1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Stone's Touring Party is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 2: Welcome to San Francisco. It's June nineteen seventy two. The 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 2: Rolling Stones are here to play their first show in 4 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 2: the Bay Area since nineteen sixty nine, and they're nervous. 5 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 2: The last time they were here, they emmittingly provided the 6 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 2: soundtrack for a murder that took place near feet in 7 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 2: front of them. It occurred on a cold December day 8 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 2: in a speedway called Altamont. The free concert was intended 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 2: to be their way of saying thank you to America 10 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 2: after wrapping their nineteen sixty nine tour and cred repair 11 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:45,160 Speaker 2: after many hippies complained about their steep ticket prices about 12 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 2: eight bucks plus. It would give them a chance to 13 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 2: generate some of that San Francisco magic they'd heard so 14 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 2: much about but never experienced. Upon the advice of the 15 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 2: Grateful Dead, the Stones managers arranged for the Hell's Angels 16 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 2: to provide security in exchange for five hundred dollars worth 17 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 2: of beer. San Francisco people will sure the Stones management 18 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 2: that the Hell's Angels can be trusted, but on the 19 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 2: day of the concert, they get as loaded as anyone 20 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,559 Speaker 2: else and use salt off pool cus to enforce their law. 21 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 2: By the time the Stones go on, it's dark. A 22 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 2: crush of people in front of the three foot stage 23 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,840 Speaker 2: is terrifying. Their eyes are crazed. They're pushing, trying to 24 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 2: get forward, closer, trying to reach up and touch the 25 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 2: magic source. Sporadically, angels leap into the crowd, beating anyone 26 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 2: and gets in their way. Jacker pleads with the crowd, 27 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 2: brothers and sisters, who's fighting and what for? But it's hopeless. 28 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 2: They're angels sitting on drum cases and freaks going mad 29 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 2: by the amplifiers, literally foaming and clawing at their faces 30 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 2: as though they're possessed by the gods and some classic 31 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 2: Greek tragedy. It's the Stone's last gig of the tour. 32 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 2: They want to go home. There's only one helicopter available 33 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,919 Speaker 2: for the ride out. It has room for only nine 34 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 2: people and gas enough for just one trip. Eighteen people, 35 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 2: the Stones among them, jam onto the copter, and just 36 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 2: before it takes off, they see a young girl crying bitterly. 37 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 2: An eighteen year old man has been stabbed to death 38 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 2: by a Hell's angel who saw him rushing towards the 39 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 2: stage with a revolver in his hand. The gun was 40 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:37,360 Speaker 2: later found to be unloaded. The copter takes off at 41 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,760 Speaker 2: a forty five degree angle and limps away, motor fluttering 42 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 2: and coughing for life, like the very last flight out 43 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 2: of Vietnam. It's only when the Stones get back to 44 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 2: the relative sanity of their hotel rooms that the awful 45 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 2: horror of the day dawns on them. Only then does 46 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 2: it all become real. Those words come courtesy of Robert Greenfield, 47 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,519 Speaker 2: the legendary rock journalist who was Rolling Stone Magazine's anointed 48 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,959 Speaker 2: Stones correspondent as a twenty something in the early seventies. 49 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:20,120 Speaker 2: He was there that night at Altamont, bearing witness to 50 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:24,560 Speaker 2: what's often characterized as the death of the sixties. More importantly, 51 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 2: he was the death of a man, and to some 52 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:33,920 Speaker 2: justice hadn't been served. Many, including the Hell's Angels, blamed 53 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 2: the Stones for the tragedy. Tempers remained high when they 54 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 2: returned to San Francisco on their Exile on Main Street 55 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 2: tour in nineteen seventy two. Greenfield accompanied the band as 56 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 2: they revisited the scene of the crime, chronicling the experience 57 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 2: in his highly influential book stp the journey through America 58 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 2: with the Rolling Stones. The entire tour was marred by 59 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 2: rumors that the gang would seek murder's revenge for the 60 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 2: disaster that bloodied their hands. San Francisco was where it 61 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 2: would likely go down. Every precaution had been taken, but 62 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 2: in the end there was only so much that could 63 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 2: be done. If sitting presidents and senators could get gunned down, 64 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,680 Speaker 2: so could Mick Jagger, and he knew it. Now for 65 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 2: the first time, Greenfield is sharing his tape archive, allowing 66 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 2: you to sit in on intimate chats with the Rolling 67 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 2: Stones in their prime. These tapes have gone unheard for 68 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 2: half a century. Consider the show on all access paths 69 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 2: that takes you from the front road to backstage, and 70 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,000 Speaker 2: from the private jets to the private after show affairs. 71 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 2: We're going on the road with the greatest rock and 72 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 2: roll band in the world, on the tour that showed 73 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,480 Speaker 2: us what it means to party like a rock star. 74 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 2: Each episode will take in the sites, sounds, riots, bombings, 75 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 2: drug busts, and other assorted mayhem from this pivotal moment 76 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 2: in American history. My name's Jordan Runtog, and welcome to 77 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:12,599 Speaker 2: Stones touring. As the Rolling Stones jet taxis down the runway, 78 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,479 Speaker 2: the stp entourage are already high off the two strong 79 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 2: shows they've just completed in Seattle. Champagne and Orange Juice 80 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 2: make the rounds, and the feeling on the plane is 81 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:26,239 Speaker 2: that the tryouts are over San Francisco. Where they're heading 82 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:31,280 Speaker 2: is where the big time starts. They burn off nervous energy, 83 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 2: regaling each other with battle stories from the night before 84 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 2: during the first post show rager of the tour. As 85 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 2: was the fashion, it got out of hand and nearly 86 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,400 Speaker 2: torpedoed the whole track. The hotel where they stayed was 87 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 2: notorious in rock and roll circles. Located directly on the 88 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 2: Puget Sound, it afforded marvelous views of the harbor and 89 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:55,680 Speaker 2: the unique opportunity for guests to fish directly from their windows. 90 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 2: This quaint feature directly led to one of the most 91 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 2: fouls and music history. Robert Greenfield explains. 92 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 3: The only good thing about the Seattle gig. We stayed 93 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:12,599 Speaker 3: at the Edgewater Inn, which is the evolution of mud shark. 94 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 3: Need I go into detail. Zeppelin stayed there and the legend. 95 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 3: I I don't know why I'm stuck with having to 96 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:26,600 Speaker 3: explain all this stuff that the groupies. It is horror 97 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 3: to say this, but that the object of sexual penetration 98 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,880 Speaker 3: used on one of the groupies because you could fish 99 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 3: off the balcony. This sounds like I'm making it up 100 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 3: even to me, but that with someone in some band 101 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 3: I think it was Zeppelin used a mud shark as 102 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 3: a sexual device. I'm not even happy that I just 103 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:55,560 Speaker 3: said that. Well, but the Stones didn't fish. We just 104 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:56,599 Speaker 3: kind of hung out there. 105 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 2: Mercifully, this post gig party didn't involve sea life. There's 106 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 2: a bit of smoking, a little bit of music from 107 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 2: the cassette player, and a lot of people watching each 108 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 2: other waiting for something to happen. A few young kids, 109 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 2: seemingly still in their teens, managed to infiltrate the gathering. 110 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 2: One of them pulls an envelope out of his pocket. 111 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 2: He takes a snort, passes it down a line of 112 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 2: his friends. Eventually it winds up in the hands of 113 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 2: one of the SCP coterie. Rolling Stones Records Chief Marshall 114 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 2: chess what's in the envelope? Marshall asks, Smack comes the reply. 115 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:37,200 Speaker 2: He hands the envelope back unopened. A blonde girl with 116 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 2: a broad smile. No older than seventeen makes a grab 117 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,440 Speaker 2: for it. Marshall tells her what it is. She grins 118 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 2: and nods her head eagerly before taking a hit. Marshall stunned. 119 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,120 Speaker 2: He's been around musicians all his life. Pills, smoke and 120 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 2: booze or commonplace. Musicians, after all, are high people. But 121 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,200 Speaker 2: the casual way these kids take hits off an envelope 122 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 2: somebody tells them is full of heroin give some chills. 123 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 2: The party is abruptly interrupted by the Stones' bodyguards, Leeroy 124 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 2: Leonard and Stand the Man More. They gestured at the 125 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 2: band with a jerk of the neck and bark, let's go. 126 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 2: The Stones know what that means and slip out the door. 127 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 2: The gathering has drawn noise complaints. The police are on 128 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 2: their way up the elevator at that very moment. Getting 129 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 2: caught in the hotel room with heroin and a bunch 130 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,959 Speaker 2: of kids who are most likely underage would be high 131 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 2: on a list of very bad things that could happen 132 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 2: to the Stones. The SDP entourage are still laughing about 133 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,120 Speaker 2: it on the plane ride. Just imagine what the cops 134 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 2: would have done if they'd found the most famous band 135 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,079 Speaker 2: in the world in that room instead of these kids 136 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 2: who just flush their stashes the stones totally in is 137 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 2: sit and positively clean this time around. Hand to God 138 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 2: would have been right back in the headlines with the 139 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 2: tour over barely after it began. But they got away 140 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:05,240 Speaker 2: with it, and the story gets better with every retelling. 141 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:10,079 Speaker 2: And yet Mick Jagger is freaked out, not by the 142 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 2: run in with the law. He's used to that, like 143 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 2: Marshall Chess. He's also disturbed by the casual way these 144 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 2: kids consume hard drugs. For him, it seemed emblematic of 145 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,480 Speaker 2: a deeper malaise that he noticed throughout America during the 146 00:09:24,559 --> 00:09:28,120 Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two tour. Here he is talking about it 147 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 2: with Robert Greenfield, courtesy of our friends at the Northwestern 148 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:32,959 Speaker 2: University Archives. 149 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:35,320 Speaker 4: There's just a lot of people doping up, you know. 150 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:38,560 Speaker 4: I think it's fucking I mean, it's all the dope. 151 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 4: He's got to stop for starn before anything else, you know. 152 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,320 Speaker 4: I mean everyone's taking all that smacking. I mean, okay, 153 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:49,680 Speaker 4: that's their thing. 154 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:50,040 Speaker 3: Man. 155 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 5: If you want to take smack and downers and two 156 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 5: gowners of chemic cool wine, you know that's around million. 157 00:09:57,280 --> 00:09:57,680 Speaker 6: I mean. 158 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,559 Speaker 4: You're never going to do you know what I thought 159 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:07,640 Speaker 4: people was going to do on that. And I don't 160 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:10,199 Speaker 4: blame people for wanting to get fucked up. Everyone likes 161 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 4: to getting fucked up once in a while. 162 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:12,120 Speaker 7: You know. 163 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:14,880 Speaker 5: I mean, you know you can't. You can't go through 164 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,600 Speaker 5: your life getting just fucked up. It's stupid. You can't 165 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,160 Speaker 5: flo it out. You can's coming back. It's coming back. Man, 166 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:22,320 Speaker 5: You're just in the end, you just kill yourself, you know, 167 00:10:23,679 --> 00:10:24,680 Speaker 5: trying to blot it out. 168 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:25,240 Speaker 6: You know. 169 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 5: That's certain people have said. You know that that all 170 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 5: that dope on the street. You know, it's stopped people 171 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 5: being active. 172 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:33,480 Speaker 4: I mean, I just think you've got to make your 173 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:36,520 Speaker 4: country somewhere a better place to be in, a better 174 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 4: place to think, in a better place to bring out 175 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:42,960 Speaker 4: kids in, you know, and like sitting at home taking 176 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 4: smack and listening to representing ways to you do it, 177 00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:48,400 Speaker 4: you know, and like that's old fashioned, you know maybe, 178 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 4: but I think it's true that you know that, And 179 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 4: you've got to take the bull by the horns, and 180 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:56,320 Speaker 4: it's a huge fucking bull America, and the horns very nasty. 181 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 2: The consciousness was apparent to Mick during their second show, 182 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 2: at the Seattle Center Coliseum. That afternoon, the civil rights 183 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 2: activist Angela Davis was freed after spending sixteen months in 184 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:15,520 Speaker 2: jail on trumped up murder and conspiracy charges. Her incarceration 185 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 2: became a cause celebra for celebrities and the radical left. 186 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 2: Aretha Franklin reportedly offered to pay Davis's bond, and John 187 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:26,240 Speaker 2: Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote a song about her. Angela 188 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,360 Speaker 2: Mick did the same with the Exile on Main Street 189 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:33,360 Speaker 2: stand out Sweet Black Angel. It seemed only appropriate to 190 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:37,320 Speaker 2: honor her release on stage. Halfway through the show in Seattle, 191 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:39,760 Speaker 2: Mixed steps up to the mic and asks the crowd, 192 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 2: who got free today? He sounds like a patient schoolmaster, 193 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:48,360 Speaker 2: waiting for a reply. When there is none, he helpfully offers, 194 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:52,360 Speaker 2: Angela Davis got free today, in a tone that comes 195 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:57,280 Speaker 2: dangerously close to patronizing. The lackluster response contributed to Mixed 196 00:11:57,280 --> 00:11:59,360 Speaker 2: disappointment about the state of America. 197 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:05,720 Speaker 5: There's no revolutionary feeling anymore. I didn't feel no. I 198 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,360 Speaker 5: think that's sadly, and I find that a bit sad. 199 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:14,280 Speaker 5: You know, you know, fucking know, you noisy bastards. 200 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 4: Though the one half of me just wants to be 201 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:18,360 Speaker 4: you know that make a lot of money and spend 202 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 4: it or the other half of me is giant enough 203 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:22,920 Speaker 4: to really want to see it. 204 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 5: All happen, you know, I do, and I think it will, 205 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:28,200 Speaker 5: you know. I think it's going to come eventually. 206 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:30,200 Speaker 4: But it's gonna it's gonna weigh it's gonna have to 207 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,080 Speaker 4: wait again, which is a big drag, you know, because 208 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,079 Speaker 4: the back time America had a hand a revolution, and 209 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 4: one revolution in America history is not enough. 210 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 5: You must have had a very strong feeling about Anchel 211 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 5: Davis on that trial. Yeah, well, no, of course I didn't. 212 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 4: I just wrote a song about it, just for topical interest, 213 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:52,959 Speaker 4: that's specific question. No, yeah, suren't cared about it, and 214 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 4: everyone everyone cared about that. 215 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 2: Jagger wore many guys as as the front man of 216 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:06,360 Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones, from James Brown to Lucifer. In the 217 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:09,840 Speaker 2: summer of sixty eight, he responded to the violent uprisings 218 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:13,680 Speaker 2: in North America and Europe with yet another street fighting man. 219 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:18,000 Speaker 2: The mix of rock and roll in politics has always 220 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,440 Speaker 2: been a strange one. After all, the stage is no 221 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 2: place to find out what's going on in the street. 222 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,520 Speaker 2: Many fans and even some close to the band were 223 00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:31,640 Speaker 2: left to wonder was mixed flirtation with radical politics sincere 224 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:36,560 Speaker 2: or just another pose? Robert Greenfield has his suspicions. 225 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,280 Speaker 3: You know, politically. The question is that you asked this 226 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 3: is answered on some level by street fighting man, which 227 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 3: he had written, Was he in the street? Was he 228 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:53,120 Speaker 3: demonstrating in Grosvenor Square where the American Embassy was in London? 229 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 7: No. 230 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:58,719 Speaker 2: In fact, one of the few times he'd marched at 231 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 2: a rally in Paris, free Angela Davis, just before the 232 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:05,000 Speaker 2: Stones fled their French tax haven in nineteen seventy one. 233 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,680 Speaker 2: He was horrified by what he saw. To him, symbols 234 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:13,040 Speaker 2: of Soviet opression have been bastardized and co opted by 235 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 2: the radical left. It was a similar dilemma faced by 236 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 2: John Lennon, who hedged his bets on the nineteen sixty 237 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:24,239 Speaker 2: eight Beatles track Revolution by singing, if you talk about destruction, 238 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:27,440 Speaker 2: don't you know you can count me out in. 239 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,320 Speaker 4: There was a big rally in France and Angela Davis's 240 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:38,160 Speaker 4: sister kind of start from the place, Bestie and everyone 241 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:40,240 Speaker 4: want to walk in a fucking long line. 242 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,840 Speaker 5: And my lady was pregnant, very pregnant. And we will. 243 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 4: But the funny thing was that all these people in 244 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:51,000 Speaker 4: the French Commedist Party were carrying hamsical flags, you know, 245 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 4: and sometimes these guys, what the fuck you know, you're 246 00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 4: car Angela Davis, you know, and like and karind of 247 00:14:59,240 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 4: Russian flag. 248 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:01,920 Speaker 5: You've got to be out of your mind, you know, go. 249 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 4: Back to the Thursdays for getting man the twenties. I mean, 250 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,600 Speaker 4: Russian put more Angela Davises in prison. 251 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,080 Speaker 5: Than anyone else. You know. 252 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,480 Speaker 4: I ain't going to carry a Russian flag for no one, 253 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,440 Speaker 4: and I ain't going to carry no American flag either, 254 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:15,880 Speaker 4: you know. 255 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 5: Now, I ain't going to carry. 256 00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 4: Amer and sickle for Angela Davis because the ammer and 257 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:20,960 Speaker 4: sickle was cut. 258 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 5: More fucking people down. 259 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,800 Speaker 4: In Russia are Angela Davis type figures than it has 260 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 4: ever in America. 261 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:33,200 Speaker 2: Keith Richards agreed that the revolutionary spirit seemed to have 262 00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:36,440 Speaker 2: diminished since the Stones last visited the States in nineteen 263 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:40,480 Speaker 2: sixty nine, but unlike Mick, he wasn't so sure it 264 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:43,360 Speaker 2: was a bad thing. At least the vibes were better. 265 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 8: It was more like touring in the in the earliest 266 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 8: early sixties, middle sixties. People just seem to be a 267 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:54,920 Speaker 8: good time and look to watch their big single perform. 268 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:57,800 Speaker 8: You know, just seems to be like you saying too 269 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 8: tween they came to see a shirt you know, America. 270 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:04,240 Speaker 8: To me, it's seemed much more like us from like 271 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 8: art and this year than it did in. 272 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:10,000 Speaker 2: Sixty nine year happier. 273 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,480 Speaker 9: Yeah, it's a certain extent. I mean, whether it was 274 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:16,800 Speaker 9: that they just don't care as much anymore. Then they're 275 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 9: resigned the establishment thing to a certain extent. I mean, 276 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,680 Speaker 9: it's like the campuses and the college the universities in America, 277 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,240 Speaker 9: you know, I mean all that rioter. It seems a 278 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 9: new university generation they don't give a damn about those things, 279 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:38,040 Speaker 9: or they're working on in a different way, you know, 280 00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:39,400 Speaker 9: from within the system. 281 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 2: The you know, the revolutionary spirit was certainly gone from 282 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:49,760 Speaker 2: San Francisco about the summer of seventy two. It had 283 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 2: been five years since that magical summer when the young 284 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 2: and acid enlightened flocked to the hate Ashbury district with 285 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,479 Speaker 2: flowers in their hair. The idea had been to live communally, 286 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 2: simply and freely. Now, half a decade later, most of 287 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:08,040 Speaker 2: the magic was gone. It had seeped out of the 288 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 2: city to the country. These days, the streets were choked 289 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 2: with scam artists praying on teenage runaways. The psychedelics had 290 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:20,840 Speaker 2: given way to hard drugs like heroin and methamphetamine. A 291 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 2: flyer that made its way through Hate Ashbury seemed to 292 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:27,680 Speaker 2: crystallize the ugliness and disillusionment. Rape is as common as 293 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:31,159 Speaker 2: bullshit on Hate Street. It read. The only thing that 294 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:34,040 Speaker 2: was left in any sort of tangible sense was the music. 295 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:37,520 Speaker 3: It wasn't as though it was tragic to be in 296 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:41,960 Speaker 3: San Francisco. You know, the hate was over, but the hate, 297 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:45,399 Speaker 3: you know, was in miasma as well. If you had 298 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:49,359 Speaker 3: a million kids come that summer, Manson was there and 299 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 3: everything had gone to grief. But the spirits still lived 300 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:55,560 Speaker 3: in San Francisco, you know, the music things. San Francisco 301 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:59,080 Speaker 3: was still an astonishing music city, and they loved playing 302 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:01,920 Speaker 3: there like they loved playing in Nashville. They knew where 303 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:03,439 Speaker 3: they were always, you know. 304 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 2: Ian Stewart, a one time Rolling Stone turned to Loyal 305 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,119 Speaker 2: Roady and banned Confidant by nineteen seventy two, was a 306 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:14,640 Speaker 2: little less generous in his take on the city. When 307 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:18,080 Speaker 2: speaking of green Field some fifty years earlier, I. 308 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:21,639 Speaker 7: Think San Francisco is just that's a nice price, but 309 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 7: there's nothing particularly special about it. In San Francisco is 310 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:32,600 Speaker 7: just the calls bullshit. You know, it's really yeah, he's 311 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:35,159 Speaker 7: terribly overrated. Loud Man's people. 312 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 2: For the Stones, the magic of San Francisco had really 313 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,359 Speaker 2: dissipated following their last visit back in nineteen sixty nine 314 00:18:45,040 --> 00:19:02,160 Speaker 2: at Altamont. The Free Concert at Altamont was the stones 315 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,399 Speaker 2: attempt to get in on the good vibes that had 316 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,439 Speaker 2: largely eluded them from the San Francisco freelove scene. It 317 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:11,480 Speaker 2: would pair them with hometown heroes like the Grateful Dead 318 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 2: Santana and the Jefferson Airplane. Micked it his best to 319 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:20,520 Speaker 2: embrace the Age of Aquarius jargon and a press conference 320 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:23,800 Speaker 2: for the event, telling the assorted journalists that they intended 321 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,000 Speaker 2: to quote create a microcosmic society which sets an example 322 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 2: to the rest of America as to how one could 323 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:35,879 Speaker 2: behave in large gatherings far out man Woodstock West was 324 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,159 Speaker 2: the phrase everyone used, and like the actual Woodstock, it 325 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:43,280 Speaker 2: was a practical and logistical nightmare. No one wanted to 326 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:47,240 Speaker 2: host this influx of stoned, unwashed humanity, resulting in a 327 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 2: constant change of venue. First it was Golden Gate Park, 328 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:54,480 Speaker 2: then it was Sears Point Raceway, the practice field that 329 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:58,680 Speaker 2: San Jose State was also briefly considered, and then, finally, 330 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,000 Speaker 2: two days before the concert was set for December sixth, 331 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:06,800 Speaker 2: they chose Aultamont's Speedway, a barren patch of ranchland fifty 332 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 2: miles east of San Francisco. Given the tight deadline, preparations 333 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 2: were minimal. No we're close to what was needed to 334 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,480 Speaker 2: host three hundred thousand kids safely. Toilets and medical tents 335 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,919 Speaker 2: were in short supply, and the hastily assembled stage was 336 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:25,199 Speaker 2: barely three feet off the ground, far too low to 337 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:28,159 Speaker 2: be seen by most of the audience or prevent them 338 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,680 Speaker 2: from invading when they became too frustrated by the poor visibility. 339 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,200 Speaker 2: The only protective barrier for the bands was a line 340 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:37,359 Speaker 2: of string run at chest height in front of the 341 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:42,280 Speaker 2: stage to mark where the crowd should theoretically stop. Clearly 342 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:48,360 Speaker 2: something more was needed. Enter the Hell's Angels. To say 343 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:52,640 Speaker 2: they were hired as security isn't quite accurate, but they 344 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,800 Speaker 2: were there. They were big, and according to them, they 345 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 2: were offered all the beer they wanted to keep on 346 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,879 Speaker 2: the ruly kids off the stage. Unfortunately, this meant there 347 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 2: was no one there to keep the unruly Hell's Angels 348 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:09,200 Speaker 2: off the stage. Four or five plain closed County sheriffs 349 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:14,359 Speaker 2: surveyed the increasingly chaotic scene from backstage weapons and their holsters. 350 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,119 Speaker 2: Aware they were outnumbered in the California desert by some 351 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:23,080 Speaker 2: three hundred bikers, they backed down. For that day, the 352 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:35,399 Speaker 2: Hell's Angels became law. The trouble really began in the afternoon, 353 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 2: when one concert goer, likely gone on bad acid and 354 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:43,880 Speaker 2: chemical wine, knocked over one of the Angel's bikes. It's 355 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,840 Speaker 2: no exaggeration to say that to an angel this was 356 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:50,600 Speaker 2: on par with kicking their baby. You love that thing 357 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,840 Speaker 2: better than you love anything in the world. Oakland Chapter 358 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 2: president Sunny Barger later said, and when you see a 359 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,359 Speaker 2: guy kick it, you know who he is. And if 360 00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:01,320 Speaker 2: you got to go through fifty people to get him, 361 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 2: you're gonna get him. Retribution was swift and vicious. From 362 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,160 Speaker 2: then on, relations between the Angels and the audience turned 363 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:14,280 Speaker 2: an antagonistic They beat on lookers senseless with pool cues, 364 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:18,080 Speaker 2: bike chains, and fists. They hurled cans of beer at 365 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 2: the crowd, resulting in fractured skulls and black eyes. Some 366 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,280 Speaker 2: drove their motorcycles straight through the audience, unconcerned about the 367 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,840 Speaker 2: people in their way. One woman was dragged across the 368 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,560 Speaker 2: stage by her hair. Not even the artists were spared. 369 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:37,640 Speaker 2: Singer Marty Ballen was in the middle of his set 370 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 2: with the Jefferson Airplane when he noticed the violence erupting 371 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,480 Speaker 2: just feet in front of him. He dove into the 372 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:47,600 Speaker 2: crowd to intervene and was promptly knocked unconscious by an angel. 373 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:53,080 Speaker 2: Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, also on 374 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,040 Speaker 2: the bill that day, was repeatedly stabbed in the leg 375 00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 2: with a sharpened bicycle. Spoke the grateful they had arrived 376 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,960 Speaker 2: in the midst of this melee. Though they would perform 377 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,000 Speaker 2: over twenty three hundred concerts over the course of their career, 378 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,160 Speaker 2: this would not be one of them. They took one 379 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,879 Speaker 2: look around and immediately headed back to San Francisco. It 380 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:18,399 Speaker 2: was simply too crazy for them. The Stones arrived shortly after. 381 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 2: According to guitarist Mick Taylor, they had no clue what 382 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 2: they were in for. 383 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:24,760 Speaker 5: No, because we. 384 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:28,200 Speaker 6: Only arrived there for forty five. 385 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,359 Speaker 5: Minutes before we went on, and we went into this. 386 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:34,119 Speaker 6: Tiny caravan behind the stage where we were tuning up 387 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,879 Speaker 6: the guitars and getting ready to go on, and so 388 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,199 Speaker 6: obviously we were completely unaware of all the. 389 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 5: Other things that have gone down during the afternoon. 390 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,879 Speaker 2: Though they may not have been aware of specifics, the 391 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 2: hostilities were immediately in their face in a very literal way. 392 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,320 Speaker 2: Just moments after exiting their helicopter at the site, Mick 393 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 2: Jagger was punched in the jaw by an agitated attendee, screaming, 394 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,679 Speaker 2: I hate you, I hate The rude welcome was a 395 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,879 Speaker 2: not so subtle sign of things to come. As they 396 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:08,359 Speaker 2: made their way to their tent, the Stones see a 397 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:12,399 Speaker 2: group of very Stones people standing around watching someone writhe 398 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 2: around on the ground, apparently in the midst of full 399 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,399 Speaker 2: blown acid horrors. And then, of course there were the 400 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 2: angels everywhere they looked. Charlie Watts, the resident beat of 401 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,879 Speaker 2: the Stones, was taken aback by seeing the San Francisco 402 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:30,520 Speaker 2: biker gang live and in the flesh. 403 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 7: The thing was an ultrame. 404 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,000 Speaker 10: The guys, I'm met, they're all living on the image 405 00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:36,040 Speaker 10: of San Francisco. 406 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:37,240 Speaker 7: He was angel man. 407 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,879 Speaker 10: And when you hit San Francisco and see this guy's 408 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,560 Speaker 10: the that's the ones that's that's Jack Kerok. That's the 409 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,479 Speaker 10: carect That's what he was talking about, man, you know. 410 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:49,240 Speaker 10: And when I saw them, that was the real stuff. 411 00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,280 Speaker 10: Either when you get there with that fucking motorbike sweating 412 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,600 Speaker 10: all that shit, guy, that's the real everyday of the world. 413 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,720 Speaker 2: The Stones took the stage just after sundown. The Grateful 414 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:08,439 Speaker 2: Dead's no show left the gap in the schedule, and 415 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 2: by the time the band opened with Jumpin' Jack Flash, 416 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 2: the crowd had been waiting for over an hour, and 417 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,399 Speaker 2: the restless at the point of hysteria. A crush of 418 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:22,040 Speaker 2: Hell's Angels surged towards the stage, sending hundreds fleeing for safety. 419 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:24,520 Speaker 2: When a fight breaks out in the middle of Sympathy 420 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,159 Speaker 2: for the Devil, the Stones halt the song in an 421 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,760 Speaker 2: attempt to restore order. For a time, things are cool. 422 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:41,360 Speaker 2: Then Lucifer himself arrives in Altamont. Meredith Curly Hunter Junior, 423 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,920 Speaker 2: an eighteen year old from Berkeley, climbs atop a speaker 424 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 2: cabinet the side of the stage, a point promising both 425 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,160 Speaker 2: protection and the good view. But then a Hell's Angel, 426 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,480 Speaker 2: either fulfilling his duty as security or merely excited at 427 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:58,600 Speaker 2: the prospect of roughing up a black kid with a 428 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,920 Speaker 2: pretty white girlfriend, grabs him by the ear and yanks 429 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,480 Speaker 2: him to the ground, laughing as he does so. A 430 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:09,000 Speaker 2: few more angels descend on Hunter, punching him and chasing 431 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,640 Speaker 2: him back into the crowd. What happens next is difficult 432 00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,240 Speaker 2: to determine, even though it was captured by filmmakers David 433 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,920 Speaker 2: and Albert Masel's documentary camera crews. The Stones launch into 434 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,320 Speaker 2: the swampy samba of Under My Thumb. His Hunter's scuffles 435 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:29,080 Speaker 2: with the gang of angels near the front row. Understandably 436 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 2: frightened and his temper frayed by the methamphetamines in his system, 437 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,119 Speaker 2: he draws a long barreled twenty two Smith and Wesson 438 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,200 Speaker 2: from his lime green suit and waves it in the air. 439 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,600 Speaker 2: According to some witnesses, it was the last resort of 440 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,840 Speaker 2: a desperate man. Others thought he was a zonked out 441 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,919 Speaker 2: speed freak preparing to shoot Mick Jagger. Regardless of his 442 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 2: true intent, A pack of angels swarm and knock the 443 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,280 Speaker 2: pistol out of his hand. Though disarmed, he stabbed in 444 00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,720 Speaker 2: the neck, back and kidney. The beating continues even after 445 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,920 Speaker 2: he's down His last words were, I wasn't going to 446 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:14,240 Speaker 2: shoot you. One angel stands on his head while others 447 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 2: kick him in the face, yet another hits him with 448 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:21,080 Speaker 2: the garbage can lid. As they stomp off, one angel 449 00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,639 Speaker 2: tells a bystander don't touch it. He's just going to 450 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:29,640 Speaker 2: die anyway he does. Before the Stones finish their set. 451 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,639 Speaker 2: The band would always claim to be oblivious of the 452 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 2: murder taking place right before their eyes, but it was 453 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,960 Speaker 2: obvious there was trouble. According to bassist Bill Wyman, they 454 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:47,880 Speaker 2: felt powerless to do anything about it. 455 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:49,639 Speaker 11: We were terribly concerned. 456 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:51,760 Speaker 7: I mean we could say the same as. 457 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,159 Speaker 11: Another people could see what was going on, but it's 458 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,040 Speaker 11: totally out of your hands. You cannot do anything. You know, 459 00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 11: if you stop the music, if you don't play anymore, 460 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:04,439 Speaker 11: it just gets worse. Instead about it, You know, as 461 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:07,880 Speaker 11: long as you play, it does take their minds off 462 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:12,680 Speaker 11: whatever's going on. It does some kind of we hope 463 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 11: stop it from continuing. 464 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:17,200 Speaker 6: But I was very affected by it when we were 465 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,080 Speaker 6: on stage. But I mean I had no knowledge of 466 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,359 Speaker 6: what had been going on all afternoon, and so I 467 00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 6: saw the film. 468 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,440 Speaker 7: Were you very physically physically scared at scared for your safe. 469 00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:31,280 Speaker 6: Yes, I think I was a bit physically scared, but I. 470 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:34,000 Speaker 1: Was worried that it. 471 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 6: May you know, if somebody didn't do the right thing, 472 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 6: it may escalate, you know, and violence get worse something. Yes, 473 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,360 Speaker 6: because you know what it's like, one sort of violent 474 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,160 Speaker 6: incident in a crowd of people and are verging on 475 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:54,240 Speaker 6: hysteria can trigger off our own. 476 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 5: Chain of the lens. 477 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 2: The scope of the disaster wasn't apparent of the band 478 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:11,800 Speaker 2: until after the show was over. Keith would go on 479 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,320 Speaker 2: to say that at the time it was just another 480 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:19,400 Speaker 2: gig where I had to leave fast. It was only 481 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,320 Speaker 2: over the next few days, long after the Stones had 482 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:32,360 Speaker 2: flown back to England, that the horrors became apparent. Scores 483 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,360 Speaker 2: of audience members called into San Francisco rock stations bemoaning 484 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:40,480 Speaker 2: the unchecked circulation of bad drugs, lack of proper facilities, 485 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,200 Speaker 2: and random acts of violence perpetrated by the Hell's Angels, 486 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:52,240 Speaker 2: and there were other deaths too. One young man drowned 487 00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,200 Speaker 2: in an irrigation ditch and two others were killed in 488 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 2: a hit and run after the show. Dozens of cars 489 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 2: were stolen in a band and hundreds of thousands of 490 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:08,880 Speaker 2: dollars worth of property was damaged. Ultamont Speedway was banned 491 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 2: from having any further concerts again. The Stones became subjects 492 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:20,480 Speaker 2: of scathing articles around the world, including an exhaustive twenty 493 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 2: thousand word report in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine, 494 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 2: Leave Together from the work of eleven reporters. Most of 495 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 2: these pieces blame the murder on the band's own arrogance 496 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:35,840 Speaker 2: and carelessness hiring the Hell's Angels as security. What were 497 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,440 Speaker 2: they thinking? Few outlets cared to mention the fact that 498 00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 2: the event was actually planned by the Grateful Dead's management, 499 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,080 Speaker 2: who'd often use the Hell's Angels as a form of security. 500 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,400 Speaker 2: Correctly recognizing the Angels as threats that not even the 501 00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,120 Speaker 2: police were equipped to deal with, they thought it best 502 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 2: to pay them off, give them a privileged position with 503 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,800 Speaker 2: a prime stage side view, and hopes that they behave. 504 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 2: This approach at all worked, and there never been any 505 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,680 Speaker 2: serious trouble with them. Prior to Altamont, Jagger and co. 506 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,680 Speaker 2: Steadfast resolved to finish the show in the face of 507 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,960 Speaker 2: undefined but very apparent danger. May very well have prevented 508 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,200 Speaker 2: a riot and saved countless more lives, but this was 509 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:27,840 Speaker 2: also never commented on in these articles. The fact that 510 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,520 Speaker 2: Altamont had been conceived by a whole crew of San 511 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:35,040 Speaker 2: Francisco organizers as a multi group festival was quickly forgotten 512 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:40,360 Speaker 2: in the press. Altamont became a Rolling Stones concert, produced 513 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,320 Speaker 2: and arranged by the band themselves, or even micked personally. 514 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,920 Speaker 2: For the Chronicles Ralph J. Gleeson, dean of San Francisco 515 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,680 Speaker 2: music Journalists, Altamont symboled quote the end of rock's innocence, 516 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,920 Speaker 2: a warning that the vast amount of energy contained in 517 00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:01,280 Speaker 2: the music and its immense worldwide audience had elements of danger, 518 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 2: and it seemed significant that all this was presided over 519 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 2: by the greatest live performer in rock history, Mick Jagger. 520 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,000 Speaker 2: The band even took flak from David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, 521 00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 2: Nash and Young, who played at Aultmont immediately prior to 522 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 2: The Stones before high tailing it out of there. I 523 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,040 Speaker 2: think the major mistakes were taking what was essentially a 524 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 2: party and turning it into an ego game and a 525 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:29,240 Speaker 2: star trip, Crosby told Rolling Stone for the expose, describing 526 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:33,760 Speaker 2: them repeatedly as quote snobs. Crosby added, I don't like them. 527 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,680 Speaker 2: I think they have an exaggerated view of their own importance. 528 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:41,120 Speaker 2: I think they're on a grotesque ego trip. The Rolling 529 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 2: Stone piece also criticized the Stones for seemingly fleeing the 530 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,640 Speaker 2: country after a fan died just feet from where they 531 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,240 Speaker 2: sang without a word of apology or even sympathy for 532 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:56,600 Speaker 2: his family. Some display of compassion, however, restrained hardly seems 533 00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 2: too much to expect. The Rolling Stone expose concluded, a 534 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,600 Speaker 2: man died before their eyes. Do they give a damn 535 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:08,600 Speaker 2: yes or no? For Bill Wyman? All the good will 536 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:12,640 Speaker 2: that worked so hard to cultivate during the tour immediately evaporated. 537 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,920 Speaker 11: Such a shame that was in such a nice tour, 538 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:20,120 Speaker 11: that whole show, and it wasn't a show we had 539 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,600 Speaker 11: to do. It was to show me we gave to say. 540 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:24,440 Speaker 7: Thank you to America. That's all it was. It was 541 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:26,000 Speaker 7: just a thank you, and. 542 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,000 Speaker 11: You know, it kind of blew up in our faces 543 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 11: just just because of thirty or forty people, and I 544 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,000 Speaker 11: don't know how many were there, three hundred four winds 545 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,000 Speaker 11: down and whatever it was for thirty of poorly people, 546 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 11: and that became the. 547 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:45,360 Speaker 7: Whole focus of the whole tour. 548 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:47,120 Speaker 2: You know, it was and it. 549 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 11: Was that was a very unfair reflection on our tour 550 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 11: as well. But they were saying the Ultimate Tour or 551 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:58,440 Speaker 11: the everybody that's the only thing they remember about it. 552 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,440 Speaker 2: For some of the Stones organization, like Roady Ian Stewart, 553 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,719 Speaker 2: the tragedy was shamefully predictable, a disaster that had been 554 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,759 Speaker 2: waiting to happen throughout the nineteen sixty nine tour. 555 00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,960 Speaker 7: The thing about Ultimate was I expected something like that, 556 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,640 Speaker 7: and I wasn't a loose bit surprised. It was no worse, 557 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,880 Speaker 7: no better than I expected. And I mean if you 558 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:23,799 Speaker 7: were going to gather together a crowd of a couple 559 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 7: hundred thousand idiots in the middle of the desert and 560 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:32,160 Speaker 7: somebody gets killed, I mean, it's no surprise. It just 561 00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:33,879 Speaker 7: it hadn't happened before. 562 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,919 Speaker 2: Meredith Hunter was laid to rest in Lot sixty three 563 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:44,879 Speaker 2: Grave Sea at Skyview Memorial Lawns Cemetery in Vallejo, California, 564 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,160 Speaker 2: for decades. There was no marker. If you didn't know, 565 00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:52,439 Speaker 2: you'd have no idea that he or anyone else was there. 566 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:58,160 Speaker 2: The fact is grotesquely fitting. In the popular consciousness, the 567 00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:01,080 Speaker 2: young man plays a supporting role and his own murder 568 00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:04,279 Speaker 2: eclipsed by the gritty glamour of the Stones and the 569 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:08,240 Speaker 2: mythologized meaning of it all. His name isn't even mentioned 570 00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:12,120 Speaker 2: once in the Mazles documentary Gimme Shelter, which betrays him 571 00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:15,920 Speaker 2: as a threat more than anything else. As music critic 572 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 2: Grio Marcus observed, in nineteen seventy seven, a young black 573 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 2: man was murdered in the midst of a white crowd 574 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,160 Speaker 2: by white thugs as white men played their version of 575 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,960 Speaker 2: black music. It was too much to kiss off as 576 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:33,640 Speaker 2: mere unpleasantness. In mid nineteen seventy, several months after the 577 00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:37,160 Speaker 2: Rolling Stone story appeared, the band sent the Hunter family 578 00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:41,160 Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars through their lawyers. To this day, the 579 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:45,359 Speaker 2: Stones have never spoken to the Hunter family directly. A 580 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 2: twenty one year old Hell's Angel named Alan Pissarro was 581 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:52,600 Speaker 2: charged with Hunter's murder after six camera crews documented the 582 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,880 Speaker 2: knifing on film. In his defense, Passarrow told the court, 583 00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:01,120 Speaker 2: I think some fear came over me looking after my people. 584 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,320 Speaker 2: A jury would acquit him on the grounds of self defense. 585 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,520 Speaker 2: After viewing footage from the Masls documentary of Hunter waving 586 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:12,040 Speaker 2: his pistol in the air. Pisarro threw back his head 587 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 2: and let out a whoop as the verdict was read. 588 00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,239 Speaker 2: By the time the Stones were back in San Francisco 589 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,440 Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy two, he was a free man, angry, 590 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,360 Speaker 2: armed and backed by a mobile militia. The Hell's Angels 591 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,319 Speaker 2: were furious at the Rolling Stones for, as they saw it, 592 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,040 Speaker 2: using them as Patsy's at Altamont, setting them up to 593 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 2: take the legal fall for what was they felt the 594 00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:42,239 Speaker 2: band's own irresponsibility and logistical shortcomings. The stones refusal to 595 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,959 Speaker 2: cover Pisaro's fifty thousand dollars legal fees also didn't help. 596 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 2: In the days after the Ultimont concert, Sonny Barger, leader 597 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:53,359 Speaker 2: of the Oakland chapter of the Hell's Angels, called into 598 00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,799 Speaker 2: the Kaisson radio station to make his displeasure known. 599 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,960 Speaker 12: I ain't no cop. I ain't going to ever pretend 600 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,280 Speaker 12: to be a cop. And you know what, I didn't 601 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,759 Speaker 12: go there to police nothing. Man. They told me if 602 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:08,680 Speaker 12: I could sit on the edge of the stage so 603 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 12: nobody would climb over me, you know, I could drink 604 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:14,640 Speaker 12: beer until the show was over. And that's what I 605 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,840 Speaker 12: went there to do. This Mick Jagger like he used 606 00:37:17,880 --> 00:37:20,120 Speaker 12: us for dupes. Man, you know, and as far as 607 00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,680 Speaker 12: I'm concerned, we were the biggest suckers for that idiot 608 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:23,680 Speaker 12: that I can ever see. 609 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,600 Speaker 2: The Hell's Angels demanded some form of compensation for the 610 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:33,359 Speaker 2: trouble at Altamont. If they couldn't get cash, they were 611 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,839 Speaker 2: determined to make the Stones pay another way with Mick 612 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:56,920 Speaker 2: Jagger's life. According to rumors percoltting up from the underground, 613 00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,560 Speaker 2: the Hell's Angels were planning all manner of bottle harm 614 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 2: as vengeance against Mick and co. For the disaster at Altamont. 615 00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:08,000 Speaker 2: The Stones got the message loud and clear. As far 616 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,600 Speaker 2: as they were concerned, it would be a miracle if 617 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,400 Speaker 2: they made it through their four San Francisco gigs without 618 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,439 Speaker 2: having the rumble with the most fearsome motorcycle gang known 619 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:20,759 Speaker 2: to humankind. Making matters worse, the band could also run 620 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,120 Speaker 2: a foul of Bill Graham, and having Bill pissed at 621 00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:29,480 Speaker 2: you is just as scary as the Angels. Bill Graham 622 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,360 Speaker 2: is arguably the most powerful musical figure and the Hippos 623 00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,200 Speaker 2: rock town in the country. To call him a promoter 624 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,760 Speaker 2: isn't the half of it. Graham is a San Francisco fixture, 625 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,960 Speaker 2: the godfather of Marin County's musical landscape. Much like the Stones, 626 00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:47,200 Speaker 2: He's outlasted everyone who wants a threat to him, and 627 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:50,840 Speaker 2: continued through good times and bad until there's hardly anything 628 00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 2: more to say about him the matters except that he 629 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,720 Speaker 2: exists and he's in total control. As Robert Greenfield writes 630 00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,399 Speaker 2: in STP. Graham himself is a total a man who 631 00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:04,279 Speaker 2: has always insisted on the absolute right to just be 632 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,040 Speaker 2: himself to the exclusion of all else. He gave a 633 00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,319 Speaker 2: lot of people, a lot of music, and he made 634 00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:15,000 Speaker 2: a lot of money. Raised in a Berlin orphanage, Graham 635 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:17,160 Speaker 2: was shuttled out of Germany following the rise of the 636 00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,480 Speaker 2: Nazis in the late nineteen thirties, where his mother was 637 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:24,560 Speaker 2: murdered in Auschwitz. He arrived on American shores at age ten, 638 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,440 Speaker 2: settling in a Bronx Foster home. He remembers being in 639 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,680 Speaker 2: New York City staring hungrily through a store window at 640 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,360 Speaker 2: a pair of thirty four dollars dancing shoes he couldn't 641 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:38,760 Speaker 2: possibly afford. Now, Graham lives in a tree surrounded Marin 642 00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,760 Speaker 2: County home, the basketball court in the back. His life 643 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:46,600 Speaker 2: is very much a realization of the American dream showbiz style. 644 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 2: Until recently he presided over a pair of theaters, both 645 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,840 Speaker 2: called the Fillmore, the Fillmore East in New York City's 646 00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,960 Speaker 2: East Village and the Fillmore West in San Francisco. This 647 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:02,400 Speaker 2: by coastal empire showcased a whole new era of popular 648 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:06,520 Speaker 2: music as important in career defining as Ed Sullivan's Variety 649 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:09,480 Speaker 2: Show had been for a previous musical micro generation a 650 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:13,600 Speaker 2: half decade before in the mid sixties. After closing both 651 00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:17,520 Speaker 2: fillmore As in nineteen seventy one, Bill briefly contemplated retirement. 652 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:20,759 Speaker 2: Then he bought a new theater, the Winterland, and went 653 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:25,440 Speaker 2: right on promoting more shows than ever before. Graham balanced 654 00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:28,120 Speaker 2: an innate understanding of the free love ethos with the 655 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 2: New Yorker's street wise business sense, sometimes a hilarious effect. 656 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,959 Speaker 2: Even during the groovous days of San Francisco communalism. Bill 657 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,959 Speaker 2: wouldn't hesitate to inform anyone who asked that the hall 658 00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:42,880 Speaker 2: was his house, and anyone who failed to follow his 659 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,279 Speaker 2: prescribed rules could get their ass right back out in 660 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 2: the street where they belonged. If you were unwise enough 661 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:51,080 Speaker 2: to pursue the matter further, he would accommodate you by 662 00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:54,400 Speaker 2: chasing you onto the asphalt himself, with the failings of 663 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:58,759 Speaker 2: security guards struggling to keep up. Sure, he provided a 664 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,440 Speaker 2: crucial platform that brought African American acts like Otis Redding, 665 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,920 Speaker 2: Wretha Franklin, and B. B. King to white audiences and 666 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,040 Speaker 2: treated them in a way that members of the industry 667 00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 2: rarely had. But Bill Graham was also a son of 668 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:13,880 Speaker 2: a bitch. He fought with patrons, He fought with light 669 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,879 Speaker 2: show unions. He fought with the Grateful Dead. For a time, 670 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:20,319 Speaker 2: he managed the Jefferson Airplane. Then he stopped managing them 671 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:23,319 Speaker 2: and fought with them instead. He even fought with the 672 00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:27,200 Speaker 2: Hell's Angels, ultimately refusing them admission to his shows after 673 00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:31,000 Speaker 2: a lengthy series of incidents. For this, he received the 674 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,640 Speaker 2: first of seven bullets indicating that he was a marked man. 675 00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,759 Speaker 2: Needless to say, he also fought with the Stones for 676 00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:42,600 Speaker 2: reasons that included, but weren't limited to the disaster at Altamont. 677 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:48,239 Speaker 3: Bill called Altamont the pearl Harbor of rock and roll. 678 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:51,440 Speaker 3: And then he said stuff about Mick in Rolling Stone 679 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:55,840 Speaker 3: that I'm not gonna quote. Okay, you can look it up, kids, Okay, 680 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:59,160 Speaker 3: it's words. My daughter wouldn't like me using he just 681 00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:00,200 Speaker 3: said things about them. 682 00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:05,680 Speaker 2: Okay. It indeed got ugly, as Graham condemned Mick by 683 00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,200 Speaker 2: name in the pages of Rock's bi weekly Bible. In summation, 684 00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:13,480 Speaker 2: he offered Mick fifty thousand dollars, perhaps not coincidentally the 685 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,040 Speaker 2: cost of the Hell's Angels legal fees that they refused 686 00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:19,080 Speaker 2: to cover, to debate him on national television for an 687 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:22,719 Speaker 2: hour about the events at Altamont. Then he chastised the 688 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,319 Speaker 2: San Francisco authorities for not putting a stop to the 689 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:28,520 Speaker 2: half baked event before it happened. They should have taken 690 00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:31,279 Speaker 2: mister Jagger, twisted his arms behind his back, put him 691 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,440 Speaker 2: in front of a radio, and said, mister Jagger, if 692 00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:37,480 Speaker 2: we have to break your arm, call it off. Bill 693 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:39,759 Speaker 2: continued to rage with the venom of a man who 694 00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,120 Speaker 2: seems certain he'd never work with Mick or the band 695 00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,440 Speaker 2: ever again. Every gig he was late on that tour, 696 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:48,560 Speaker 2: every gig he made, the promoter and the people bleed, 697 00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,319 Speaker 2: what right does this god have to descends on this 698 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:54,640 Speaker 2: country in this way? Then Bill signed off by calling 699 00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,920 Speaker 2: Mick the C word. As you may have guessed, it 700 00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 2: was more personal than just the disaster at all. To Mott, 701 00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:03,200 Speaker 2: they had had a test the encounter a few weeks 702 00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:06,359 Speaker 2: before it, when Graham was overseeing the Stones show at 703 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,440 Speaker 2: the Oakland Coliseum. 704 00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:11,640 Speaker 3: The relationship between Bill and the Stones is of such 705 00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:14,080 Speaker 3: interest that indicates who they were in sixty nine. He 706 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,640 Speaker 3: had them at the Oakland Arena. Ik and Tina were opening, 707 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:20,360 Speaker 3: and Jagger didn't want to come out right after I Cantina. 708 00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:24,040 Speaker 3: That's how good they were, and so he would delay. 709 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:29,720 Speaker 3: The Stones drove Bill crazy. They spent an hour waiting. 710 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:32,360 Speaker 3: Show started late, and it was the second show, and 711 00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:35,759 Speaker 3: Bill always the kids were in the street standing and 712 00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:39,880 Speaker 3: waiting for hours for the second show. So at one 713 00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:44,440 Speaker 3: point during the show, Bill found himself on stage wrestling 714 00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,920 Speaker 3: with Sam Cutler under the piano, Stones tour manager, hitting 715 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,400 Speaker 3: each other, screaming during the set. 716 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:55,360 Speaker 2: Okay, However, Ian Stewart, an original Rolling Stone turned Roady, 717 00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:58,640 Speaker 2: an occasional pianist, denied that the band were shaking in 718 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:02,600 Speaker 2: their boots off stage. Instead, he blamed their tarready set 719 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,520 Speaker 2: on an explosive tech problem. Truth or just sign of 720 00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,680 Speaker 2: his devoted loyalty to the Stones. You'd be the judge. 721 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,239 Speaker 2: Here's his account of Robert Greenfield back in nineteen seventy three, 722 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:17,160 Speaker 2: courtesy of our friends at the Northwestern University Archives. 723 00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:22,000 Speaker 7: I thought Bill Graham's behavior that night was atrocious. Well, 724 00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:25,240 Speaker 7: you see, roughly what started it was in the first show, 725 00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,520 Speaker 7: Monk had a broken voltage stabilizer. The result was a 726 00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:34,680 Speaker 7: bloody great voltage size which blew all the amplifiers. So 727 00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:36,759 Speaker 7: the whole cancer just grout little hole. I mean, when 728 00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:38,560 Speaker 7: something like that as a facult, we can do about 729 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:40,759 Speaker 7: of stuff. And that caused the start of the row, 730 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:43,040 Speaker 7: you know, because I mean Bill Graham started saying their 731 00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:43,960 Speaker 7: own professional with this. 732 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,920 Speaker 5: Then bloody lot ah. 733 00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,719 Speaker 7: As far as I can see, it was nothing that 734 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:53,560 Speaker 7: couldn't have been settled in a little bit of reasonable talk. 735 00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:55,640 Speaker 7: But instead of that, you know, they were going to 736 00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,200 Speaker 7: have a fight about it, you know, and it was screaming, 737 00:44:58,280 --> 00:44:58,600 Speaker 7: and you. 738 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,280 Speaker 2: Know, whatever the case. The fight spilled off stage after 739 00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,200 Speaker 2: the gig, and during. 740 00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:07,840 Speaker 3: The break, Bill charges into the dressing room and he 741 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:11,160 Speaker 3: says to them, you're amateurs. The worst I've ever seen, 742 00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:13,600 Speaker 3: says is to the Rolling Stone, and so the Stones 743 00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,800 Speaker 3: trash the dressing room once again. 744 00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:21,040 Speaker 2: Loyal Rolling Stones, roady Ian Stewart remembers it differently. He 745 00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:23,240 Speaker 2: says that the trashing was an inside job. 746 00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:26,120 Speaker 7: At the end of the very end of the concert, 747 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:28,880 Speaker 7: Phil Grim had put out a lot of nice food 748 00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:32,320 Speaker 7: and stuff. And this is what I thoroughly disapproved of, 749 00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:35,839 Speaker 7: is that after the Stones had left, that dressing room 750 00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:38,520 Speaker 7: was smashed out. But not by the Stones, not like 751 00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,520 Speaker 7: the story that people thinks. No, because I was in 752 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,480 Speaker 7: that dressing room when the Stones left. I really think 753 00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:47,040 Speaker 7: that there was a put up seam by you Graham's paper. 754 00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:51,319 Speaker 2: Regardless of who throw what and when and why, the 755 00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:53,919 Speaker 2: end result was bad blood between the Stones and Bill 756 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:58,120 Speaker 2: Graham that lingered for years. Then Peter Rudge, the band's 757 00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,600 Speaker 2: tour manager, came calling when it was time to put 758 00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:02,440 Speaker 2: the nineteen seventy two trick together. 759 00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:05,120 Speaker 3: They're never going to speak again. This is the greatness 760 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:09,399 Speaker 3: of rock and roll. Three years later, during America, Bill 761 00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:13,520 Speaker 3: would say to Peter, I can pass. I can always pass. 762 00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,000 Speaker 3: Bill never passed on anything. 763 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,680 Speaker 2: A cynic might say that Bill Graham simply understood the 764 00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,520 Speaker 2: value of a dollar and the band's ability to mint 765 00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:27,239 Speaker 2: money for everyone in their orbit, except notably themselves, But 766 00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:30,160 Speaker 2: in truth, Graham understood the value of the Stones to 767 00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:33,120 Speaker 2: the culture at large. Here he is talking to Robert 768 00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:34,839 Speaker 2: Greenfield in nineteen seventy three. 769 00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:39,520 Speaker 13: Youth today, for the first time in history, a mass 770 00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:41,560 Speaker 13: of people we're talking about millions around the world have 771 00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:45,400 Speaker 13: read onto something which they consider the unilateral language music 772 00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:46,239 Speaker 13: in the. 773 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:46,840 Speaker 7: History of mankind. 774 00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:50,360 Speaker 13: You've never had that. Sinatra never had one tenth of 775 00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:53,279 Speaker 13: the audience that a Mitgiana and the Rolling Stones are 776 00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:57,240 Speaker 13: very special thing. And if it gets another group angry, 777 00:46:57,440 --> 00:46:59,279 Speaker 13: I'd have to say, well, maybe not to you, to 778 00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:00,720 Speaker 13: me the very special. 779 00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:01,279 Speaker 11: I spoke to. 780 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:04,279 Speaker 13: Manager and had a raging argument about who the Stones were, 781 00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:06,200 Speaker 13: and he said, me, talking about his audities, my artist 782 00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:06,920 Speaker 13: is the biggest one. 783 00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:08,840 Speaker 7: And listen to what I'm going to say to you. 784 00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:12,680 Speaker 13: Swallow it slowly so you can digest it and then 785 00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:16,560 Speaker 13: answer me again. I said, the Stones, if they wanted to, 786 00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:19,439 Speaker 13: could sell out Madison. 787 00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:21,680 Speaker 5: Square Garden every night for a year. 788 00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:25,839 Speaker 7: But swallow it for a year, at least a year. 789 00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:29,680 Speaker 2: For all of his bravado. Bill Graham had the same 790 00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,920 Speaker 2: fears does everyone else in the Stones camp. With the 791 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:37,480 Speaker 2: Hell's Angels attack. Bill doesn't share these concerns with the Stones, 792 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:41,440 Speaker 2: but then again, he doesn't need to. They knew. You 793 00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:43,759 Speaker 2: could sense it in the way Mick move through crowds, 794 00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,200 Speaker 2: taking care to look both ways whenever he exited a building. 795 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,800 Speaker 2: You could sense it in Keith's gallows humor when he 796 00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:53,759 Speaker 2: ominously told the friends, maybe they'll do me next time 797 00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:56,080 Speaker 2: I'm out there. You could sense it in the way 798 00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:59,680 Speaker 2: tour manager Peter Rudge obsessively poured over blueprints of every 799 00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:03,640 Speaker 2: venue you with the band played, studying every conceivable access 800 00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:07,920 Speaker 2: point and vulnerability, or in Rolling Stone Records chieved Marshall 801 00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:12,959 Speaker 2: Chess's constant insistence on traveling with loaded handguns. To them, 802 00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:17,000 Speaker 2: the danger was abstract that Bill knew something the group doesn't. 803 00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:20,560 Speaker 2: There was an incident that occurred at an outdoor California 804 00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:23,040 Speaker 2: concert just a few weeks before The Stone's arrival in 805 00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:27,200 Speaker 2: San Francisco. At June twenty one, thousand people turned up 806 00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:31,000 Speaker 2: to see a fellow English band perform. Halfway through the set, 807 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:34,120 Speaker 2: one biker goes over to a rival gang member and 808 00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,680 Speaker 2: puts two bullets through his head with a pistol. The 809 00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,400 Speaker 2: murder is arrested on the spot, a concert continues without incident. 810 00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,400 Speaker 2: The crime receives almost no coverage but it lingers in 811 00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:49,200 Speaker 2: the back of Bill's mind. All necessary precautions were taken, 812 00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:51,520 Speaker 2: but he could never be certain it was enough. 813 00:48:53,239 --> 00:48:56,120 Speaker 13: You know, to me, security is always a defensive mechanism. 814 00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:57,600 Speaker 13: But you know, you could go the other way. 815 00:48:57,600 --> 00:48:59,160 Speaker 7: You could say, I'm not going to have any securities. Well, 816 00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:00,279 Speaker 7: what if you needed and. 817 00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:02,000 Speaker 13: As a result of you're not having it there, he 818 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:04,520 Speaker 13: would have had a disaster. I had to protect myself 819 00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:07,960 Speaker 13: against one thing, a retaliation from some source for yarning Altamont, 820 00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:11,560 Speaker 13: if it was either the bikers or the public, the 821 00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,360 Speaker 13: family of someone who has heard of there, friends of 822 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:16,960 Speaker 13: I mean, I can say it now, and I got numerous, 823 00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:19,680 Speaker 13: numerous threads. I mean strong, strong threads. 824 00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:21,840 Speaker 7: I mean not the Angels himself. 825 00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:24,279 Speaker 13: I mean nobody said I am an Angel, I'm the 826 00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:26,440 Speaker 13: president of and we're going to do this. There are 827 00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:28,520 Speaker 13: some friendships that I have that have lasted over the 828 00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:32,480 Speaker 13: years of supposedly enemies. There are some bike clubs, there 829 00:49:32,520 --> 00:49:38,360 Speaker 13: are some Chicano boys, some black from these elements, she 830 00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:40,320 Speaker 13: was definitely going to be a major rumble. 831 00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:41,640 Speaker 5: They were gonna come on it. 832 00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:45,200 Speaker 13: Someone who was going to do it do it quote unquote. 833 00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:54,160 Speaker 2: The mood on the rolling Stones Jet turned tents as 834 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:58,040 Speaker 2: it touched down in San Francisco. This was the belly 835 00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:01,280 Speaker 2: of the Beast. If someone died the last. 836 00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:05,520 Speaker 14: Time they were here, would it happen again? If so, 837 00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:21,120 Speaker 14: would it be one of them? 838 00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,160 Speaker 1: Stone's Touring Party is written and hosted by Jordan Runtalk, 839 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:27,920 Speaker 1: co executive produced by Noel Brown and Jordan Runtalk, Edited 840 00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:30,799 Speaker 1: and sound designed by Noel Brown and Michael Alder June. 841 00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:34,120 Speaker 1: Original music composed and performed by Michael Alder June and 842 00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:37,640 Speaker 1: Noel Brown, with additional instruments performed by Chris Suarez, Nick 843 00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:41,160 Speaker 1: Johns Cooper, and Josh Thane. This episode also contained original 844 00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:44,800 Speaker 1: music by Rowan Newby Vintage Rolling Stones. Audio courtesy of 845 00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,320 Speaker 1: the Robert Greenfield Archive at the Charles Deering McCormick Library 846 00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:56,720 Speaker 1: of Special Collections in Northwestern University Libraries. Stone's Touring Party 847 00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:02,959 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 848 00:51:03,200 --> 00:51:06,319 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get 849 00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:07,160 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.