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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 rampant bigotry 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 sense of we’re all in this together. Music was a stabilising and solidifying force that bore no prejudices. It was 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 in glorious full flight at the Madison Square Garden shows, through to the end when you are left with an overbearing sadness after witnessing a gathering of peaceful 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 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; 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 an amazing 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. The cameras move effortlessly and sureptisiously from a prancing and preening Jagger to the chaos manifesting in front of the stage. The earlier performance from the Jefferson Airplane shows concurrently what a great 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 with the Stones at their absolute best, somehow managing to not just keep it together but put on a musical masterclass among the chaos, adds to the strange aura of the film.

Gimme Shelter is a film that set out to do one thing and ended up becoming something that could never had been imagined by the band or filmmakers alike. 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…