Gimme Shelter

Movie Title: Gimme Shelter
Studio: Maysles Films
Director: Albert Maysles - David Maysles - Charlotte Zwerin
Starring: The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Ike & Tina Turner, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Hell's Angels
Original Release: 1970

Once upon a time, it wasn't only Rolling Stones fans who knew about Gimme Shelter, everybody who was into rock and roll knew about this movie. I suspect if you asked most college students today they might tell you it's a movie based on a Rolling Stones song, but they certainly won't have the same perspective on this film as those of us who belong to the first Woodstock generation. Seems funny even having to identify Woodstock as one or two, but that's part of the new Generation Gap.

You don't hear much about the Generation Gap anymore, it used to seem like kind of a bad thing, but now, it's just a thing. It's neither good nor bad...it's just the difference between being young and being old. Maybe it was always that way, who knows?

Anyway, in the late sixties, before stadium rock and arena rock and global satellite TV rock, there were rock festivals, sometimes called open air festivals, the first of which is usually credited to the Monterrey Pop Festival. Although, jazz and folk fans might argue that Newport holds that distinction, however, Newport never wanted anything to do with rock and roll, just ask Bob Dylan.

Woodstock is generally considered to be the rock festival of rock festivals, but there were many others, both large and small all around the country during the late sixties and early seventies.

Anyway, Gimme Shelter is a 1970 documentary film that chronicles the now famous, or infamous (both actually) Altamont Free Concert. The film's name does indeed come from a Rolling Stones' song called 'Gimme Shelter', which is the first cut on the Stones' album, Let It Bleed. It was directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin.

The Beatles were breaking down and breaking up and the Rolling Stones were attempting to lay claim to their new title as the 'The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band', an honor they would rightfully earn and own for the next thirty years.

Where Woodstock, was to be three days of peace, love and music, The Altamont Music Festival, often referred to as the Altamont Free Concert, was anything but peaceful.

With a great line up of artists - Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Ike & Tina , Santana - headlined by the Rolling Stones, Altamont should have been the grand finale of rock festivals for 1969, instead it became a wake for the peace and love generation.

During 'Under My Thumb' an audience member, a young kid named Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by a member of the Hell's Angels. The Angels had been hired to provide security, and if the stories are true, they were being paid in beer.

Mick Jagger appears truly lost, and unsure of himself as he tries to calm the audience and influence the Angels. The Stones' music provides an eerie soundtrack to the events and the documentary captures it all in a very surreal fashion, almost like it was filmed in slow motion and then developed at normal speed, it's an incredible piece of filmmaking. The audience appears to be drugged and somewhat dazed by the music, while the Hell's Angels seem to be oblivious to it all, like it's a regular Saturday night brawl.

If you haven't seen this film in awhile, it's worth another look. Time hasn't changed it much, it's still uncomfortable to watch, but if you think of it as pure documentary, it's an incredible recording of an incredible event, from an incredible time. It's a visual record of just how much the times were a changin'.