Last week the Library of Congress shared an unexpected small piece of rock & roll history when they published 26 never-before-seen minutes of silent 8mm film shot at the historic Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway in northern California in December, 1969. The concert was set to be the “Woodstock of the West” but instead of peace, love, and music it ended up as an afternoon and night of Hell’s Angels-initiated violence, culminating with the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter after he brandished a gun in front of the stage.

A documentary film of the tour and concert was released in 1970. Gimme Shelter is a must-see for any fan of rock & roll and not only captures the wasted bliss and thick tension and turmoil around the violence, but the long road it took the Stones to secure the spot for the concert; highlights of the recording session in Muscle Shoals, Alabama that yielded “Brown Sugar” and “Wild Horses”; a couple of numbers from the Madison Square Garden tour stop (including some killer Ike & Tina!), and some tidbits in between. It’s not the feel-good film that Woodstock was, but it does a fine job painting a picture of the circus was the Stones on a U.S. tour.

The new footage released last week isn’t going to dramatically change the course of rock & roll history, but it does provide a little deeper look into the event. Most of the second reel is dark and grainy, but it contains cool footage of the Stones performance from a different perspective than Gimme Shelter. The first reel includes some great shots of Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, neither of whom were included in Gimme Shelter, and Jefferson Airplane, who were included. The highlight might be a few short minutes of The Flying Burrito Brothers’ performance, with Mick and a Coors-drinking, cigarette-smoking Keith watching from stage left. Footage of Gram Parsons is so rare, even a few fleeting moments sans volume is a welcome treasure. It’s a shame there’s no sound, but you can almost hear it in your head as you watch.

These reels of film came from a collection of roughly 200,000 reels the Library of Congress acquired in 2002. They are working their way through it – who knows what else is in there?!? We’re just grateful they’ve unearthed this footage and shared it with us.

READ the article from the Library of Congress here.

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
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