Rolling Stones Tragedy at Altamont Concludes Bad Week in Rock ‘N Roll History

Concert goers die in a stampede in Cincinnati, and man murdered at a Rolling Stones concert. Not a great week in the history of rock 'n roll.

Earlier in the week we were reminded of The Who and the tragedy in Cincinnati. It was on December 6th, that The Rolling Stones, who did not participate in Woodstock, thought that they would try to hold their own peace and love free festival to wrap up their 1969 tour in California.

You can read the details here, but in a nutshell, the Stones were facing criticism for high ticket prices during this tour, and decided to hold a free concert in San Francisco. Things did not go well at all, Meredith Hunter was murdered, and this basically closed the 1960's on a very bad note.

The 1969 tour is chronicled in the movie 'Gimme Shelter', which actually proves that on most nights in the era, they were worthy of being called "The World's Greatest Rock 'N Roll Band"