Joel Selvin’s book...is a deeply researched, minutely detailed, account of the event as it unfolds, occurs and concludes; and as a result comes to conclusions much greater than historical myth or a ‘documentary’ film can portray...This book is definitely worth a read, and it is extremely well researched. — — AllMusicBooks.com
“Meticulous research, evocative detail, and a brave conclusion—exactly what a history book should be.” — — Lee Child, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher series
“Boy did I live in a bubble—or something. I had no idea the extent of bruising under the melting rainbow. Selvin is revealing our tricky gestation in the weird womb of sixties rock. Frightening.” — Grace Slick, member of Jefferson Airplane
“An incisive account of the most infamous concert debacle in rock history...This book provides context and perspective, showing the sea change in rock that was taking place as the Rolling Stones attempted to reassert themselves amid the increasing dominance of San Francisco psychedelia and the spirit of Woodstock...Compelling.” — — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] methodical history. . . Selvin’s presentation of Altamont busts the myth of innocence lost; in fact, Altamont just made the reality harder to ignore.” — — Publishers Weekly
“It was worse than you think. A lot worse…[A]n account that moves at movie pace, Selvin cuts through woolly cop-out rhetoric, offering clarity and detail…Altamont was a tragedy in the classical sense-a disaster born of hubris and folly-and Selvin nails every last shred of both.” — MOJO Magazine
A fascinating account of the festival and its repercussions, this is also a cultural historical portrait of the West Coast rock scene, a history of the bands involved, and of the counterculture itself. Will be of interest to rock and pop culture fans. — — Library Journal
Joel Selvin’s book...is a deeply researched, minutely detailed, account of the event as it unfolds, occurs and concludes; and as a result comes to conclusions much greater than historical myth or a ‘documentary’ film can portray...This book is definitely worth a read, and it is extremely well researched.
Boy did I live in a bubble—or something. I had no idea the extent of bruising under the melting rainbow. Selvin is revealing our tricky gestation in the weird womb of sixties rock. Frightening.
It was worse than you think. A lot worse…[A]n account that moves at movie pace, Selvin cuts through woolly cop-out rhetoric, offering clarity and detail…Altamont was a tragedy in the classical sense-a disaster born of hubris and folly-and Selvin nails every last shred of both.
Meticulous research, evocative detail, and a brave conclusion—exactly what a history book should be.
05/30/2016
Fewer than four months after the amorphous idealism of the 1960s achieved its Woodstock apogee, the Altamont Free Music Festival destroyed and buried it; in this methodical history, music journalist Selvin (Red, cowritten with Sammy Hagar) provides a cultural coroner’s report. Altamont was the brainchild of the Rolling Stones, who hoped to burnish their hip bonafides by embracing psychedelic San Francisco, but the concert was a disaster of poor planning, greed, and drug-addled naïveté about the social forces underlying the event. Hired as security for $500 worth of beer, the Hell’s Angels behaved like peckish sharks in a tankful of agitated minnows, attacking the audience and murdering a young African-American man while a documentary film crew, which included George Lucas, captured the tragedy. Selvin’s meticulous research exposes the criminally irresponsible management of the event. There were many culprits—including bad acid, an indifferent local police department, the Rolling Stones’ noblesse oblige, and the Grateful Dead’s embrace of the Angels—but Selvin assigns equal blame to the preposterous idealism of the era. Though his reconstruction brings events nearly a half-century past as close as yesterday, his biases undermine some of the book’s broader claims (e.g., declaring that the Stones never made a good album after the concert). Selvin’s presentation of Altamont busts the myth of innocence lost; in fact, Altamont just made reality harder to ignore. (Aug.)
07/01/2016
The Altamont festival of December 1969, a concert near San Francisco that featured the Rolling Stones and others, is often seen as a prime example of the darker side of the Sixties. Its chaotic and shambolic planning, vast quantities of dangerous drugs, and ultimately the stabbing death of a concertgoer, seared Altamont into one of rock's bleaker moments. Journalist and author Selvin's (Summer of Love) narrative history of the festival, from its conception to its aftermath, draws on interviews he conducted, published journalism, and remembrances. He portrays participants from the Stones to the Grateful Dead and members of their organizations, while depicting a changing music scene, and counterculture infighting, coexisting with the era's naïveté and innocence—all percolating elements that culminated on the fateful day; his observation that Altamont was an illustration of these dynamics and "dramatized" them rather than caused them, is prescient. VERDICT A fascinating account of the festival and its repercussions, this is also a cultural historical portrait of the West Coast rock scene, a history of the bands involved, and of the counterculture itself. Will be of interest to rock and pop culture fans.—James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ
Narrator John Pruden’s resonant narration lacks the pathos that usually accompanies such uproarious fare as this audiobook. The Altamont Free Concert, which took place near San Francisco in December 1969, was the West Coast’s response to Woodstock, which had taken place in August of that year. Altmont unfurled at the end of the Rolling Stones’ legendary tour, when the band was at the height of its powers. It would forever solidify the band’s reputation as rock’s reigning bad boys, especially after a member of the Hell’s Angels stabbed a fan to death in front of the stage while the Stones played—an incident famously captured on film in the ensuing documentary, GIMME SHELTER. As Selvin investigates all the mind-boggling details of what went wrong, Pruden’s level tone results in a smooth and engaging performance. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
★ 2016-05-18
An incisive account of the most infamous concert debacle in rock history.Most music fans know all they need to about Altamont, the ill-conceived and hastily planned free show near San Francisco for which the Hells Angels provided "security" and killed one man in the process. All of this was chronicled in the classic 1970 documentary Gimme Shelter. Veteran San Francisco Chronicle music journalist Selvin (Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues, 2014, etc.) acknowledges the film's power. However, he writes, "the filmmakers used their material brilliantly to tell a story, but they tell only a slender slice of the entire drama and if it is not exactly a lie, it is far from the whole truth." This book provides context and perspective, showing the sea change in rock that was taking place as the Rolling Stones attempted to reassert themselves amid the increasing dominance of San Francisco psychedelia and the spirit of Woodstock. There are all sorts of culture clashes here: between the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, profiteers and anarchists, drugs and alcohol, hippies and bikers. They all came together at Altamont, a speedway more accustomed to crowds in the low thousands and a last-minute site because the Stones' focus on their film and its distribution had complicated the process. There are more victims here than the young black man who was killed (and whose killer was acquitted), there are no heroes, and there is plenty of blame to spread around: to the Dead for suggesting the Angels, to the Angels for acting like the Angels, and to at least one suspicious character who claimed to act on the Stones' behalf. However, Selvin concludes with most of the blood on the hands of the Stones. The detailing of the actual concert reads like old news, and the sourcing could be clearer, but this is a compelling analysis of an event that hadn't seemed like it needed anything more written about it.
