Grace Slick in a blue velvet suit. Gram Parsons bashing a tambourine. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young appearing like they like each other. Altamont will be forever known as the death of the Sixties, but the Library of Congress just made it a little sunnier with previously unreleased footage.
The 30-minute clip — released via the Congress’ blog — contains no sound, with a fuzzy home video quality that looks as if your drunk aunt filmed your backyard family barbecue. And yet it shows that contrary to how it was remembered, Altamont was more than a Rolling Stones concert gone terribly wrong, where the Hells Angels famously knifed 18-year-old fan Meredith Hunter.
Here we see footage not included in Gimme Shelter, like the Flying Burrito Brothers’ performance at nine minutes in. Gram Parsons commands the stage, while Keith Richards and Mick Jagger marvel from afar. (That same night, Richards played “Wild Horses” for Parsons, which he ended up covering on Burrito Deluxe a year later.) Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young take the stage around 11 minutes, ironically kicking off with “Woodstock.” (Following the festival, the supergroup would head to UCLA for their second concert of the day).
In the blog post, Neely Tucker explains that the Library of Congress found the footage in 200,000 reels of film it acquired 20 years ago from archivist Rick Prelinger. A technician discovered two reels labeled “Stones in the Park,” which Neely assumed was the well-documented 1969 Hyde Park show. But he was pleasantly surprised to find he was incorrect.
“Many people know the Gimme Shelter documentary pretty well, but there’s a lot more in this home movie,” he wrote. “Although the footage is silent, we were all thrilled to see close-up footage of concert performers who were cut from the film, such as Carlos Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. It was especially great to see Gram Parsons fronting the Flying Burrito Brothers, since you only see the back of his head in Gimme Shelter.“
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There is no question that Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out made a serious impact and continues to hold weight. The project showed that hip hop is not limited by age and proved that a long-awaited return can still land in a major way regardless of the time away.
If you need a reminder, the Virginia duo’s fourth studio album debuted comfortably within the top five of the Hot 200. It secured the number four position and moved an impressive 118,000 units in its first week.
On top of that, it picked up a win at this year’s Grammys, earning Best Rap Performance for “Chains & Whips.” The album also received four additional nominations, including Best Music Video, Rap Album, and Album of the Year.
It is hard to believe the project will officially hit its one year mark this summer on July 11. Even so, Pusha T is making it clear that both supporters and critics should not be overlooking it anytime soon.
While performing at Coachella yesterday, King Push told the crowd that LGSEO still sits at the top, regardless of genre.
He said, “‘Let God Sort Em Out’ is still the album of the motherfckin year. Whole new year, still album of the year,” per Kurrco. “Album of the motherfcking year until we drop again. We don't care who dropping. It don't matter.”
That is a strong statement for obvious reasons, especially considering the recent claims surrounding Push himself.
Over the same weekend, hip hop social media lit up after several alleged reference tracks connected to Quentin Miller and Push began circulating. Three tracks surfaced in total, but one that drew the most attention was an alleged record titled “Real Gon’ Come.” It is said to come from the DAYTONA era, around 2017 to 2018.
The situation gained traction because fans remember the past tension between Drake and Pusha T before Drake’s clash with Kendrick Lamar. During that feud, Pusha accused Drake of using ghostwriters on tracks like “Infrared,” which appears on DAYTONA. On that song, he raps, “The bigger question is how the Russians did it /
It was written like Nas, but it came from Quentin.”
Reactions have been mixed. Some people argue it is not a major issue since Miller’s alleged contributions were limited to hooks. Others point out that the songs were never officially released, so they see no real problem. Meanwhile, critics view it as clear hypocrisy on Pusha T’s part, a perspective that DJ Akademiks has also supported.
