Altamont by Joel Selvin

Author:Joel Selvin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

16

CSNY

Nobody was waiting when the helicopter carrying Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young touched down at the Tracy airport, which was little more than a runway, a shack, and a windsock. Also on board was attorney Melvin Belli. The entire airport was empty, except for a pickup truck parked in the corner of the lot. CSNY road manager Leo Makota started to hot-wire the truck, but Belli went crazy. As an officer of the court, he explained, he could not possibly be a party to grand theft auto. After Belli got everyone involved to swear to secrecy, Makota went ahead and started the pickup. David Crosby got behind the wheel.

Crosby approached the speedway from the rear, and when he drove over the hill, all he saw was solid people. He drove down through the crowd a short distance and stopped. Makota took over driving and slowly, carefully, backed up the hill and went around the side, where the crowds were thinner. Crosby and Stills took positions on the front bumpers and yelled out the group’s name as they eked their way toward the stage. The crowd stepped aside in front of them.

Neil Young had only joined Crosby, Stills & Nash in August. Woodstock was one of their first gigs. A month later, in September, Crosby’s beautiful young girlfriend died in a car crash, and he went into a tailspin of grief and drugs. By the time the four had assembled in November at Wally Heider’s Studio in San Francisco to begin recording, Crosby was only marginally improved, given to sudden crying jags and inhaling monstrous amounts of dope. Graham Nash, who had recently broken up with his love, Joni Mitchell, had moved to San Francisco and worked hard to keep up with Crosby. Young had bought a ranch in La Honda, about sixty minutes south, while Crosby was living in Marin County. Jerry Garcia personally called Crosby to ask if CSNY would play the free concert with the Stones.

Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled first album had not only been one of the big hit records of 1969, it had also restored acoustic music to the bestselling charts and opened the way for a raft of singer-songwriters with guitars. The addition of Neil Young, Stills’s former partner from Buffalo Springfield, who had already released two well-received solo albums, stirred considerable excitement with the public and introduced the term “supergroup” to the popular lexicon. The album they were recording was a guaranteed hit, but the members of the group were struggling just to get through everyday life.

As they slowly pushed their way into the Altamont crowd, Stephen Stills immediately sensed trouble. He smelled it in the sulfurous, rancid drag strip air. Stills had never served in the military—although he liked to tell people he had—but he felt like they had landed in a war zone. When they finally arrived backstage, they heard about the Angels beating Marty Balin and learned of the Dead’s decision not to play. The tension was palpable.

The group took the crowded, scary stage and Stills opened with a funky version of “Black Queen.

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