Altamont Diary | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 2004 | |||
Genre | Indie rock | |||
Length | 38:20 | |||
Label | Interstate 40 Music | |||
Producer | Woody Annison | |||
Black Cab chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
The Age | [1] |
The Sunday Age | [2] |
Sydney Morning Herald | [3] |
Altamont Diary is the debut album by Melbourne electronica band Black Cab. Released in 2004, it is a concept album based on the ill-fated 1969 free concert at Altamont Speedway in California headlined by the Rolling Stones. [4]
David Fricke wrote in US Rolling Stone magazine: “With bloodied-fuzz guitars, hellish electronics and sound bites from Gimme Shelter, the Australian duo Black Cab has created a riveting, album-length memorial to the fatal folly of the Rolling Stones' free concert at Altamont Speedway.” [4]
Band programmer Andrew Coates said he came up with the idea while living in San Francisco. "In a collectors' shop I found the issue of Rolling Stone magazine that came out after Altamont with a 20-page special. The album grew from there, loosely inspired by the events of a day which ended so badly, the end of the summer of love." [5] He said San Francisco "had already got a bit shitty—the Grateful Dead had moved out of their squat and into the hills, and the Haight-Ashbury was full of street kids and harder drugs. Altamont was like putting all of them into a shitty field and beating them." [6]
Sam Cutler, who only learned of the album in 2006—and subsequently contributed a spoken-word section to the band's follow-up, Jesus East —said: "It was such a bizarre idea that someone would make an album based about a disaster. It's like making an album about famine—not an album of pop songs designed to raise money to alleviate famine, more like an album about what it feels like to starve to death. But I loved it, especially the slightly psycho fearfulness of it. Bits of it made me feel afraid." [7]
(all songs by Andrew Coates, James Lee except where noted)
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Donovan Phillips Leitch, known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965, and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles and albums during the late 1960s. His work became emblematic of the flower power era with its blend of folk, pop, psychedelic rock, and jazz stylings.
The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was a counterculture rock concert in the United States, held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway outside of Tracy, California. Approximately 300,000 attended the concert, with some anticipating that it would be a "Woodstock West". The Woodstock festival had taken place in Bethel, New York, in mid-August, almost four months earlier.
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a British keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the lineup in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades until his death, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.
Workingman's Dead is the fourth studio album by American rock band Grateful Dead. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970. The album and its studio follow-up, American Beauty, were recorded back-to-back using a similar style, eschewing the psychedelic experimentation of previous albums in favor of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's Americana-styled songcraft.
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966. The band is led by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles that are staples of classic rock radio, as well as several earlier psychedelic rock albums. Miller left his first band to move to San Francisco and form the Steve Miller Blues Band. Shortly after Harvey Kornspan negotiated the band's contract with Capitol Records in 1967, the band shortened its name to the Steve Miller Band. In February 1968, the band recorded its debut album, Children of the Future. It went on to produce the albums Sailor, Brave New World, Your Saving Grace, Number 5, The Joker, Fly Like an Eagle, and Book of Dreams, among others. The band's album Greatest Hits 1974–78, released in 1978, has sold over 13 million copies. In 2016, Steve Miller was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Blue Öyster Cult is the debut studio album by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in January 1972 by Columbia Records. The album featured songs such as "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May", all of which the band still plays regularly during its concerts. Despite positive reviews, the album failed to chart for some time before finally cracking the Billboard 200 chart on May 20, 1972, peaking at No. 172. Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Alice Cooper and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to support the album.
Love Stinks is the ninth studio album by American rock band the J. Geils Band. The album was released on January 28, 1980, by EMI Records.
Gimme Shelter is a 1970 American documentary film directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert and the killing of Meredith Hunter. The film is named after "Gimme Shelter", the lead track from the group's 1969 album Let It Bleed. Gimme Shelter was screened out of competition as the opening film of the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
"We Love You" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones that was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Their first new release of the summer of 1967, it was first released as a single on 18 August in the United Kingdom, with "Dandelion" as the B-side. The song peaked at number eight in Britain and number 50 in the United States, where "Dandelion" was promoted as the A-side and peaked at number 14.
On Tour with Eric Clapton is a 1970 album by Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton, recorded live at the Fairfield Halls, England. Released on Atco Records, it peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 in April 1970, at No. 39 on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified a gold record by the RIAA.
The Rolling Stones' 1969 Tour of the United States took place in November 1969. With Ike & Tina Turner, Terry Reid, and B.B. King as the supporting acts, rock critic Robert Christgau called it "history's first mythic rock and roll tour", while rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that the tour was "part of rock and roll legend" and one of the "benchmarks of an era." In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the tour among The 50 Greatest Concerts of the Last 50 Years.
B.B. King in London is a studio album, the nineteenth, by B.B. King, recorded in London in 1971. He is accompanied by US session musicians and various British rock- and R&B musicians, including Ringo Starr, Alexis Korner and Gary Wright, as well as members of Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie, Greg Ridley, Steve Marriott, and Jerry Shirley.
Black Cab is a Melbourne-based drone and electronica group. The band has released six studio albums.
Sam Cutler was an English tour manager for The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, and other acts.
Ace of Cups is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1967 during the Summer of Love era. It has been described as one of the first all-female rock bands.
Listening Booth: 1970 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, released in 2010.
"Tired Eyes" is a song written by Neil Young that was first released on his 1975 album Tonight's the Night.
Games of the XXI Olympiad is the fourth album by Melbourne electronica band Black Cab. It was released in 2014.
Jesus East is the second album by Melbourne electronica band Black Cab, released in 2006. The album was described as "sitar-drenched, blending Indian instruments with driving rock’n’roll and country guitar stylings".