Recently, Metallica created a fiasco by cancelling a concert without proper reason. Fans were taken for a ride. Music history is filled with some such. But, it all started that night at Altamount. The infamous Rolling Stones’ Altamont free concert was a pure fiasco in more ways than one. Even though most might know about it, Ashutosh Ratnam is sure most music followers might not have heard of ten things that happened that fateful night.

The Rolling Stones’ free concert at Altamont speedway on 06 December 1969 is a grotesque, towering monument to anarchy that has no equal in all of rock and roll. The event was the only counterweight possible to the band’s era-defining 1969 tour of America. It was a tour on which the Stones grossed nearly $2 Million as they brought all of America to disbelieving, quivering climaxes at 17 venues across the land. They invented and then earned the title of ‘The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World’. The only thing detractors had left to say was that the band was charging exorbitant ticket prices. To silence these last few critics, the Stones decided to add magnanimity to their now long list of virtues and throw a free concert. America would have preferred being ripped off.

The concert subsequently hashed together has, by consensus come to be seen as one of the worst feats of organization of modern times. The attention to detail cannot be faulted, for it was all but ensured that all that could go wrong would. The gross details are now part of textbook Rock noir – that an infernal motorcycle gang called the Hell’s Angels was hired as ‘security’, that an 18 year old black kid named Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death and that the Grateful Dead never took to the stage.

Here are ten lesser known facts about that fateful day which signaled the end to whatever it was that Woodstock started.

Hell Hath No Fury like an Angel Scorned – The swiftness with which the Rolling Stones distanced themselves from the Hells Angels for the carnage they had caused did not go down well with “the rottenest motorcycle gang in the whole history of Christendom". A documentary for BBC’s Radio4 told of an FBI report which detailed their not so intricately hatched plan to assassinate Mick Jagger. The Angels planned on sailing into the frontman’s sea-facing Long Island holiday home and stabbing him in his sleep. The attempt at murderous piracy was defeated by the gang’s earlier demonstrated talent for coordination. Gravidly overloaded, the boat capsized way before it got to the villa.

The Dead Bringing out the Angels – Jerry Garcia and the Hell’s Angels had common friends in Ken Kesey and perhaps the most famous drug addicts of all time, a clan of acid droppers called the Merry Pranksters. The motorcycle gang joined the crowd at many of the Dead’s LSD-sozzled concerts and supposedly served as some kind of deterrent security. The relatively sedate atmosphere at these performances ensured they passed without incident. Garcia, seated at the apex of San Francisco rock’s food chain, suggested the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels as security. In retrospect, Keith Richards claimed this was more a concession and less a decision. He told Rolling Stone in 1970 of the Angels that “if you don't have them to work for you as stewards, they come anyway and cause trouble".

The Dead Bringing out the Angels – Jerry Garcia and the Hell’s Angels had common friends in Ken Kesey and perhaps the most famous drug addicts of all time, a clan of acid droppers called the Merry Pranksters. The motorcycle gang joined the crowd at many of the Dead’s LSD-sozzled concerts and supposedly served as some kind of deterrent security. The relatively sedate atmosphere at these performances ensured they passed without incident. Garcia, seated at the apex of San Francisco rock’s food chain, suggested the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels as security. In retrospect, Keith Richards claimed this was more a concession and less a decision. He told Rolling Stone in 1970 of the Angels that “if you don't have them to work for you as stewards, they come anyway and cause trouble".

Who Hit Who? – When the parties involved are Sonny Barger, a balder, more pissed-off and bigger-biceped version of Marvel’s Ghost Rider, and Keith Richards, the original acidwashed Energizer bunny, you would expect each to deny the others’ version of the story.

Irate and overwhelmed by the swirling sea of stabbings and stampedes surrounding the stage, Keith Richards picked up the microphone and threatened to stop playing unless the violence stopped. Barger is supposed to have walked up to the guitarist, poked a pistol in his ribs and vowed to kill him if he did anything of the sort. Richards is adamant that Barger has imagined this threat of his. But the Stones did indeed go on to finish their setlist, which even included the first ever live performance of Brown Sugar. Needless to say, Barger and Richards don’t exactly send each other birthday cards.

Jealous Guy? – As was the proper thing to do at the time, Patty Bredahoff, the girlfriend of Meredith Hunter spent the large part of both her youth and the evening of December 6th swooning over the borderline-carnal theatrics and pelvic gymnastics of Mick Jagger. His anger stoked by amphetamine, the jilted Hunter is believed by some to have brought the gun that eventually got him stabbed with intentions to actually shoot the rubber-lipped one. As Hunter was being kicked to death, an onlooker was heard yelling “Let him die, he deserves to die, he wanted to shoot Mick Jagger, look, he had a gun".

Oh Behaaave! - Mick Jagger’s dream of “creating a microcosmic society" in the concert where he would “show America how one can behave in large gatherings" started off with a fair share of bad behavior. As if almost getting shot later in the evening and vexing motorcycle pirates who would try and raid his house wasn’t bad enough, the moment he landed up at the concert site, Mick was puched in the face by a drugged fan while making his way to the band’s caravan. A blow-by-go account is seen in the 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter.

Searching for Shelter - The Altamont Speedway where the concert was finally held was the third venue considered. Permission for the first site, the Golden Gate Bridge, was revoked because the park’s Kezar Stadium was hosting a San Francisco 49ers football game.
The second venue was discarded by the band themselves. Sears Point Raceway’s owners Filmways, Inc. placed unreasonable demands both on distributions rights of the concert’s recordings and arrangements at the location itself. Though they could not provide a venue, a representative of theirs provided Gimme Shelter with perhaps its most colorful dialogue. Over the phone with the Stones’ super-heavyweight lawyer Mel Belli, the rep said he did not want this “gesture on the part of Mr. Jagger" to cost him “all of fifty cents" and demanded that “if a blade if grass is torn down, (the Rolling Stones) build it up again". His closing summation was “no matter what they tell you, (rockstars) are all a$$holes".
In contrast, Dick Carter offered his speedway at Altamont for little more than “the publicity".

What a Bargain - Though the organizers blamed the Hells Angels ‘security arrangements’ for pretty much everything that went wrong, at least the trouble came cheap.
Two versions exist of the alleged purchase of the Hells Angels security services for a throwaway price of $500 in beer. Sam Culter, the Stones’ road manager sits under a mountain of blame in the murky centers of both.

According to the first, a meeting was convened by Culter with Sweet William, a mediator for the motorcycle gang. The Angels were formally requested to help keep wasted hippies from frying themselves on the generators. When asked of their preferred method of payment, William replied “we like beer".

The other story is less orchestration, and more desperation. Minutes before his band took to the stage, Culter knew he had to turn what had meltdowned into a drunken bust-up between the Angels and the fans back into a Rock and Roll show. He thought bringing all the Angels to one place would quell the mayhem somewhat. And in theory, making that one place the stage would form a protective cordon around the Stones. Culter bought all the beer the Angels had brought with them for $500 and had it put on the stage. In the end it was just fat to the fire, and soon full cans of beer were being used as weapons and thrown at fans by the Angels.

Fighting the Good Fight - By the time the dust settled and the blood clotted over Altamont, the Rolling Stones had made the not-so-subtle transition from Rock and Roll messiahs to near-leprous outcastes. Everyone from Dennis Hopper to co-conspirator Jerry Garcia had their go. But what was perhaps the fiercest and best fabricated criticism came from the unlikeliest of sources.

At the time, Don Mclean was a middle-rung country singer who’s first album had been rejected by 34 record labels. His orthodox upbringing and musical roots meant Mclean always took moral objection to the amorous cultural de-cleansing that was Jagger and the Rolling Stones, but the events of December 06th gave his aversion an otherworldly dimension. In 1971, Mclean released American Pie, the song that would make him a worldwide headliner. The references to the Altamont are all too real to deny – of ‘Jack Flash’ (Jagger) on stage surrounded by ‘angels born in hell’ casting a ‘Satan’s spell’ (Sympathy for the Devil). Of ‘flames climbing high into the night’ (bonfires lit around the ground) and the event culminating in a ‘sacrificial rite’ (Hunter’s stabbing).  

The Most Dangerous Movie in the World - Filmmakers Albert and David Maysles came to Altamont to record a landmark free concert by the world’s greatest live act. They instead got brutal footage of the stabbing of an 18 year old nobody by a faceless band of gangsters.
One shot in particular, taken by a camera placed on top of the Grateful Dead’s truck, is disturbing in its closeness, clarity and exposure. Such was the quality of the graphic footage that it seemed almost orchestrated. The reel became the most important piece of film of 1970. Universal Pictures immediately offered a sum of $1 Million for it. The filmmakers had issues other than profit on their mind. On the film, the killer was all too easily identifiable. The footage was therefore never released to the press because the Maysles and executive producer Porter Bibb feared for their lives.

In 1970, a source told Rolling Stone that the Maysles privately showed the footage to the Hell’s Angels in San Fransisco. The Angels are supposed to have demanded $6000 for each of the nine California sects of the gang as extortion money. The Maysles never publicly denied the story. Or the payment. 

As You Do to Others - In January of 1971, the transcript of an Almenda County murder trial records a young man saying "Yeeeeooooww" as his acquittal verdict is delivered. That man was 21 year old Alan Passaro, a freshly recruited Hell’s Angel who had been put on trial for and then absolved of the murder of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Rolling Stones concert. Startling footage submitted by filmmakers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin clearly showed Passaro stabbing Hunter. The film also clearly showed Meredith Hunter wielding a gun. So despite delivering two of the six stab wounds found on Hunter’s body, Alan Passaro was deemed to have acted in self-defense and cleared of all charges.
Passaro went on to add to his impressive list of felons, even being convicted for running a methamphetamine factory, Hunter’s drug of choice.

His own demise, though not as well publicized, was just as dramatic as the one he was instrument to. In 1985, Passaro’s bloated corpse was found floating in a lake with a bag containing several thousand dollars strapped round its neck. A month earlier, police had found his black Mercedes abandoned at the lake with its door open and its keys in the ignition. Though a cause of death was never determined, police are certain Passaro was murdered.