Things Become Ugly
“American Pie” reaches its climax in the fifth verse, concerning the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and the bloody concert held in the fall of 1969 at the Altamont Motor Speedway, California. The flower power hippies drew together once more to recreate the atmosphere of the successful Woodstock music festival that took place a couple of months earlier.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones at The Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969 in Livermore, California. (Photo by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
” Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
‘Cause fire is the devil’s only friend
Oh and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan’s spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died”
Approximately 300,000 people gathered at Altamont, and the alcohol and drug use led to escalating violence. The flower children weren’t able to recreate the atmosphere at Woodstock, but instead, they found themselves lost in space, with no place left to go, mostly because the momentum of the revolution was long gone. This verse is filled with references about the night of the Rolling Stones concert and the events that took place there.