Altamont

Joel Selvin, a longtime rock critic, reconstructs the free concert held at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969, an event often set beside Woodstock as its grim counterpart. The day is remembered for a fatal stabbing by a Hells Angels member serving as security, a killing that is captured in the documentary Gimme Shelter. Most public knowledge of the day, however, rests on scattered reports, hearsay and legend, and Selvin sets out to replace these with a fuller account.

The book treats Altamont as a disaster that started long before the fatal moment and kept unfolding after it. Selvin covers the hurried tour that the Rolling Stones put together beforehand, the tainted LSD circulating through the crowd, and the other deaths that occurred that same evening. He also examines how the Grateful Dead helped shape the path to the show, from its arrangements to its decision to bring in the Hells Angels as security.

Drawing on twenty years of research and dozens of interviews with medical personnel, Hells Angels members, stage crew and the musicians present, Selvin builds a detailed portrait of the concert and its consequences. The volume includes a sixteen-page section of color photographs. It will appeal to readers interested in 1960s counterculture, rock history and the end of that decade's idealism.