The Rolling Stones at Altamont

If Woodstock epitomized the free-loving ideals of the baby-boomer generation, the Rolling Stones' free outdoor concert at the Altamont speedway, in December of 1969, confronted them with the darker forces at work within the counterculture. Touted by Mick Jagger as an illustration of "how people can behave at large gatherings", as a kind of microcosm of the perfect society, the festival turned into a fiasco of chaos that resulted in four deaths and numerous injuries.

The film Gimme Shelter affords the viewer an opportunity to see segments of the concert itself and the circumstances surrounding it from a few different angles. We can even witness the reactions of the bandmembers themselves - both as the events unfold, and during the aftermath. The resulting picture doesn't bring us much closer to resolving how such a tragedy could have occured, but it at least poses all the right questions.

One of the ironies of Altamont was that the events leading up to it began on such a triumphant note. The Rolling Stones were embarking upon their first full tour of the United States in three years (Mick Jagger proclaims, at the beginning of their first performance, "Welcome to the breakfast show!") They'd just released Let It Bleed and were mid-way through the recording of Sticky Fingers - two of the jewels in the crown of "The Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band in the World". Their performances were stellar - Mick, in particular, is on fire like a whirling dervish throughout those moments captured on tape. The subtitle of Gimme Shelter reads: "The Rolling Stones. Uncut. Uncensored. Unsurpassed."; and it provides plenty of footage to back up that lofty claim.

Perhaps they suffered the fate of Icarus: having flown closer to the sun than any mortals should dare, they had to come crashing down. Another ancient Greek myth, concerning the God of intoxication, Dionysus, carries a similar warning: ecstasy can easily veer off into madness. If a Beatles concert could move a thousand teeny-boppers to wet their seats, a Rolling Stones concert could provoke all hell breaking loose.