16-08-2013, 02:51 PM
Nice post, Jim. I think something had gone seriously wrong by late 1969, when at the Altamont festival, 300,000 hippies let themselves be terrorized by a few dozen Hell's Angels. Marty Balin got punched out by one of them. The rest of the band stands around like sheep while a few wolves roam around doing whatever they like. The entire "Gimme Shelter" film is so depressing. The Grateful Dead are like, "Oh bummer, Marty got punched out. That's not cool."
Mick Jagger is prancing around on stage while one Angel watches as though he wants to smash Mick's face in. I think bad acid had something to do with it, but there was a general malaise and passivity at work. How were they going to change the world if they couldn't stop a handful of Nazi thugs from pushing them around? I won't get into Meredith Hunter's death, because there's a lot of controversy about whether he was pointing the gun at the stage and was responsible for his own death. I don't know, but the Angels' behavior was pretty bad before that happened.
Mick Jagger is prancing around on stage while one Angel watches as though he wants to smash Mick's face in. I think bad acid had something to do with it, but there was a general malaise and passivity at work. How were they going to change the world if they couldn't stop a handful of Nazi thugs from pushing them around? I won't get into Meredith Hunter's death, because there's a lot of controversy about whether he was pointing the gun at the stage and was responsible for his own death. I don't know, but the Angels' behavior was pretty bad before that happened.