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Altamont Reactions Revisited – Chris Flannery

Altamont Reactions Revisited

In less than an hour’s span I unintentionally came across two songs revealing the resentment toward the Rolling Stones’ for what happened at Altamont [and they’re both written by Mcs! (not Micks!)]:

1.) I happen to be perusing for an annotated version of the lyrics to Don McLean’s “American Pie”[yeah, whatever] and the Mick and The Stones references are less than benign:

So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

2.) I also accidentally downloaded a song by Gene McDaniels called “Jagger the Dagger” (I was looking for “Chip Chip”). What I found was a good taste of the resentment that the African American Community had toward Mick Jagger (and The Rolling Stones) for the death Meredith Hunter at Altamont.

Mark French writes up the album and provides a download on Uppity Music.

The song is hard to lyrically decipher [hence the poor transcription], however the intent is clear:

Jagger doin’ the devil dance
Just a victim of circumstance
Jagger wheelin'[?] the Rolling Stone
He and the devil, now he’s all alone
Jagger lived in the world of one
Now he’s learning the devil’s style
Jagger played a heavy game
He’s free from guilt and he’s free from shame
… Jagger doin’ the devil dance…

[tags]rolling stones, altamont, eugene, mcdaniels, don, mclean, american pie[/tags]

 

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