|
Saturday, Aug. 31, 2002 / 4:07 p.m. ~Craziness at Altamont - Music in the Movies Weekend~ Last night I fell asleep watching "Gimme Shelter" on AMC, but lucky for me, and this I knew from checking the schedule, it was on again today so I got to watch what I missed. Oh, I've seen it before, it's on my list of favorite films of all time (and I actually do have a list, composed with help from a group of friends when I worked at the bookstore), but it's been a while. There's a sense of foreboding, of dread, watching this film, and I think I'd feel that even if I didn't know what happens there, at Altamont Speedway in December of '69. "The Day the Sixties Died". Wow. I actually got choked up watching Mick, young, 26 year old incredibly beautiful Mick Jagger too upset to sing. So many fucked up people close to the stage, hanging on the stage, climbing up on the stage (at one point there is even a dog on the stage, walking in front of Mick), and as they crowd surfed, or pushed on people, or ripped their own clothes off, or just became more and more obnoxious, the Hells Angels knew no other way to subdue them than with violence. Big sticks, knives, it didn't matter, anything to perform their duty of securing the stage. What a change we have now, fences and barricades between fans and stages, security companies blocking the overexuberant fan's way. But even at the Moby show I attended a girl jumped up on stage, banged on Mo's conga drums and ran off, a big smile on her face as security ran after her. Someone is hammering downstairs on the porch as I write this. It's hard to concentrate. It must be the woman who lives there, it's not a man, tapping, tapping, tapping, sounds like in the same place. Wait, I do hear a man's voice. The last time I heard all this it was her, and she was hanging Christmas lights - which she did not take down until February or later. Mick Jagger, 26 years old....so intense. I love that a good portion of "Gimme Shelter" is Mick and Charlie Watts in the editing room watching the spool. Is that what it's called? They're watching the film with the editors, and they look so tired, so deflated. They play the stabbing scene over so they can freeze frame it, see the gun the black guy had, see the Angel stab him. Then we see the girl, and she's white, but she apparently came with the black guy, she doesn't know he's dead yet, but a friend is comforting her, or maybe he's only a stranger, and he tells her they'll do all "in their power" to save him, it's gonna be alright. Intense, intense film. I think the early songs were actually recorded at Madison Square Garden, they're the soundtrack to "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out!", which, by the way, was my very favorite album when I was 10 years old (1971). It belonged to my sister, who was 5 years older, and when she was at school, or out with friends I'd play it over and over. She said she didn't mind, I should just be careful with it. And I noticed that the label affixed to the vinyl was the same on both sides, so we wrote on there which was actually side one, or side two. I have it here, now, so I could look at it to be sure about the label. In fact, there's a scene in the film where Mick is talking about how he "busted a button" on his trousers, "You don't want my trousers to fall down, now do ya?", and I got a little chill - that is on the album. I used to love that part, I'd imitate him saying it, in his British accent. Me, 10 years old, quoting Mick Jagger. In the beginning of "Gimme Shelter" there are some credits, not many because it opens with Jagger watching the reels in the editing room, but it lists the band members, and it says, "Keith Richard", not "Keith Richards". I actually had to check on a Google search to be sure I've been saying his name right all these years. Hey, wait, is it Richard??? No. How strange they never corrected it for the film..... or did he change it? (another Google search shows him as "Keith Richard" and "Keith Richards" - aha! Here we go: Keith's real name is Richards, but he dropped the 's' because he thinks Keith Richard sounds better") Anyway, huge difference from "Let's Spend the Night Together", HUGE difference. In that film Mick is 37, and what a difference 10 years make. He looks OLD. They all do. They look old beyond their years, the guitar playing is horrible, Richards looks wasted, Mick is trying too hard, they are caricatures of themselves. I felt embarassed watching them there. But watching Mick do his rooster dance at MSG in '69 was a joy, not an embarassment. And watching him trying in vain to calm the crowd at Altamont was touching, deeply so. I always wanted to be a hippie. I grew up knowing I was ten years too late. I listened to the Stones and Joplin and Hendrix and Led Zeppelin and everyone else my sister had on vinyl, and I knew I was too young, but I wanted it. When "Woodstock" was released in theatres my sister went with her boyfriend at the time, they left in his white VW Bug, and I tried to go with them, my sister almost letting me, my mother saying it was a date and I had to let them go alone. Then when I saw it in the '70s, and "The Song Remains the Same" and "Gimme Shelter" and every other rock film, I felt so cheated, I felt I had missed something so great. The Sixties. I was a little kid in the sixties. But I had a radio I'd won in a coloring contest at age 6, and I listened to all the pop hits, and my sister's acid rock on her turntable, and in my head I was there. I saw "Woodstock" several times. I quit a job in 1988 because I couldn't get the night off to go see "Woodstock" at the FOX Theatre. I'm totally serious. Of course I quit another job when they wouldn't let me off to go to a hockey game. I already had plans to go. I couldn't get anyone to cover. That was that. Woman's got her priorities. Wow. "Gimme Shelter" brings up a lot of stuff. A lot of memories, a lot of history, most that isn't even really mine, but history of our own culture. The hippie culture, and when it ended. And all because of a lot of bad drugs and a group of people who sought to 'secure' the event through violence. There's actually very little music from Altamont in the film. The Jefferson Airplane start to play, but Marty Balin is hit in the face by an Angel so they stop. Grace tries to shush the crowd, but she's too gentle and nothing works. Then the Dead arrive, are told the bad news about the vibe, but we never see them play. We see Ike and Tina Turner, but that was probably from the MSG show anyway. Okay. It's "Music in the Movies" weekend on AMC, and it's all '70s, all the time. Last night was a great documentary on music films from the '70s, narrated by David Bowie. And "The Last Waltz" was on, in fact it's on again right now. "Rattle and Hum" is coming on later, but that's not '70s, is it? Noooo, maybe I'm wrong about it all being '70s. Yes, but still, hey, what a good idea for a Labor Day weekend marathon, eh? I had plans to go shopping today, for food, but I slept really late, seemed unable not to, and then I watched "Gimme Shelter", so now.... well, now would be good, I guess. Surely I'll think of some excuse not to go. Of course "BB3" is on later, and that will be fun. Really, I've never minded fucking with my own plans, not that much. I am quite forgiving. There may be a brief bout of self loathing, but I get past that quickly. I may just put on "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out", for old times sake. It's been a while since I played any vinyl.... **Addendum: Indeed listening to said album, most excellent - the Stones as I prefer to remember them (I know, they're not dead yet, but come on, it's not the same today as 1969 - imagine seeing them on that tour....wow), and researching "Gimme Shelter" on the web - this article is pretty good. Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
Recent Entries: It Was 40 Years Ago Today - 9:44 a.m. , Friday, Oct. 12, 2012 Dead Black Cat - 9:07 a.m. , Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 As Seen From Outer Space - 1:07 a.m. , Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009 I Survived to Tell the Tale - 7:29 a.m. , Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 Reading My Life - 12:55 p.m. , Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 
  |