GIMME SHELTER (1970)
In 1969, the Rolling Stones decided to give a free concert
in California. The Golden Gate Park was unavailable so they opted for Altamont
Speedway stadium, a venue unused to the demands of a rock concert. Their desire
to get the logistics arranged at very short notice led to one of the most
infamous concerts of modern rock history for the wrong reasons. The Maysles
brothers and Charlotte Zwerin were there to film the gig for a documentary and were
the unfortunate recorders for posterity of sickening violence as well as the reactions
of the bands and fans.
The film of GIMME SHELTER is played out with different
layers on-screen at the same time. For the first half, we cut between footage
of the Stones’ live Madison Square Garden show (recorded for their live album
‘Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!’) and the band as well as the film-makers watching it on
an editing bay. We also see them
observing themselves at work in Muscle Shoals studio in America, laying aroung
and listening to playbacks of ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Wild Horses’ approvingly. An
extra layer is provided by an over-dub of a live radio phone-in after Altamont where
one of the Hells Angels’, Sonny Barger, who defends his people, claiming that
his sacred bike was touched and arguing that since the organisers had given the
group beer in exchange for crowd control, that’s exactly what he was going to
do. This was a cataclysmic error of security judgement. At the end of his
account, drummer Charlie Watts remarks with gentle sarcasm: ’Well done, Sonny’
Later, Melvin Belli, the band’s lawyer is on the phone to
the venue management of Altamont who is resistant to the concert on the grounds
that he knows rock bands tend to trash venues disrespectfully. This is smoothed
out, and the road crew management assure Belli and the Stones that they can set
up the concert at speed since they did the same successfully at Woodstock.
The second half of the film focuses on the gig itself. We
hover over the scene with the Stones in a helicopter; the film crew brilliantly
capturing the stunning turn-out of fans. There are miles of cars snaking along
the roads leading to the stadium, which is encircled by an enormous cloud of
fans with vans and other vehicles. Clearly, the number of fans coming to this
impromptu rock mecca would be wildly under-estimated. The expectation for the
show is enormous...
Even without knowing the awful events, the expert editing of
the day’s footage tells you from early on that the atmosphere is tense; prickly
like an anticipated grudge between two old rival football teams. Fans keep
crowding the stage. Many people are already showing symptoms of acid and booze
excess, clambering over each other and disregarding the road crew’s continual
already-weary warnings with abandon. The Hells’ Angels, who as aforementioned
were employed as free security in return for all the beer they could drink, are
taking full advantage of the liquid refreshment and, alarmingly, wielding pool
cues. Surely a recipe for disaster, slowly simmering as the heat and excitement
rose. What were the organisers thinking? Surely this could only have been the
result of over-hasty decisions made without the benefit of time for smart and
safe planning.
Jefferson Airplane, who opened for the Stones were like test
lions thrown to the wolves. Their co-lead singer is knocked out by one of the
Angels. Paul Kanter jokes to the bikers: “I’d like to thank you for that”.
Santana as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash play (not shown) and the Grateful
Dead wisely opt out, sensing the brewing trouble that has already begun
erupting. This is all before the main act comes on. Initially as Jagger and the
guys leave their caravan, they have no idea what awaits them – but it doesn’t
take long to get them up to speed. After they open with ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’,
they begin ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ when violence breaks out between fans and
the Angels, who mercilessly solve their problems with bludgeonings. The irony
of the song subject isn’t lost on Mick. ”Whenever we play that song, something
funny always happens” he muses. To be fair, the volatility is not entirely the
Hells Angels’ fault, especially when you see the chemical/alcohol-induced state
of many of the other revellers. The song becomes increasingly ragged as fans
circle (always a bad sign) around a spate of fighting. This happens roughly
four times during the Stones’ set. More than once, Mick gives up singing to
plead ineffectually with the fans: “Cool out. Why is anyone fighting?” while
Richards, Watts and the others plug manfully on, underscoring his well-meant
but impossible task. He is King Canute before the crashing waves of a tanked-up
audience.
The most notorious moment of the show, pinpointed in detail
by the documentary team, is the sickening murder of 18 year-old black youth
Meredith Hunter. During another tragically ironic song title, ‘Under My Thumb’,
after failing to scramble up onto the stage, he responds to a bouncer attack
from the Angels by drawing a gun. In an incendiary environment like this, it
was the worst and the last thing he could do. We witness him being stabbed by
one of the gang members as he disappears from view. Just so that we’re sure of
what we see so fleetingly, one of the Maysles brothers asks for a rewind and
freezes the image to clearly show us and Jagger that Hunter is brandishing the fire-arm
in the air and the knife of his killer is visible. Having never seen GIMME
SHELTER before but hearing varying accounts of the inciting incidents, this was
a shocking moment for me. Far from excusing his harrowing murder of course, it
simply compounds how out-of-hand the evening had become. The Stones should be
given credit for attempting to stay on stage as long as possible and ride out
the unfolding concert’s carnage at some considerable potential threat to their
own safety.
Mercifully, it’s not long before they head for the safe
haven of the waiting chopper…
We then return to the editing studio where a sombre mood
breaks up the session between the Maysles, Zwerin and the band. GIMME SHELTER
ends with a freeze-frame of Jagger’s sober expression. There is nothing that
can be said.
Altamont became a symbol of the end of the 60’s dream for
many - as powerfully as the shocking Tate-La Bianca murders perpetrated by the
Manson Family the same year. GIMME
SHELTER is a shattering experience, superb and compelling. It’s not so much a
concert movie (each Stones’ song hopelessly collapses amongst the chaos), but
more of a warning. Hopefully, lessons would be learned for the future about the
dangerous folly of hastily-prepared re-stagings of mass public concerts.
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