Joel Selvin's "Altamont"

Joel Selvin is an award-winning journalist who has covered pop music for the San Francisco Chronicle since 1970. Selvin is the author of many books about popular music, including the bestselling Summer of Love and coauthor, with Sammy Hagar, of the number-one New York Times bestseller, Red.

He applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day, and reported the following:

On page 99 of my Altamont book, Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger is announcing the free concert at a New York City press conference. Kind of pivotal point in the action. I'm not sure what it reveals about the quality of the whole, but it certainly shows the narrative is in full drive by then.

Before I wrote Altamont, I read Eric Larsen's book about the Galveston hurricane. It occurred to me that the story arc of a storm was much like Altamont -- the storm gathers, the storm hits, the people cleanup. At page 99 in my book, the storm is still offshore, but it has scheduled its landing.

Visit Joel Selvin's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue