. Look that cat
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: there if he doesn't stop it. Man Mick then made
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: a final plea, and someone jumped on the mic to
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: call for medical assistance. Down by the front of the stage.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: More stuffling in the audience, peace signs. See Kyle's a
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: sharp dressed young man in a lime green suit and
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: wide brimmed pat a black pack garret ambilly to kill
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: holding it down in the wild West Altamont madness. The
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: crowd swayed, some more bodies stacked up against each other
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: moved in a tense, violent slow dance. The band then
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: moved to control the one thing they still could, the music.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Charlie Watts kicked into under my thumb. Keith picked up
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: the beat with his ever present slack. Mick Taylor and
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Bill Wyman caught on quick and a lot of them
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: fell into an easy groove aimed at mellowing out the audience.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: For a minute there it seemed to be working. Even
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Sunny Barger appeared to be enjoying himself, but the crowd
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: was still deplicit as calm. Before the storm, the bloodshot
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: I Altamont's Crossfire Hurricane, and then the crowd tore itself apart.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: The band stopped playing. A void in front of the
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: stage opened up. A woman screamed. The black kid in
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: the lime green suit was pushed into the sudden openness
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: of the makeshift ants floored something metallic and shiny in
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: his left hand. Then an angel tore across the crowd,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: leaped into the air and came down hard at the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: blade of his six inch hunting knife, stabbing the kid
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: in the neck. The force of it all knocked the
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: kid into the darkness, from which he never returned, and
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the darkness consumed him. He was eighteen years old and
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: dead from the dusty Ultimont ground, and that shiny thing
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: in his hand a long barreled twenty two Smith and
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Wesson revolver unloaded. The kid married his hunter. He'd brought
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: it for protection, warned by his older sister that the
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Hicks up in and around Altamont played by their own
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: racist rules, and that if he were to attend the show,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: he'd best take precautions. Mered. His sister knew that the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: peace and love and togetherness of the sixties was far
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: from universal and didn't necessarily extend itself to blacks. So
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: that's what the pistol in his hand was about. It
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be a warning should anyone try to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: fuck with them. Apparently they had, and apparently they weren't
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: dissuaded by the peace, and now he was dead because
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Peace and Love was a joke, and it was all bullshit.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Peace and love the sixties, Altamont and everyone involved, peace signs,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: flower power, tie die, all the anti establishment, hippie, dippy
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: counterculture nonsense that flowed so casually from everyone who made
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: the scene at Altamont. Jagger had proclaimed that Altamont was
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: to be a microcosmic society which sets examples for the
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: rest of America as to how one can behave at
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: large gatherings. Give me a fucking break, when you got
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: right down to it, it was all a lie LSD
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: induced idealism hijacked by Madison Avenue at Execs and Mainline
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: into the psyche of the masses. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the rest of the Rolling Stones. They didn't believe in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: this jive. It was all just the moment, and the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Stones weren't the only ones who were full of shit.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: The Hell's Angels were just as guilty. Sonny Barger and
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: his crew had legitimate beasts when it came to Altamont, sure,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: but to excuse them and their behavior out of some
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: misguided notion that they were wronged in some way, either
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: by fans fucking with their bikes or by the band
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: for not paying them is too simple, And to claim
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: that the Angels were just doing their job as disingenuous.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Just as the Stones didn't really care about their fans,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: the Hell's Angels didn't really care about securing the festival.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Everyone it seemed involved with Altamont was full of shit
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: in one way or another. Even the fans who were
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: there under the false pretense of peace and love and
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: a better way to organize themselves socially utter bullshit. Peace
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: and love was code for getting fucked up and laid.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Altamont exposed the lie of the sixties because Altamont was
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the time in place where the Sixties pushed the limits
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: of freedom. The furthest all, the mishandling, and disorganization was
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: swept aside by the belief that it would all just
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: kind of work out. Fine. Man, It didn't work that way,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: because the world doesn't work that way. The world is dark,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: cold and mean. Try as you may, but if you
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: fuck up, you'll get no spathy from the devil. Those
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: in the establishment know this, which is why they've established
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: themselves in the first place. It's why organized societies exist,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: so we don't fucking kill each other. It's why anarchy
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't work, because it's fucking anarchy, which was exactly the vibe.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: After Meredith Hunter went down and The Stones ended their
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: set Anarchy Chaos, The band hurried from the stage in
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: a mad fury for their helicopter. The empire was crumbling
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and there was no telling how the night might end.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Fear was palpable. Keith used the head of his telecaster
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: to cut his way through the backstage crowd. The sound
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: of the helicopter's spinning blades guided him. A young kid,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: his eyes black, all pupils Satan spawned himself, jumped in
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: front of Keith, his mouth motoring a mile a minute
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: about the super highway he and his friends were building.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Keith kept moving, his telly outstretched like a bayonet, forcing
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the young hippie to walk backward while he yammered on
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be great, man. We're gonna do it. Really,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be the first super highway. Man, we're gonna
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: build it. Never built one before. We're gonna build one
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: on our own to show what we can do without
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: grown ups. It's all happening, man. You should give us
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: some money to help out. Abby Hoffman said, you would.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Keith now, with the rest of the band and their
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: entourage barreling up fast behind him, pressed the telling into
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: the young boy's chest as he moved his eyes off
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: toward the chopper, but his snaggletooth snarl directed straight at
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: his mark. The kid got the picture and get the
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: hell out of the way, and they were now passing
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: their trailer, the one that Graham Parsons was still passed
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: out in his guitar player. The Burrito Brothers Bernie Laden
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: rousted him up and made the case and no uncertain terms,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: that they didn't get out of there now with the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: stones in their helicopter, then they possibly never get out
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: and who knows what the hell would happened. The Hell's
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Angels were on a rampage, janked on cheap beer, speed
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and acid. Bad vibes all around. Graham, you gotta move
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Graham shook it off, stood with his head still pounding,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and got immediately swept up in the movement and energy
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: of the rest of the exiting entourage. People all around
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: him were yelling, screaming, road with angels, fans hangers on.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: The mood was beyond dark. The look on the face
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: of Charlie Watts said it all shit was bad and
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: there was a dead kid in the middle of the
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: speedway Woodstock of the West. My ass Altamont was more
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: like the Haydes Holiday and the sixties were over. Man
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Tonight's sealed it. Peace and Love died on the dance
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: floor that night, next to an eighteen year old named
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Meredith Hunter. Before Graham knew it, he was jammed into
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: the Stones's helicopter nest to the beautiful Mamas and Papa
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: singer Michelle Phillips. She roused something and Graham quick the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: same thing she roused in most men. Lust. Graham couldn't
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: control himself, and without warning her, conceit and perhaps trying
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: to spin the wheel one last time on the Free
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Love Decade, Graham took his chances and tried jamming his
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: tongue down Michelle's throat. Remarkably, she played it cool. She
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: squirmed in her seat, smiled, and made light of the
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: situation every time Graham made another move, until he eventually
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: got the picture. Just as he'd arrived, Graham Parsons was
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: exiting Altamont by chopper, A very different kind chopper, but
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: a chopper nonetheless, this one filled with Rolling Stones, rockstar
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: hangers on and groupies. As the helicopter made its descent
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: into San Francisco and the decade came to a close,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Graham's head finally stopped aching, and the Rolling Stones, after
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: driving the final nail into the coffin of the sixties,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: had returned to reality, not under the flag of peace
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: and love, but as the most dangerous band on the planet,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: a more disgraceful, but a more befitting crown for the Stones,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: if there ever was one. I'm Jake Brennan in this
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: This disgracelaand Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode
• 42:55
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• 42:58
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• 43:02
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• 43:07
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