I just watched Gimme Shelter, what an intriguing and amazing documentary.

Two major things struck me about it.

1) Nothing much happened. As far as narrative goes, the film basically chronicles the organization and performance of a free concert in the San Francisco area. The concert doesn’t start until about the 55 minute mark, leaving the first 2/3 of the film about the organization and logistical problems of the event, not exactly the most exciting subject material for a doco, right? But then why keep watching? What do the Maysles Brothers do to make it entertaining to the viewer?

Answer: Music!

Regularly intercut with organizational phone calls are mesmerizing musical numbers, mostly classics from the Stones with one beautiful interlude from Tina Turner, back when she was good!

My favorite interlude was this enchanting slow motion montage set to Love in Vain. Just Gorgeous.

2) The Maysles Brothers interesting method of showing the footage to members of the band. Particularly interesting because of the incident which happened to occur. With the band being at least partially culpable for the violence and disorder, the audience is left to wonder how responsible they feel for the death the took place. Which makes watching those scenes fascinating however Mick and Charlie don’t give much away except sympathy.

3) Oh and just quickly one other thing did strike me while watching the concert. The 60s may have been extremely fun and liberating but it got pretty out of control. The amount of people being stupid and fucking annoying because they were off their heads got pretty frustrating by the end. The amount of times Mick had to stop and ask the audience to stop climbing scaffolding, coming on stage, fighting got me riled up to the point where I just want to yell into the TV…chill the fuck out people you watching The Rolling Stones here. What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and see the stones in their prime. Luckily in the 70s people finally figured out its all about the music!