Setting out to watch Gimme Shelter, you don’t expect to experience anything more than a concert film of a band at their peak, thriving in a time of comparative innocence. Of course there was a lot of social upheaval happening at the turn of the 60s; Vietnam, civil rights and the misguided hippy culture which we may now rightly look back on as antiquated and out of touch, but these were times when real change was being made in the face of opposition much stronger than we are accustomed to today (despite current events). The overall feeling of the time though was one of rising solidarity and a (false) sense of we’re all in this together. Music was a stabilising and solidifying force that bore no prejudices. It was promoted as peace, and often love.

The film set out to be a document of The Rolling Stones‘ US tour in 1969, but ended up as a stark and often grisly account of the infamous Altamont Speedway free concert where four people lost their lives, one of them stabbed and beaten to death while the Stones played only metres away. The range of emotions felt from the beginning of the film sway from the band’s Madison Square Garden shows, through to the end when you are left with an overbearing sense of shock, disgust and sadness after witnessing a gathering of peaceful, innocent and somewhat naive people enjoying music and good times deteriorating into gloom-filled pallor and fear.

Coming just months after the successful and peaceful love-in of Woodstock, the San Francisco free gig was intended to be a kind of “Woodstock West”, albeit a one-day event rather than a multi-day camp-out. Plagued by multiple venue changes, it was decided only days before that the speedway would host the concert; the problems with the venue would manifest and caused bigger issues throughout the day. The stage was at the bottom of a hill and barely rose above the audience; there were inadequate facilities like toilets, water, and medical; a batch of bad acid flowed through the crowd, and way more people turned up than expected, about 300,000; the Hells Angels took their security brief a little too seriously and when people start getting beaten up, something’s gotta give. It gave, in the worst possible manner.

The cinematography, while typically Jagger-centric, does a fantastic job of transforming a concert film into an account of society unravelling before your very eyes, as the Hells Angels lose control of a task they should never have been assigned, and the ultimate price is payed. Or maybe, as is now more widely acknowledged, they carried out their brief to the letter, and stirred the tension, to do the bidding of those much higher up than the Stones and the organisers, the ones who maybe were just bit players in a much bigger, more sinister undertaking. Knowing what I know now, this seems more like a ritual than a concert.

The cameras of the Maysles brothers move effortlessly and sureptitiously from a prancing and preening Jagger, cloaked in red and black like a dark priest, to the chaos manifesting in front of the stage. The effects of the acid are obvious, from the gurning faces, wild dancing, and bubble blowing bliss, to those who aren’t having a good time, like the guy being passed above the crowd as he writhes uncontrolled, and the naked man and woman who don’t seem to know why they are naked or where they are. The earlier performance from the Jefferson Airplane shows concurrently what a good band they were, and the violence brewing early on that wasn’t able to be quelled, but only increased in its ferocity until the horrific conclusion. The footage of Meredith Hunter’s stabbing is dark, grainy and brief but leaves an indelible mark on the viewer. The fear and horror on some of the audience’s faces is saddening and at times chilling. The juxtaposition of the Stones, probably one of the most overrated bands in musical history, and the utter chaos unfolding before them, not only ignoring it but possibly conducting it through the song choices and their choice of security, adds to the dark aura of the film. More disturbing is the footage of Jagger and Charlie Watts watching the stabbing on film later, seemingly unfazed, almost smirking about it, at the least very blasé and disaffected. The look Jageer gives the camera as he departs the viewing is probably the most chilling scene of the whole film.

Gimme Shelter is a film that set out to do one thing and ended up becoming something that could never had been imagined. Or could it? Was this a document of something that didn’t just happen, but was part of the bigger picture, a sinister plan to put an end to a movement which was gathering momentum and attemping to bring people together, when a divided population serves an evil agenda better? The viewer is taken on a trip that, like dodgy acid, sets out with a sense of hope, peace and love and ends, like the 1960s themselves, in a mire of desperation and longing for what could have been a catalyst for a better future but signalled the imminence of darker times.

A comprehensive and essential article from the Rolling Stone magazine that delves into every detail of the Altamont concert is a very worthwhile read…

Another great article from The Selvedge Yard…

A great series on music, mind control and rituals which touches on Altamont and so much more…