Several of the musicians who were there placed the blame directly on Jagger. “If I ever get that asshole up against the wall,” promised one San Francisco musician, “he ain’t never gonna walk away.” But some display — however restrained — of compassion hardly seems too much to expect. A man died before their eyes. Do they give a shit? Yes or no?

Now, as he feels himself taking command again, the passion is building song by song. It is hard to imagine that “Gimme Shelter” ever got a more burning treatment. “Queenie” is a bitch. During “Satisfaction,” long-stem roses shower off him from the audience (and where did they get them? Must have been laid on them by Stones’ management). He changes the line in “Honky Tonky Woman” to say “I laid a divorcee right here in Frisco . . .” (some think he said “in Tracy . . .” which is the small town the highway from Altamont; same difference, really) and gets a big laugh from everybody.I myself,” said Cutler, “feel that the Hell’s Angels were as helpful as they saw that they could be in a situation which most people found very confusing, including the Hell’s Angels. Everybody found last night very confusing so everybody acted on their own initiative. If you want to ask me what the Hell’s Angels were doing last night then I’m not qualified to speak for the Hell’s Angels, you’ll have to talk to the Hell’s Angels yourself.” According to Keith Richards, it did go pretty well. On his arrival in London, he told a United Press reporter that Altamont “was basically well-handled, but lots of people were tired and a few tempers got frayed.” Rough?” said Frisco Pete. “What I feel the roughness is if we say we’re gonna do somethin’, we do it. Do you understand that? That’s our whole thing. Now if these people asked us to do this thing, we did it. What are we supposed to do? We ain’t cops. We’re not into that thing. We decide to do somethin’, it’s done, no matter how far we have to go to do it.”

The stage should be located in an area likely to be completely surrounded by people and their vehicles. One CHP who refused to identify himself said the main problem was just too many people. “Those roads are only designed for about 15,000 cars at the most, and there were thousands more than that. It wouldn’t have even mattered if the new freeway was finished; it couldn’t have handled it either.” The fight scene got worse. Long silence at the mike. Dense uncertainty crowded the night chill. Amazingly, Jagger seemed to lose control of his audience. A rare moment. Meanwhile, scavengers are combing over the grounds for pop bottles they can turn in for deposit, and several have taken geiger counters out to the raceway to find change and valuables that were left behind. It was a long . . . long barrel, really long. Looked like a six shooter or something . . . I’ve never seen . . . it was really . . . like the barrel was about six inches or so . . .

Gallery

The CHP made three arrests, all for public drunkeness. Alameda County Sheriffs, who policed the festival periphery, refused to disclose the number of arrests they made, or any information about the murder investigation. It is impossible to speak of the music that went down without placing it in the context of the violence, the fear and the anxiety, which, during the course of the day, peaked to higher and higher points of refinement and climax. Pause. More nastiness in the audience immediately in front of the stage. Of 300,000 people, only a few thousand can see the trouble.

Neighboring ranchers are preparing to file suit for what they say is extensive damage to their property. They claim fences were torn down for firewood, water lines were broken, cattle lost, and they and their families threatened. The Rolling Stones". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 4, 2010 . Retrieved October 25, 2010.

Facilities

With all the grandeur of Bert Parks inviting last year’s Miss America to step forward, the Airplane had asked, “Will the Hell’s Angels please take the stage.” The Dead were scheduled to play just before — and then, as the day wore on, just after — the Stones. But by the time the Stones had finished their set, the scene was too tense to risk stretching the day out any longer. That’s the way things went at Altamont — so badly that the Grateful Dead, prime organizers and movers of the festival, didn’t even get to play.