This weekend is the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock. I happened to grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we had a little Woodstock of our own on the left coast . . . which, well . . . admittedly didn't turn out so well. It was called "Altamont" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert, and although I didn't attend as I was too young and busy watching "the Partridge Family", "the Monkees", and "the Brady Bunch", my older radical leftist liberal sister did.
Altamont was a barren, windy, hilly place out east of the Bay Area on the way between the Livermore valley and Tracy, and to this day is a barren, windy, hilly place out east of the Bay Area on the way between the Livermore valley and Tracy. Considering the growth that has occurred in the last 40 years this description is telling of the general bleakness of the spot. Add Hell's Angels and drug riddled Rock musicians and fans to the equation and well, I think you know the solution.
Woodstock had its share of Nudie wearing artists - Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, the Grateful Dead -- and Altamont had a few as well, the Stones, Gram Parsons and Gram Parsons.
If you are a Gram Parsons fan you know exactly where I am going with this post, and if you are not, then what the hell are you doing reading this? My point is, if you don't know the story, then educate yourself. Here, let me help you.
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