The other day Gimme Shelter was on the Turner Movie Classics channel and I happened to notice and record it to my DVR. Wasn't really sure what it was - turns out it is the 1970 documentary about the Rolling Stones and Altamont by Albert and David Maysles - Albert Maysles just passed away on March 5, 2015, so TCM was showing it as a special tribute.
I've seen some of the footage before, I believe in a recent film about the Rolling Stones the name of which I can't remember (the Stones themselves speak but never on camera - there's a lot of old footage - interviews, concert etc.) - but Gimme Shelter shows the build-up with footage from an earlier concert, some scenes with the Jefferson Airplain, a snippet of Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, and even footage of Mick Jagger & Charlie Watts viewing footage of the concert at Altamont!
Anyway, I noticed that Jack Casady was playing a Guild Starfire. I'm not really up on Jack Casady - I know he is one of the earliest Alembic users, bound up in the genesis and history of the company, and I know he used modified Starfires. Well, I was talking about it with Ron Wickersham and got to hear some great details about some of Jack Casady's basses. Here's a grainy shot of the one at Altamont:
Something about the rails being made of magnesium and they are all different lengths because Ron didn't have time to cut them! There's more info
in this interview with Jack Casady at Fly Guitars as well as a much clearer picture.
Anyone else have anymore knowledge or pictures of this instrument? Links to interviews, etc. is great, anecdotes, whatever. I guess it could be about any of his basses but it might be nice to have a separate thread for each one - I dug through the Artists and Their Alembics section but on a cursory search didn't find anything.
