Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and the End of the Sixties

LET IT BLEED takes you where no Rolling Stones book has before. Author and photographer Ethan Russell was one of only sixteen people?including the Rolling Stones?who made up the 1969 tour. He was with them in their hotel rooms, at rehearsals, and on stage. He tells the story of this monumental and historic tour firsthand, including recollections from band members, crew, security, and other sixties icons?like Abbie Hoffman and Little Richard?they met along the way. And he also includes amazing photos of the performers who toured with the Stones that year: the legendary Tina Turner and B. B. King.

Through vivid quotes taken from his interviews with the band and crew, and through more than 220 revealing photographs, Russell takes you behind the scenes for an uncensored look inside the Rolling Stones' world at the end of the sixties. It was an idealistic time, with an overarching belief that music could bring us all together. But the events that led to the terrible violence and stabbing death at Altamont would change rock and roll forever.

In 1969, Russell was one of 16 people and the only photographer to join the Rolling Stones on their tour of America—one that was musically triumphant but ended with a free concert at the Altamont Speedway in northern California that was plagued by violence and the tragic death of a fan. Russell's 200-plus photos, most in stark and clear black and white, range from the band rehearsing and relaxing in a bucolic setting before the tour to Mick Jagger in front of a mirror applying makeup to a close-up of Keith Richards intensely tuning up. Wide onstage shots illustrate the band's relationship with their adoring public. Including interviews and comments from many of the members of the touring group and a haunting narrative of the desolation at Altamont, Russell, with Van Der Leun (coauthor, The Quotable Sherlock Holmes), presents a definitive and authoritative picture of the Stones. VERDICT Stones fans and music aficionados will want to view and read this dramatic story about an exciting yet traumatic time in the band's history and in Sixties culture.—Jim Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ

About The Author:

Ethan Russell is a multi-Grammy nominated photographer and director. He is the only photographer to have shot album covers of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Ethan produced music videos with Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, kd lang, Rosanne Cash, Hank Williams, Jr. and Randy Travis, among others. He is also an award winning creative director and the author of Dear Mr. Fantasy (Houghton Mifflin 1985).