ABSTRACT

A lengthy report in Rolling Stone entitled 'Let It Bleed' gave birth to the myth of Altamont even as it attempted to deflect responsibility for the debacle away from its writers and associates and the communal, outsider version of rock culture that they celebrated. The version of Altamont that entered popular memory and rock mythology, though, is not all that was reported in Rolling Stone as its writers sought to allocate blame. Expectations of behaviour by artists, audiences and even security were set by the vision of the counterculture constructed on the pages of alternative and rock journalism, and then lifted and repeated by the mainstream press. Rock festivals, rock journalism and the emergence of the youth counterculture were among the many things that had changed or emerged since the Rolling Stones had last toured the US in 1966. One of the more significant changes was the new importance of the rock star.