Just a Shot Away

"The most blisteringly impassioned music book of the season," is an account of the Altamount festival—and the dark side of the sixties (New York Times Book Review).

If Woodstock tied the ideals of the '60s together, Altamont unraveled them.


In Just a Shot Away, Saul Austerlitz tells the story of "Woodstock West," where the Rolling Stones hoped to end their 1969 American tour triumphantly with the help of the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and 300,000 fans. Instead the concert featured a harrowing series of disasters, starting with the event's haphazard planning. The Hells Angels, hired to handle security, began to prey on the concertgoers. And not long after the Rolling Stones went on, an 18-year-old African-American named Meredith Hunter was stabbed by the Angels in front of the stage.


The show, and the Woodstock high, were over.


Austerlitz shows how Hunter's death came to symbolize the end of an era while the trial of his accused murderer epitomized the racial tensions that still underlie America. He also reveals how Rolling Stone's coverage of the concert created a new form of music journalism, while the making of the movie about Altamont, Gimme Shelter, birthed new forms of documentary.


Using new interviews with Paul Kantner, Jann Wenner, journalist John Burks, filmmaker Joan Churchill, and many members of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, as well as Meredith Hunter's family, Austerlitz shows that you can't understand the '60s or rock and roll if you don't come to grips with Altamont.


"Deeply researched and colorfully written." —Publishers Weekly, starred review


"Critical and poignant." —Kirkus Reviews

"A carefully constructed examination of an incident that changed the course of popular history." —Booklist, starred review