The Altamont Speedway Free Festival of 1969: A Video Gallery
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The Day the Music Died: December 6, 1969
December 6, 2009 will mark the 40th Anniversary of the Altamont Speedway Free Festival of 1969.
Altamont Speedway Free Festival
A Few Facts Courtesy of Wikipedia
The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was an infamous rock concert held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, between Tracy and Livermore. Headlined and organized by The Rolling Stones, it also featured, in order of appearance: Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills & Nash, with the Rolling Stones taking the stage as the final act. The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform, but declined to play shortly before their scheduled appearance due to the increasing violence at the venue. "That's the way things went at Altamont—so badly that the Grateful Dead, prime organizers and movers of the festival, didn't even get to play."
Approximately 300,000 people attended the concert, and some anticipated that it would be a "Woodstock West." Filmmakers Albert and David Maysles shot footage of the event and incorporated it into a documentary film entitled Gimme Shelter (1970). The event is best known for having been marred by considerable violence, including one homicide and three accidental deaths: two caused by a hit-and-run car accident and one by drowning in an irrigation canal. Four births were reported during the event as well.
End of an Era
The Altamont concert is often contrasted with the Woodstock festival that took place less than four months earlier. While Woodstock represented "peace and love," Altamont came to be viewed as the end of the hippie era and the de facto conclusion of late-1960s American youth culture.
Jefferson Airplane at Altamont
The Other Side of This Life
The Rolling Stones Set List
Altamont Speedway Free Festival
- Jumpin' Jack Flash
- Carol
- Sympathy for the Devil (stopped then restarted because of fights breaking out)
- The Sun Is Shining
- Stray Cat Blues
- Love in Vain
- Under My Thumb (stopped then restarted because of fights breaking out)
- Brown Sugar (first live performance)
- Midnight Rambler
- Live with Me
- Gimme Shelter
- Little Queenie
- (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
- Honky Tonk Woman
- Street Fighting Man
Source: Wikipedia
Sympathy for the Devil
Love in Vain
Under My Thumb
Gimme Shelter
Brown Sugar
Street Fighting Man
Rolling Stones MP3 Downloads
These Songs Were Performed at the Altamont Concert
Rolling Stones MP3 Downloads
Gimme Shelter Trailer
Gimme Shelter
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Criterion Collection
Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 12/04/2009)
Product Description Called "the greatest rock film ever made," this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When 300,000 members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hell's Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, direct cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin immortalized on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment.
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Altamont Concert Collectibles
GIMME SHELTER int'l one-sheet movie poster '71 Rolling Stones
Amazon Price: $274.99 (as of 12/04/2009)
ROLLING STONES HELL'S ANGELS CONCERT ALTAMONT ID CIGARETTE CASE
Amazon Price: (as of 12/04/2009)
Rolling Stone Cover of Altamont / Rolling Stone Magazine Vol. 50, January 21, 1970, Art Print
Amazon Price: $25.94 (as of 12/04/2009)
Rolling Stone Cover of Altamont / Rolling Stone Magazine Vol. 50, January 21, 1970, Art Print
Amazon Price: (as of 12/04/2009)
I Love Altamont Mug
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 12/04/2009)
What's the Buzz on the Altamont Concert?
Here's What Bloggers are Saying About the Altamont Festival
- micropsia: "Gimme Shelter": Criterion Blu-Ray (Essays)
- Gimme Shelter documents the last ten days of the Rolling Stones' 1969 North American tour, from the ecstatic appearances at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend to the disastrous free concert on December 6 at the Altamont ...
- Modculture News: Retro TV W/C 4th November 2009
- Huey Morgan looks at the Rolling Stones's 1969 tour which culminated in a free but troubled December concert - with the Hells Angels handling security - held at Altamont speedway in northern California, just five months after the ...
- DVDs for 12/01/09 – A Christmas Tale, a Terminator Tale, a Rock 'n ...
- Gimme Shelter didn't feed the reputation but it put a frame around the notorious Altamont Speedway free concert that became the grim bookend to the decade. The first half of the film charts the complications as the Stones' organization ...
- Rolling With the Stones in 1969 - Photo Gallery, 13 Pictures - LIFE
- Capturing the Stones in rehearsals in sunny California and on stage during their first set of gloriously in-your-face shows, Russell could not have imagined the tour's nightmarish end: the disastrous Altamont Free Concert, ...
Look Who's Talking About the Altamont Concert
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The 1969 Altamont Free Concert: The End of the Hippie CounterCulture
Associated Content: Arts & Entertainment2 points
2
Altamont: Concert Disaster
Unsolved Mysteries2 points
3
echoes.com : Remember A Day : Altamont
Minnesota Echoes2 points
4
Livermore History - Altamont Concert
Altamont area - eLivermore.com2 points
5
Life and Death at Altamount | PopPolitics.com
The re-release of a brilliant documentary on the R more...1 point
Let It Bleed
The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixties
Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixties
Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 12/04/2009)
Product Description Let It Bleed takes you where no Rolling Stones book has before. Author and photographer Ethan Russell was one of only sixteen people--including the Rolling Stones--who made up the 1969 tour. He was with them in their hotel rooms, at rehearsals, and on stage. He tells the story of this monumental and historic tour firsthand, including recollections from band members, crew, security, and other sixties icons--like Abbie Hoffman and Little Richard--they met along the way. And he also includes amazing photos of the performers who toured with the Stones that year: the legendary Tina Turner and B. B. King.
Through vivid quotes taken from his interviews with the band and crew, and through more than 220 revealing photographs, Russell takes you behind the scenes for an uncensored look inside the Rolling Stones' world at the end of the sixties. It was an idealistic time, with an overarching belief that music could bring us all together. But the events that led to the terrible violence and stabbing death at Altamont would change rock and roll forever.
Altamont Concert Memorabilia
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Altamont Concert Shirts, Totes & More
Original Designs on CafePress
Altamont Concert Gear
Altamont Concert Designs on CafePress
altamont free concert Women's Dark T-Shirt
Price: 25.99
altamont free concert Tote Bag
Price: 18.99
altamont free concert Messenger Bag
Price: 24.99
altamont free concert Cap
Price: 20.99
altamont free concert Dark T-Shirt
Price: 24.99
The Woodstock Music Festival 1969
Friday August 15th, Saturday August 16th, and Sunday August 17th
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Woodstock Music Festival 1969
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Woodstock 1969 The 60's was a turbulent decade. The assassination of JFK kept us fixated on the TV for days and gave us an insecurity that other decades had not felt before. Those of us growing into our own during the 60's were also ve...
(Altamont Concert 40th Anniversary is December 6, 2009)
Thanks for Visiting
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Reply
- Kevin Maloy Kevin Maloy Nov 24, 2009 @ 12:05 am
- WOW! You have put a very interesting collection of information , videos and other "tidbits" on the 40th anniversary of Altamont. I was going to go to the site (I'm only 5 miles away) on Sunday (12-6-09) just to see if anyone shows up? I would like to find out where exactly the concert was at in respect to the race track , ie: location of the stage area , where most of the crowd was , etc. I came across some photos (copies actually) a few years ago from San Francisco Examiner archives that were taken from a helicopter of the event from various angles. It's difficult to orient them with the racetrack as it is today. I also had thought about bringing my metal detector along? Even finding a pre-1969 Lincoln cent would be cool. It IS history. Anyone else going , that was there? I was only 14 at the time and lived in Castro Valley , but it was all over the TV & the newspapers I delivered ( This is starting to sound like "American Pie" "?") Thanks for letting me ramble on .............
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- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Nov 24, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
- Thanks for the great story, Kevin. I live in L.A., but my sister and I own a house near Altamont (Mountain House). I do have one friend who attended the concert, and will ask if he intends to drop by on the anniversary!
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Reply
- Ramkitten Ramkitten Nov 16, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
- I found this lens in the Discovery Tool in one of my own lenses (about what happened on the day--and during the year--I was born, which was 1969), so I had to come by and have a read. I really knew nothing about this concert and had no idea it was so violent. Then again, I was only about nine months old at the time and more interested in my fingers and toes back then. But I'm surprised I didn't learn more over about it until now. Very interesting, well done lens.
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Reply
- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Nov 20, 2009 @ 11:47 am
- Well, that's good to know. I'm glad I used "1969" as a tag. Thanks for your kind comments.
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- The_Health_Lady The_Health_Lady Oct 19, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
- Excellent journey back to the end of the 60's. It's so appropriate that the beginning of the 60's started innocently yet ended so abruptly and violently.
Although I didn't make it to Altamont, I do remember the feelings and emotions that surrounded that fateful day & you have captured it in it's entirely.
Fabulous lens!
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Lensmaster KimGiancaterino has been a member since October 30 2006, has rated 8,163 lenses, favorited 4,002, and has created 290 lenses from scratch. Kim Giancaterino donates their royalties to Asante Africa Foundation. This member's top-ranked page is "Diary of a Squid Angel (2009)". See all my lenses
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