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.“
Taylor Swift believes Nashville has a music scene that stands apart from anywhere else.
The 36 year old singer moved to Nashville, Tennessee, when she was young to chase her dream of becoming a country music star. After being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame on Monday (26.10.26), Taylor took the opportunity to recognise the city and the talented writers who have helped shape its music scene.
In her acceptance speech, Taylor said: "I believe you really get to master a craft by doing it again and again. That's exactly what the incredible songwriters in this wonderful town do every day."
Taylor also spoke about what makes Nashville such a special place for musicians.
The award winning singer, who ranks among the best selling music artists of all time, said: "You won't find another music community quite like this one. Trust me, I've checked them all."
Taylor also shared how being part of Nashville's songwriting scene had taught her valuable lessons about life and working with others.
She joked: "I've learned to be flexible when your co writer turns up with a hangover, or when they need to spend ages talking about their divorce before we can even get started on a song."
Taylor previously spoke about how Faith Hill and Shania Twain inspired her decision to move to Nashville.
Speaking to Time magazine, the singer said: "I couldn't get enough of watching TV biographies about Faith Hill and Shania Twain, and I realised they had both moved to Nashville to get their careers started. After that, I kept asking, pleading and begging my parents to take me there.
"When I was 11, my mum took my brother and me to Nashville during spring break, and we spent the trip driving around Music Row. She stayed in the car while I rushed into record companies one after another, giving my demo CD to the receptionists. I found it fascinating that so many major record labels were gathered along a single street, often inside little buildings and old houses.
"What really stayed with me was how welcoming people were to newcomers and complete strangers like us. We started visiting Nashville more often, and when I was 13, I received an offer for a development deal from a major record label. That was when my parents finally agreed to leave Pennsylvania and move with me."
