Today in Music (1969): Death at the Altamont Festival

December 6, 1969 Death at the Altamont Festival

To cap off their 1969 tour, The Rolling Stones organized a free rock festival which they would headline. Also appearing were Santana; Jefferson Airplane; the Flying Burrito Brothers; and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Roughly 300,000 people attended the concert at the Altamont Speedway in northern California in the San Francisco area. Anticipated by some as a “Woodstock West”, it instead has become symbolic as the end of the 1960s and the peace-oriented hippie era because of the ensuing violence at the event. The festival was filmed for the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter (which ranks as one of the top 50 music movies of all time according to the DMDB). Members of a local Hell’s Angel motorcycle club were tapped, at least according to some, to serve as stage security for $500 worth of beer. The Rolling Stones’ manager Sam Cutler has denied this, saying that the only agreement was that the Hell’s Angels would ensure that no one tampered with the generators. They were not asked to police the event. Throughout the day, the crowds and the Angels became increasing intoxicated and violent. By the time the Stones took the stage as the final act, there had been numerous fights between the Angels and the crowd. Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin was even knocked unconscious by an Angel during the band’s set and the Stones’ Mick Jagger had punched by a fan within moments of arriving at the site. The Grateful Dead, who had been scheduled to perform, refused to play after hearing about Balin. With audiences trying to rush the stage, more scuffles broke out. One concert-goer, Meredith Hunter, tried getting on stage and was stabbed by Hell’s Angel Alan Passaro who saw Hunter with a gun. Hunter died and Passaro was arrested and tried for murder. It was concluded, thanks to the incident being captured on film, that Passaro had acted in self-defense. Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “History Index” for more important dates in music history Dave’s Music Database: “Music Makers’ Birthdays” DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones Dave’s Music Database: “The Top 50 Music Movies of All Time” RollingStone.com December 6, 1969: The Altamont Festival ends in violence Telegraph.co.uk The Rolling Stones at Altamont: the day the music died Wikipedia.org Altamont Free Concert First posted 12/6/2011; updated 12/4/2023.

50 years ago: The Rolling Stones released “Sympathy for the Devil”

Sympathy for the Devil The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (see lyrics here) Released: December 6, 1968 Peak: 97 US, 1 CL, 14 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.6 UK, 0.6 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 30.7 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This is “perhaps the most notorious and controversial Rolling Stones song, as well as one of the greatest.” AMG There were already fingers pointing that the band dabbled in the occult, a claim heightened by the title of previous album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, despite no direct Satanic references in the lyrics. WK However, in “Sympathy” Mick Jagger takes on the persona of the Devil himself which escalated fears among some religious groups that “the Stones were devil worshippers and a corrupting influence on youth.” WK The narrator boasts about his role in different historical atrocities such as the Crucifixion, the Inquisition, the Russian Revolution, the Nazi Blitzkrieg, “and the then-still fresh assassinations of the Kennedys.” AMG He also demands courtesy and chastises “the listener for our collective culpability in the listed killings and crimes” WK with lines like “Who killed the Kennedys when, after all, it was you and me.” Jagger, “more than any other rock performer possibly, was adept at making listeners ponder those questions of how evil manifests itself in the world.” AMG While credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is primarily a composition by Jagger, which he originally wrote “as sort of like a Bob Dylan song.” WK He was inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita in which the devil is a sophisticated socialite. SF It was Richards, however, who suggested a tempo change, which transformed “Sympathy” from a folk song to a samba. WK Jagger explained that it gave the song “a very hypnotic groove…rather like good dance music. It doesn’t speed up or slow down…It was a very good vehicle for producing a powerful piece.” WK The backing “woo-woo” vocal came about by accident. While Jagger was recording an early vocal, producer Jimmy Miller was in the engineering booth with Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richards’ girlfriend. Miller was talking to himself, saying “Come on, Mick, give it your all. Who are you singing about? Who? Who?” After he repeated it several times, Anita suggested it as a backing vocal chant. WK The song’s nefarious reputation was enhanced when it was mistakenly reported by Rolling Stone that the Stones were playing “Sympathy for the Devil” AMG at their Altamont concert when Hells Angels’ gang members, who’d been hired as security, fatally stabbed fan Meredith Hunter. However, it was actually the song “Under My Thumb.” Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones AMG All Music Guide SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/19/2020; last updated 8/4/2022.

50 years ago: The Rolling Stones “Under My Thumb” released

Under My Thumb The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (see lyrics here) Released: April 15, 1966 (album cut on Aftermath) Peak: 3 CL, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 12.2 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Rolling Stones formed in London in 1962. Over the next four years, they established themselves as one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time with six #1 songs in the UK, including “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Get Off of My Cloud,” and “Paint It Black,” which hit #1 in the U.S. as well. By the release of 1966’s Aftermath, the group had released three albums in the UK and five in the U.S. The track listing for Aftermath differed between the UK and U.S. versions. For example, “Mother’s Little Helper” only appeared on the UK version while “Paint It Black” was only on the U.S. version. However, there were some songs that were featured on both versions. One of those was “Under My Thumb.” While the song was never released as a single, it was popular enough to become a mainstay on compilations and live albums from the Stones. As with most of the Stones’ songs, this one was written by singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. The song features fuzz bass lines from Bill Wyman and Brian Jones plays the song’s most prominent hook on marimba. WK Nick Reynolds, who co-produced the documentatry Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones said “he makes the arrangement that turns this song into a timeless classic.” SF Lyrically, Jagger “celebrates the success of finally having controlled and gained leverage over a previously, pushy, dominating woman.” WK The song has been attacked as anti-feminist although Jagger has tried to downplay it as “a jokey number…a caricature.” WK Salt Lake Tribune writer Terry Orme called it the Stones “at their offensive best.” WK “Under My Thumb” also gained notoriety as the song the group was playing at the Altamont Free Concert in December 1969 when fan Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by a member of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club who were serving as security guards. The song has been covered by Terence Trent D’Arby, Wayne Gibson (#17 UK, 1974) Susanna Hoffs, Del Shannon, Social Distortion, and Tina Turner (#80 AU, 1975). The Who recorded it in 1967 and released it as a single in support of the Stones’ being busted for drug possession. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 3/19/2023.

The Rolling Stones hit #1 with “Brown Sugar”

Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones

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