As shown on Gimme Shelter, the Altamont concert is often seen as the symbolic end of the The '60s. If Woodstock in August was the highlight of the hippie era, Gimme Shelter was its dark twin. The death and violence at Altamont proved that the innocence of the peace loving hippie subculture was definitely over.note Earlier in 1969 Brian Jones had unexpectedly died of a drug overdose, showing that this habit wasn't so consequence free as many people thought. Charles Manson also brought negative attention to the youths by appearing to be a hippie who, claiming inspiration by Beatles music, set up a cult that brainwashed young men and women into murdering people. The Altamont concert was the final straw for many, destroying their hope for better times.
Ideals of peaceful fellowship were crushed by primordial violence. People described being terrorized by the Angels to the point that they felt paralyzed to help victims or even speak up. Bystander Syndrome was repeatedly mentioned. A woman who did try to intervene described being pulled away by friends and warned to be quiet for her own safety. In the film, you can see people trying to peacefully reason with the Angels and being beaten themselves.
- We hated them, hated them and envied them all at the same time. For all of their brutality and ugliness they had a definition of themselves and their purpose that showed us up. We had all talked about a counter-community for years — and now, with that community massed in one place, we couldn't relate to anything. In their primitive way, and without talking much about it, the Angels were so together that less than 100 of them were able to take over and intimidate a crowd of close to a half-million people. We had talked about solidarity, but they, not us, were willing to go down for each other in a showdown. We had the music but they had a purpose, and everyone in that atomized, alienated mass in front of the stage knew it, and that was their incredible power over us. — Sol Stern, "Altamont: Pearl Harbor to the Woodstock Nation". Reprinted in Conversations with the New Reality: Readings in the Cultural Revolution, Canfield, 1971.
Harlan Ellison also emphasized in his book The Other Glass Teat via a quote from political activist Frank Bardacke
(who also cited Kitty Genovese) that the counterculture, still a work in progress, lacked the strong sense of shared moral values that would have given it the courage to stop the violence. Ellison summarized it — they were there to hear the Stones, and that took precedence. While the Stones' lyrics were violent and misogynistic there were plenty of "peace and love" bands there. (Some of the artists did try; Marty Balin tried to stop the Angels from beating a crew member and was knocked unconscious; Grace Slick and Jagger himself exhorted the crowd and the Angels to stop the violence and unite as human beings. Their words had no effect whatsoever.) Ellison asked, "Why didn't the Woodstock Nation of half a million people rise up against the Visigoths in their midst and stop the Angels?" But they didn't. The music they'd all believed would change the world was not enough to inspire a huge crowd to make a difference and save the life of Meredith Hunter. It appeared that "peace and love" music might as Ellison said keep people happy, but "sated and ineffectual".
- It's one thing to hear some dude singing about loving one another, and really loving a strange black man enough to risk your ass by grabbing the pool cue being used to stave in his head.Harlan Ellison, The Other Glass Teat, chapter 56: 6 March '70
