… and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down Jo me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
December 6, 1933
When Country Joe McDonald had 400,000 yell out his Fish Cheer on August 16, 1969 at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, he had James Joyce and one book called Ulysses to thank.
One Book Called Ulysses
One Book Called Ulysses
Little Review serialization
Ulysses was serialized in the American journal The Little Review from 1918 to 1920. The publication of the Nausicaä episode led to a prosecution for obscenity.
The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice objected to the book’s content and took action to attempt to keep the book out of the United States. At a New York trial in February 1921 the court declared the story obscene and, as a result, Ulysses was effectively banned in the United States.
In 1922, the American-born bookseller and publisher Sylvia Beach living in Paris released the whole novel in France.
Throughout the 1920s, the United States Post Office burned copies of the novel.
One Book Called Ulysses
Random House
In 1933, Random House publishers openly arranged to import the French edition and have a copy seized by customs. It then contested the seizure in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses.
The seizure of the work was contested in the United States District Court in New York City
One Book Called Ulysses
Judge John M. Woolsey
On December 6, 1933, Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that Ulysses was not pornographic—that nowhere in it was the “leer of the sensualist.” Woolsey stated that the novel was serious and that its author was sincere and honest in showing how the minds of his characters operate and what they were thinking.
Woolsey wrote: If Joyce did not attempt to be honest in developing the technique which he has adopted in “Ulysses,” the result would be psychologically misleading and thus unfaithful to his chosen technique. Such an attitude would be artistically inexcusable.
He later wrote: “Ulysses” is an amazing tour de force ….It is brilliant and dull, intelligible and obscure…,I have not found anything that I consider to be dirt for dirt’s sake. Each word of the book contributes like a bit of mosaic to the detail of the picture which Joyce is seeking to construct for his readers.”(click for full Woolsey text >>> Complete text)
On August 7, 1934, the Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
It is an extraordinary Rolling Stones bookend: December 6, 1968 and December 6, 1969. The Stones released Beggars Banquet on the former date. The album was a return to a more rock sound than the previous Satanic Majesty’s Request of 1967.
The more popular the band, the more it seemed to attract media criticism and the band rewarded the critique with more to criticize. The first cover, the cover that the record companies immediately dismissed, was a dirty bathroom wall full of graffiti. It was always a Rolling Stones banquet of needling their detractors.
rejected cover for Beggars Banquet
A year later was Altamont.
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
Rolling Stones Tour
After nearly two years off the road, the Rolling Stones first show for their 1969 American tour was on November 7 in Fort Collins, CO at the Moby Gymnasium. It was the first of 16 stops in 22 days and the first of 23 shows as some dates had two shows. One of those shows included the Ed Sullivan Show on November 23.
…and then came the idea for a free concert. Not a new one for them as in July they’d given a free show in London’s Hyde Park. The concert was a success, an entirely peaceful event financed and filmed by Granada Television.
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
Discordant Echos of Woodstock
Free Concert
1969. The year of so many festivals crowned with the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. And exactly one year after the Stone’s BeggarsBanquet release, it was time for Woodstock’s odd uncle: the Altamont Free Concert, at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, CA.
There had been criticism of ticket prices for the Stones’ concerts and the idea of giving free concert, a la the many that had happened for years by San Francisco bands, had an appeal.
At that time, Sam Cutler managed the Stones. When the idea of a free concert began, Cutler visited the Dead in bucolic Novato, the rural spot the Dead spent much or their time. Cutler states that the idea emanated from Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully. Like old times at the Golden Gate State Park’s free concerts, the Stones would join the Dead and the Airplane there.
But…
Golden Gate was unavailable (a Chicago Bears–San Francisco 49ers football game at Kezar Stadium, located in Golden Gate Park, made that venue impractical). The venue was then changed to the Sears Point Raceway. And when that site fell through, Altamont Speedway was chosen.
Dead Influence
Owsley Stanley ran the sound console. Betty Cantor and Bob Matthews, also part of the Dead family, recorded the event using an Ampex MM1000‘s 16-track 2-inch tape recorder that they’d used to make the groundbreaking album, Live/Dead.
Also involved were the Diggers, a San Francisco-based collective who, in their words, combined street theater, anarcho-direct action, and art happenings in their social agenda of creating a Free City. Their most famous activities revolved around distributing Free Food every day in the Park, and distributing “surplus energy” at a series of Free Stores (where everything was free for the taking.)
Hells Angels
The Hell’s Angels were also involved. Who invited them, what their purported role was, and how were they compensated are still questions that have several proposed answers.
Two days
Construction began on December 4, just two days before the event and we all know how prepared Bethel, NY was with only two weeks to prepare there. For example, lights were scheduled to be attached to towers but the lights never arrived. There was no real divide between the stage and the audience. That space was controlled by the Angels.
A 2019 New Yorker article reported that rock critic Greil Marcus, who was then in his mid-twenties, got there early in the morning. “I went right to the front and sat down with the person I’d come with,” he told writer Sasha Frere-Jones. “It felt perfectly safe, except for acid casualties, and then the Angels, but people were unfriendly, territorial, selfish—just a weird reversal of Woodstock, where I’d been just a few months before.
He added, “Four or five plainclothes Alameda County sheriffs stood around backstage, their weapons in their holsters. After intervening in one of the early fights between the Hells Angels and fans, they took note of how thoroughly outnumbered they were, and thereafter ceded the field to the Angels.”
Also [from Wikipedia]: At one point Jefferson Airplane…Marty Balin is knocked out by a Hells Angel; Paul Kantner in response: “Hey, man, I’d like to mention that the Hells Angels just smashed Marty Balin in the face, and knocked him out for a bit. I’d like to thank you for that.” To which a Hells Angel sitting on stage grabs a microphone, and replies: “You’re talking to my people. Let me tell you what’s happening. You, man, you’re not happening!”
That violence, captured in the film Gimmie Shelter by by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin , shows how attempts to control the crowd failed. What happened? Wherever that answer lays Hell’s Angel Alan Passaro stabbed spectator Meredith Hunter, Jr to death in a melee.
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
Aftermath
The Dead began to sense that the concert’s challenges and disorganization would be too much to handle, too much of a hassle. Bill Kreutzmann said he’d rather not and soon after the band decided to drop off the bill.
There was a huge media backlash and finger pointing following the concert. Even today, the most common description heard about Altamont was that it was the death of the 60s. The demise of peace and love. The death of the barely-born Woodstock Nation.
Jerry Garcia compared Altamont and Woodstock as “two sides of the same coin.” Both had the potential to be amazing. Both had the potential to go wrong.
On December 10, respected music critic and Dead supporter Ralph J Gleason wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Why did Grateful Dead people and other locals involved go wrong with the idea? Now it is ended in murder and that was a murder, not just a death like the drowning or the hit and run victims. Is the the new community? Is this what Woodstock promised? Gather together as a tribe, what happened? Brutality, murder, desperation. You name it. The name of the game is money power and ego. Money is first and it brings power.”
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
New Speedway Boogie
Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter typically wrote songs that were difficult to pin down, that were subject to various interpretations. Not uncommon with writers, but on December 20, only two weeks after the the failed concert, the Dead premiered New Speedway Boogie. It was Hunter’s response to the response to Altamont. He hadn’t been there. He’d been at the movies seeing Easy Rider.
While the “speedway” referred to is the one at Altamont, there is also a Speedway Meadow at Golden Gate Park. Hunter often used imaginary place, think Fennario, in his songs, and so he was allowing that for this one as well.
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
This Darkness Got to Give
Please don’t dominate the rap, Jack If you’ve got nothing new to say If you please, don’t back up the track This train’s got to run today
I spent a little time on the mountain Spent a little time on the hill Heard some say, “better run away” Others say, “better stand still”
Now I don’t know, but I been told It’s hard to run with the weight of gold Other hand I have heard it said It’s just as hard with the weight of lead
Who can deny? Who can deny? It’s not just a change in style One step done and another begun And I wonder how many miles?
I spent a little time on the mountain Spent a little time on the hill Things went down we don’t understand But I think in time we will
Now I don’t know, but I was told In the heat of the sun a man died of cold Keep on coming or stand and wait With the sun so dark and the hour so late
You can overlook the lack, Jack Of any other highway to ride It’s got no signs or dividing lines And very few rules to guide
I spent a little time on the mountain I spent a little time on the hill I saw things getting out of hand I guess they always will
Now I don’t know, but I been told If the horse don’t pull you got to carry the load I don’t know whose back’s that strong Maybe find out before too long
One way or another, one way or another One way or another, this darkness got to give One way or another, one way or another One way or another, this darkness got to give One way or another, one way or another One way or another, this darkness got to give
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
Acquittal
The murder trial stemming from an incident ended 13 months later on January 19, 1971 when the jury declared Hell’s Angel Alan Passaro “not guilty” in the stabbing death of 18-year old Meredith Hunter. [NYT story]
Rolling Stones Altamont Banquet
#BLM
In 1977, Greil Marcus wrote, “A young black man murdered in the midst of a white crowd by white thugs as white men played their version of black music—it was too much to kiss off as a mere unpleasantness.”
What was #1 on Billboard sometimes offers an interesting cultural contrast and December 5 in the 60s does just that.
From Bonanza‘s TV star Lorne Greene singing his cowboy song Ringo, to the fresh-faced California Beach Boys in concert, to a group of “hippies” singing about confusion and distrust of the status quo.
December 5 Music Contrasts
Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene on Bonanza
December 5 – 11, 1964: “Ringo” by Lorne Greene #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. A “one-hit-wonder” the song only stayed at #1 for a week. Lorne Greene stuck around as a successful actor much longer.
Though there was an actual outlaw Johnny Ringo, the song’s story is not an accurate one. The country song became a hit on both the pop and easy listening charts before the country charts. That was unusual. Don Robertson and Hal Blair wrote the song.
The fact that a certain very popular band had a very popular drummer by the same name encouraged RCA to release the song.
December 5 Music Contrasts
Beach Boys
Beach Boys 1965
December 5, 1964 – January 1, 1965: The Beach Boys Beach Boys Concert was the Billboard #1 album. It would stay there nearly a month. Brian had not yet decided to go psychedelic.
The concert album was not quite as “live” as one would have thought. Vocals are overdubbed. Most of the album was part of a 1964 Sacramento concert (as advertised), but a couple of the songs were from December 1963. There were other studio enhancements as well.
Keep in mind that Beatlemania and the British Invasion were at their height by December 1964, but the Beach Boys’ popularity kept this album #1 for four weeks!
December 5 Music Contrasts
Buffalo Springfield
Dewey Martin, Jim Messina, Neil Young, Rich Fury, and Stephen Stills
December 5, 1966 – On this date, the Buffalo Springfield recorded “For What It’s Worth.” It will be released on January 9, 1967. They wrote it as a protest to the way the LA Police were treating teen-agers, not an anti-war song, but it became one nonetheless and an anthem to many of the Baby Boomer generation.
For a larger explanation about the song’s origins, see Sunset Strip Riots
